Couch: MSU sets record straight in bullying Notre Dame
SOUTH BEND, Ind. – It turns out, these guys might be pretty good.
Michigan State’s football team answered two weeks of doubts and wonder like a team that knew all along it had something, and was waiting for the right moment to unleash it.
And then reminded us they still have a ways to go.
The Spartans didn’t just beat Notre Dame, 36-28, Saturday night in South Bend. They thumped them for a while. Did so with creativity, guts, gusto.
MSU looked like the program they’ve become. Not the team we thought they might be.
Then, with a massive lead, they looked like the team we thought they might be and not the program they’ve become. They should make sure that doesn’t become a habit.
Here’s the most important takeaway from Saturday: Not since 2013 have the Spartans bullied a respected opponent so effectively for a such a prolonged spell. Not since bloodying Michigan that year have they put together a stretch as overwhelming as the 16 minutes that spanned the final drive of the first half through Gerald Holmes’ 73-yard run for a 36-7 lead late in the third quarter.
Whatever becomes of this MSU football season, the Spartans have our attention. They’ve earned it.
They answered almost every question that loomed after an uninspiring win over Furman two weeks ago. This is a capable team. Capable of dominating bursts on both sides of the ball. That was a certainty entering Saturday. The talent is clearly there.
Holmes finished with 100 yards, LJ Scott 98. They were pushing through the Irish defense and then, by the middle of the third quarter, blowing it over with seemingly little resistance. The Spartans had 410 yards of offense with 3:45 remaining in the third quarter. They could feel Notre Dame withering.
“When they came out (in the first quarter), they were here, they were there, they were fast (defensively),” Scott said. “And as the series kept going, we felt something, we saw something in those guys. And that’s just something I’ll keep to myself. And as a team, we were just talking, ‘Come on, we can step on these guys’ throats.’”
They did only to a point. Then MSU let up. Its coaches let up, too, trying to drain the clock rather than play the game, coach Mark Dantonio admitted.
He had taken “calculated risks” early, going for it on fourth-and-1 on the wrong side of the 50-yard line on the Spartans’ first drive and then, after their first touchdown, executing a 2-point conversion for an 8-7 lead. They played with tempo and imagination, eventually taking a 15-7 lead into halftime with a savvy and diverse 11-play, 92-yard touchdown drive.
“We came here to win,” Dantonio explained.
He thought bleeding the clock with a 36-7 lead was the way to ensure victory. MSU went into careful-mode too early and had to be careful not to lose the game altogether.
“At the end I'm not sure if their coach was confident, totally,” Dantonio said, making a joke at his own expense, “but that big wave (Notre Dame’s momentum) was rolling. We found a way and our guys kept playing, and we said we gotta play the game, play the game.”
Next time, they should keep playing the game earlier.
“We definitely took our foot off the gas in the third quarter,” MSU quarterback Tyler O’Connor said. “And that’s something we can’t do and that’s something we have to learn about, no matter how big the spread is.”
We’ll consider the lesson learned until the situation arises again.
In the end, this group had enough poise to get the job done, to pull off a win that changes things.
When MSU badly needed to convert a third-and-7 with 2:39 remaining, nursing a one-score lead, O’Connor made the throw and freshman Donnie Corley made the catch 28 yards downfield, smartly going down to one knee to make sure he cradled the slightly low-thrown ball.
A smart play by a young player we learned a lot about Saturday.
Corley was brilliant — four catches for 88 yards and one touchdown catch in which he ripped the ball away from a defender beneath him just as he did for Detroit King in last year’s state championship game. Corley prefers to go up to make the catch, rather than run under it, O’Connor said. So we’ll likely see that connection on a few more jump balls this season.
This was essentially Corley’s debut, even if he and Dantonio wouldn’t admit he was intentionally hidden in the spring game and the opener against Furman.
“Just the way the game was going,” Corley insisted.
O’Connor wasn’t perfect — he threw one interception early and near the goal line and bounced a third-down throw in the fourth quarter as MSU was trying to preserve its shrinking lead. But he also had presence in the pocket, avoiding any sacks and rushing for 43 yards. He put his shoulder into defenders to secure first downs, and completed 19 of 26 passes for 241 yards and two scores.
“I think he manages what he’s asked to do,” Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly said of MSU’s first-year starting QB. “He threw the ball down the field. He’s a smart kid.”
MSU can win a lot with this version of O’Connor.
As it can with Scott and Holmes running as they did, behind an offensive line that won the day, and a defense that allowed just 57 yards rushing, propelled a group of linebackers – namely John Reschke – that put forth a showing that looked something like the crew three years ago, with Max Bullough, Denicos Allen and Co.
We learned a lot about a lot Saturday. Most of it good for MSU. There is a ways to go still. But it’s worth watching where it ends up.
Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.
