Michigan State Football: Revisiting Week 5 goals vs. Iowa

3. Cover the spread

Hey, congratulations on covering the spread for the first time in three games. Going into Kinnick Stadium at night is one of the toughest environments to play and historically, a lot of ranked teams haven’t made it out with a win.

However, this would have been such a winnable game if the coaching decisions and the offense were even just mediocre. Instead, they were abhorrent and it cost this team and fanbase a season-changing win.

It’s another game where MSU outgained its opponent, but turnovers were the great equalizer. Dumb penalties hurt this offense. Bad coaching decisions put the defense in a bad spot. By all means, Noah Kim is an exceptional human being, teammate, and a good quarterback against the “Group of Five” schools. But he was poor on Saturday; he was poor against Maryland, and he is costing his team points.

With the bye, it’s time to make a change at the quarterback position.

Give Katin Houser the reigns, as he has looked more comfortable with each appearance but have Sam Leavitt prepare like a starter just in case things go south against Rutgers (if this happens, I’m abandoning ship and I’ll see everyone for basketball season).

Use the bye week to your advantage and give the young quarterbacks all the time and opportunity to salvage this season. Six wins and a bowl are still on the table but they need average to good quarterback play. One offensive touchdown in three games is unacceptable at this university and it shouldn’t be tolerated.

We know we’re stuck with Jay Johnson for 7-8 more games but he’s not the one throwing the ball to the other team and then refuses to throw it downfield. Now, that could be either Kim’s afraid of turning it over, the receivers aren’t getting separation or the passing scheme is too poor to get the receivers in space.

Again, none of this is acceptable at a program with the success that Michigan State has had.

Yelling and screaming won’t change who the coordinators are so I suggest accepting that we’re stuck with incompetency and trying to find a silver lining on this potential toilet of a season or find a better use of your time on Saturdays.