GREEN & WHITE FOOTBALL

Solari: Michigan State's penalties 'frustrating' but correctable

Chris Solari
Detroit Free Press
Head coach Mark Dantonio on the sidelines in the second half of play against Furman in the Spartan's opening game of the 2016 season Friday, Sept. 2, 2016, in East Lansing.

EAST LANSING – It wasn’t simply that Michigan State committed so many penalties for so many yards against Furman in the its season opener Friday night.

It was who committed them that should provide some bye-week reflection.

Seven of the 12th-ranked Spartans’ 10 infractions came from seniors. Players upon whom Mark Dantonio places the highest expectations, to provide the trickle-down culture of discipline the coach has spent a decade instilling in his program.

Two pass interference calls on cornerback Darian Hicks, 30 yards. Three penalties on tight ends Josiah Price and Jamal Lyles, 35 yards. A hold on safety Demetrious Cox for 10 yards and a false start on right guard Brandon Clemons for 5 more.

That’s 67 percent of MSU’s 120 penalty yards. From fifth-year players on both sides of the ball.

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“Well yeah, they’re frustrating,” Dantonio said of those veteran mistakes. “But I think the key to anything is how you handle disappointment or how you handle some of the things that don’t go right for you. So, you know, we’re not going to lose our minds over there. We are going to keep coaching and coach for the next play, and that’s what we did.

“Some things are out of our control, some things are in our control. We have to look at the film to see which is which.”

There’s obviously a fine line between unavoidable penalties of aggression, correctable mistakes and dumb decisions. Coaches can live with the first two, not the last. There were some of each Friday.

MSU’s 10 infractions against Furman were its most since committing 11 against Ohio State in 2014, and the 120 yards assessed were the most since the 124 yards penalized against Michigan in 2011.

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The Spartans’ 42.9 penalty yards per game a year ago were the fewest during Dantonio’s first nine seasons. They’ve averaged 77 flags and 50.4 yards of infractions during the past three seasons. With discipline comes success, as Dantonio has preached.

“They were pretty critical. I mean, they halted two drives in the first half,” Price said of his personal foul and holding calls. “Really frustrating. It’s not my character. It’s out of suit for me to get two penalties. I can argue the calls all I want, but they still called them.

“The conversation on the sideline was just, ‘We can't do it. Can’t do it.’ It hurts our team, it hurts our offense.’”

Those penalties put the biggest damper on an otherwise bland beginning to MSU’s quest for back-to-back Big Ten titles.

The Spartans treated the game with Furman very much like a preseason NFL game. They didn’t appear to be exerting much energy, displaying much of their playbook nor unveiling many of their highly touted freshmen. This was really about getting out with a win and without many injuries.

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Nine newcomers joined the starting group. Dantonio’s staff played 52 players between the three units, often interspersing redshirt freshmen and unproven underclassmen among the starters and on special teams to get their introduction to college football.

The penalties shouldn’t have come as a surprise – it’s just that only three of them came from inexperienced guys.

“We just need to be focused and clean up that,” junior left guard Brian Allen said. “Mentality-wise, I think that’s part of the penalties. Just stay more focused and we’ll be better off.”

The bye week comes at a critical juncture, with Notre Dame looming on Sept. 17. Three years ago, MSU exited South Bend with its only loss of the season in large part due to getting flagged for 10 penalties and 115 yards. Five of those calls came against the “No Fly Zone” secondary, with future first-round cornerbacks Darqueze Dennard and Trae Waynes committing four pass interference infractions and one defensive holding call accounting for 70 of those penalty yards.

The Spartans went into the bye after the loss but still had 18 more penalties over their next two games. They committed just 31 more over the final eight games of the season in winning Big Ten championship and Rose Bowl.

So don’t fret yet. Early penalty issues certainly can be overcome. Those guys who committed them Friday night have been around long enough to know that.

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari.