MSU secondary confident, knows Irish will test them deep
EAST LANSING – Mark Dantonio instinctively knew the number before the question was finished.
“Twenty times,” he blurted after hearing the words “2013” and “Brian Kelly” and “down the side.”
Kelly and Notre Dame challenged Michigan State’s “No Fly Zone” cornerbacks in that 17-13 loss – the Spartans’ only defeat in a Big Ten title and Rose Bowl season – by throwing the ball deep repeatedly. That resulted in four pass interference infractions and one defensive holding penalty against future first-round NFL picks Darqueze Dennard and Trae Waynes.
Dantonio expects more of that Saturday when his eighth-ranked Spartans meet the No. 18 Fighting Irish for the first time since, a 7:30 night game at Notre Dame Stadium.
“It’s become a routine thing,” said safety Demetrious Cox, who played a lot at cornerback a year ago. “You know they’re gonna throw the ball up and hope for 50-50 balls in one-on-one situations. Lately, we’ve been getting a lot of penalties because we’re a physical group. We’re just gonna have to step up and make those plays.”
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It’s been a common tactic against MSU’s defense. Kelly was one of the rare coaches to target Dennard and Waynes. A lot of times during that era, opponents instead zeroed in on safety Kurtis Drummond.
Already this year, the bull’s-eye and quarterback eyes have been on Darian Hicks.
In the Spartans’ 28-13 win over Furman on Sept. 2, the Paladins attacked senior Hicks on the edge. Eight passes in the second and third quarters went in Hicks’ direction, four of them coming on successive Paladins plays between the late half and early second half.
For the most part, coaches felt Hicks was in position against Furman’s receivers.
“I think he’s ready,” co-defensive coordinator Mike Tressel said of Hicks, who has 17 starts to go with two interceptions and nine pass breakups in his career. “I think he knows this year that the ball is going to be thrown up. And even if he continues to make plays, it’s going to continue to be thrown up.”
It wasn’t the first time an opposing quarterback focused on Hicks. Ohio State’s J.T. Barrett did the same thing when the Buckeyes won at Spartan Stadium in 2014, throwing touchdown passes of 43 and 79 yards with Hicks in coverage.
After that loss, Drummond had some words of encouragement for Hicks.
“I just tell him to keep working,” Drummond said of Hicks that night. “Tell him they’re gonna keep coming at you, you’re gonna have a chance to make plays.”
That’s exactly what happened again against Furman.
Hicks had a game-high three pass breakups, but also was flagged for two pass interference infractions. However, on both of those penalties, the 5-foot-11, 184-pound cornerback had good position and was running stride-for-stride with the receiver – Hicks just didn’t turn his head around and made contact just as the ball was arriving.
“We think he did a good job and, more importantly, he thinks he did a good job,” Tressel said. “When you look at those calls, we feel good about where he was and what he did, and he also does.”
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MSU had 10 penalties for 120 yards against Furman. The last time the Spartans played at Notre Dame Stadium, they were flagged 10 times for 115 yards in that 2013 loss, with half of those on MSU’s secondary stars. Irish QB Tommy Rees may have finished just 14 of 34 for 142 yards, a touchdown and no interceptions that day - but, really, tack on another 70 yards with the calls against Dennard and Waynes.
“If they want to press us,” Kelly said this week of MSU’s coverage plans, “we just need to run, run our routes, do what we do, and we'll make enough plays.”
Tressel said the plan is to get his defensive backs “in some better positions without talking about how to do that.” He admitted MSU believes Notre Dame will again take its deep shots.
But the Spartans don’t appear as concerned with the Irish game plan as they are about refining their own technique.
“We need to continue to play like we do,” Dantonio said. “We need to be who we are, too. We can’t let somebody take us out of who we are.”