It might be time for Michigan State football to make a switch at LB
By Kaleb Kraus
Michigan State football is thankfully on its bye week. Still, there is plenty to be excited about and disappointed about at the same time. The Spartans have dropped three straight games.
The offense has it's issues still, but looking at the defensive side of the ball it's like the best of both worlds. When the defense is on it's on and when they are off they are off.
It's certainly not the secondary that has me worried personally, it's the linebacker spots. One thing the Spartans aren't lacking is depth, but one of the concerns that have long been active is the pass coverage aspect of the room.
Cal Haladay has been the man in the middle for over four years now, and we've all seen him do great things, but he seems to have always had a couple of real issues during games, throughout his career.
Missed tackles and his pass coverage have been ever present. That nasty side of his ability was obvious last Friday night in Eugene.
Haladay is the most important player on the defense these days, because he's the player with the communication dot on his helmet, so he gets the play call. But he looked out of place throughout the night against Oregon.
The defense gave up over 200-plus yards on the ground, which is rather shocking given, how tough the Spartans have been against the run, throughout my life. That's the big goal around here is to stop the run, and they were completely outclassed in that category by the Ducks.
If that wasn't bad enough, Pro Football Focus (PFF) bombed Cal this week, as he was rated 272 out of 279 linebackers that were graded. That's not good, that's a terrible fact. Let alone he had 10 missed tackles against the Ducks.
Cal Haladay's 36.9 PFF Grade vs Oregon was the lowest of his career.
— Al Karsten (@FootballGuy_Al) October 7, 2024
Out of 279 qualifying FBS Linebackers this week, his grade was 272nd. He still played 59 snaps.
His 10 missed tackles is second most among B1G LBs.
Bye week is the time for MSU to switch their green dot.
I'm not trying to attack Cal personally; I have long liked what he brought to the table. However, the numbers don't lie: he's struggling, and honestly, the team needs to make some changes.
What those changes are, I don't know that's not up to me, but I feel confident in Jonathan Smith and the rest of the staff, that things are going to get fixed. We just played two top-three teams in the country in back-to-back weeks.
The season is far from over. We have the linebacker depth to try something different.