Jonathan Smith takes ownership for one of Michigan State football's biggest problems

I think most of us have been pleasantly surprised with how well Michigan State football's season has gone so far this year. A 3-0 record was never guaranteed, but after three solid wins including a 27-24 road victory at Maryland the vibes surrounding the program are extremely high.

The best part about this 3-0 start is that Michigan State has looked pretty solid for the most part. The first game against FAU so far is the outlier because games two and three the Spartans proved they were the better team on the field and deservedly won the game.

There is one thing that MSU has not been good at, and that is playing disciplined football. This is best seen with the absurd amount of penalties the team has received so far this season.

Jonathan Smith has recognized this as well, and after their win over Prairie View A&M on Saturday he took ownership to his team's struggles.

"We have to cut back on penalties. That starts with us (coaches). We have to coach them better. Same thing as last week, but we’ll be better."

- Jonathan Smith

Michigan State currently is the No. 132 team in the country when it comes to average penalty yards per game. The Spartans are averaging 114 penalty yards per game this year, which is realistically about two times of where they need to be.

MSU can get away with this many penalties against teams like FAU and Prairie View, but the Spartans no longer have any easy opponents, outside of maybe Purdue, left on their schedule. So if they are going to be competitive and win some games they need to improve on this and quickly.

Thankfully Smith and his staff are going to address this problem head on, so hopefully we see some improvement this weekend at Boston College because Michigan State will have a tough time winning if they eclipse 100 penalty yards once again.