Just when it looked like Michigan State had gotten rid of Jay Johnson and wouldn’t have to deal with him anymore, he pops up like a nightmare.
Dan Lanning announced that he was parting ways with his offensive coordinator after a disappointing loss to Illinois this past weekend and he’s temporarily replacing him with the former Michigan State offensive coordinator.
Michigan State will now face its former offensive coordinator with a chance to beat him in November when Oregon comes to East Lansing.
Good thing a lot of key Spartan defenders have practiced against a Johnson-coached offense for a couple of years so they’ll be comfortable facing that scheme. This might just backfire for the Ducks who feel like they’ve gotten rid of some dead weight with the firing of their offensive coordinator.
Oregon players are already buying into the “he coached some great players at Michigan State” hype that we all bought into in 2021 when the offense was humming. Unfortunately, it was the great players who carried his offenses as Jayden Reed, Keon Coleman, Jalen Nailor, Germie Bernard, and Kenneth Walker III all played for the Spartans.
All of those guys are now in the NFL.
It’s easy to look good when you have the best running back in college football and four NFL receivers on the roster. Oregon will probably find that out pretty soon.
Michigan State will have Oregon on upset alert
Oregon and Michigan State don’t face each other for another few weeks, but it’s starting to look more and more like the Ducks are just a middle-of-the-pack team this year.
They do have three losses now after losing to Illinois in a hapless effort this past weekend and now they’re officially without Dante Moore for the remainder of the year and Johnson is about to be calling their offense. Who could have seen this disaster in Eugene coming?
Oregon is going to just reload next season and be one of the top national title contenders against because that’s what Nike U and Lanning do. If you have enough money, you’re going to win every single year. This was an outlier year which was worsened by an injury to the the star quarterback.
A lot has to go right for a team like Michigan State — which is already incredibly shorthanded — to upset a team like Oregon which has a ton of talent, on paper.
Fortunately, all the pieces are coming together. Michigan State has played a lot better over the past few weeks (outside of the second half of the UCLA game) and Oregon is struggling while shifting gears to an offensive coordinator who couldn’t put anything together in East Lansing in two years. The makings of an upset are there, Michigan State just has to continue to get better and regroup after a much-needed bye week.
I know every Spartan fan in existence would love to experience the pleasure of facing a Johnson-coached offense. For two years, Big Ten teams loved facing Michigan State’s offense. How the tables have turned.
Oregon’s talent is good enough to carry him to a win despite poor play-calling, though.
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