Couch: LJ Scott should worry Michigan State; Brian Lewerke should not
EAST LANSING – There are things Chris Frey can say to LJ Scott that Brian Lewerke at this stage cannot.
As in …
“I walked over to (Scott) today and kind of ripped into him a little bit,” Frey said after Michigan State’s 38-18 home loss to Notre Dame Saturday night. “I told him, ‘We’ve talked about this multiple times, you’ve got to hold on to the ball.’”
Scott fumbled for the third time this season, and the second time at the goal line, a gaffe as game-changing as his fumble against Wisconsin a year ago.
He needed to be ripped. His career is hanging in the balance. And MSU is less without him.
“The kid made a good play on the ball and LJ had time to pick that ball up and still score and he didn’t do that,” MSU’s senior linebacker and co-captain continued. “LJ’s another guy that has a ton of snaps under his belt and we hold him to a higher standard. We expect more out of him.”
Lewerke’s approach …
“I told him I had two (turnovers) myself,” Lewerke said. “Don’t worry about it at all.”
This is why first-year starting quarterbacks don’t make great team captains (Lewerke isn’t one) — it’s sometimes hard to say what needs to be said to a veteran, in this case a proven rusher, an NFL prospect, facing a perilous struggle.
Different things need to be said to Scott and Lewerke after Saturday, different approaches taken.
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Lewerke is a sophomore, three games into his tenure as MSU’s QB. He’s making his share of mistakes — another fumble, an interception returned for a touchdown, as many throws off target as on point. Nothing unexpected. He’s also making a ton of plays, trying to figure out the balance between propelling his team and risking too much.
“As every game goes by, you learn more about the game of college football and how it works and how the speed works,” said Lewerke, who was trying to reach for a first down when the ball was knocked from his grip in the second quarter Saturday.
It was a costly play. As was his pick-six interception earlier. He should be fine, though. If he’s still fumbling regularly in late October — he’s coughed it up three times in three games — and missing all the same throws, that’ll be a different column.
Scott, however, is a more troubling case. Both for him and for the Spartans. He is MSU’s most gifted running back. Gerald Holmes and Madre London are solid Big Ten backs. Scott is a difference-maker. Every Spartan fan who remembers him spinning and reaching for the end zone in the Big Ten championship game two years ago knows this. That was his 22-play drive. He deserves a chance to correct this. But MSU can’t afford this much longer, either.
Maybe it’s the shoulders — he had surgery on both in the offseason, though insists he’s 100 percent, better than before.
Scott, at his best, is often compared to former Spartan bell cow Le’Veon Bell. Bell carried 749 times in 40 games at MSU and fumbled twice.
Scott has fumbled twice within a yard of the end zone through the first three games of this season. Saturday’s mishap came at a critical juncture in the game, with the Spartans’ trailing 21-7 midway through the second quarter. Scott made a terrific run, hesitating and bursting through the line, breaking free of an ankle tackle and darting toward the goal line, only to be stripped inches shy. He jumped on the ball in the end zone but it squirted out and Notre Dame recovered. The Irish scored five plays later, taking command of the game for good.
Scott wasn’t available for interviews afterward. His position coach and play-caller, though, acknowledged MSU has a problem with ball security, referring to both Scott and Lewerke.
“I think we've got to change our approach, maybe, because what we're doing is not working,” co-offensive coordinator Dave Warner said. “We're doing what we've been doing for years and years around here. (We’ve) been very good about protecting the football, but it's not taking place right now.”
I’d be surprised if Lewerke’s latest fumble isn’t one that changes his approach. Scott might have a deeper issue. He should probably spend the next week carrying a ball everywhere he goes on campus, with instructions that if the ball hits the ground or gets away from him, he doesn’t start next week against Iowa. This worked in the 1993 film “The Program.” Fiction, perhaps. But sensible fiction. Scott, who hopes to be in the NFL next season, might be well served by the constant reminder that no matter how dazzling his runs, they are worthless if he doesn’t have the football with him.
“Nobody feels worse than LJ Scott,” MSU coach Mark Dantonio said. “I'm not going to go over and yell at a guy when he's trying to make a play. These guys are trying to make plays, so I'm part of that, and I'm not going to be finger-pointing and saying, 'You do this. You did that.' We talk ball security and we work ball security every single day, seven minutes a day in drills.”
This is not a loss that should be overstated. The Spartans competed up front on both sides of the ball, outgained the Irish and lost much by their own doing. MSU is a young team, facing its first big-time test. It didn’t go well. But it wasn’t overwhelmed. There are stark differences in several areas between this loss and last year’s debacles. To say otherwise is to be simplistic in one’s analysis.
But Scott should worry MSU.
“Obviously he’s a guy who’s led us the past two years and he was really big for us the playoff year and even last year,” Lewerke said. “I have all the confidence in the world in him.”
It’s the right thing for a young quarterback to say publicly and to say to his top running back. Scott also needed the tough love from Frey. Because Lewerke’s confidence in him won’t do Scott or the Spartans a lick of good if he fumbles next week against Iowa.
Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.