Spartan Avenue
Fansided

The hard truth about Michigan State football

This is a slippery slope.

By Connor Muldowney

Nov 2, 2024; East Lansing, Michigan, USA; Michigan State Spartans head coach Jonathan Smith looks over his sidelines during the first quarter against the Indiana Hoosiers at Spartan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Dale Young-Imagn Images
Nov 2, 2024; East Lansing, Michigan, USA; Michigan State Spartans head coach Jonathan Smith looks over his sidelines during the first quarter against the Indiana Hoosiers at Spartan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Dale Young-Imagn Images / Dale Young-Imagn Images
facebooktwitterreddit

After building a 10-0 lead in the first quarter on Saturday afternoon, it felt like Michigan State football was on track to pull off a massive upset of No. 13 Indiana but the wheels completely fell off in the second quarter on.

Indiana went on to score 47 unanswered points to beat the Spartans 47-10 in East Lansing, sending Michigan State home with a losing record at 4-5 with three games remaining.

Demoralizing doesn't even begin to describe what we witnessed on Saturday.

Michigan State just didn't have the juice to keep up with one of the most improved teams in college football, led by Curt Cignetti. The Spartans didn't even have the juice to keep it close at halftime despite having a double-digit lead in the first quarter. That brought up a harsh realization.

This rebuild is going to take longer than fans had hoped.

While it's still year one and Michigan State has improved in essentially every metric from last year, it's been tough to watch the Spartans get dismantled by Ohio State, Oregon, and Indiana during a season in which they were supposed to be on a similar level with the Hoosiers. It was disheartening to see just how much better Indiana was and how smoother the team functioned.

Michigan State was like a Ford Pinto and Indiana was a Corvette. It was truly tough to watch.

Jonathan Smith seems like he was a good hire, but some of his post-Michigan game comments were concerning like the fact that he didn't realize just how much hate there was between the Spartans and the Wolverines and it took that loss to really open his eyes. He should've treated that game like he treated Oregon while he was still at Oregon State. That's the most important game on the schedule.

What makes this loss even tougher is the fact that Aidan Chiles looked bad before leaving with an injury and his backup, Tommy Schuster, didn't fare any better. The Spartans were smacked around on their own turf for 45 straight minutes after a sparkling first quarter. Oh, and the current 2025 recruiting class is mediocre as it stands right now. Smith will have to rely heavily on the portal.

Look, this team could be a 6-7 win squad this year and improve to 8-9 next year, but for that to happen, a serious reset needs to be enacted and Smith needs to realize that expectations in East Lansing are much higher than they were in Corvallis. He can't be losing by 37 at home to teams that started the year on the same playing ground.

This rebuild might take some time, so be patient, Spartan fans. There's a long way to go.

Home/Spartans Football