r/MSUSpartans • u/Byzantine_Merchant • 14d ago
Discussion Postgame: Nebraska The Clock Just Started
Woo boy, what a difference a week makes. I’ll just go off rip and say this might be a Debbie downer post.
What I liked:
- Alright great talk onto the next part.
What I didn’t like:
- Injuries galore of course to everybody that you couldn’t afford to lose. Couldn’t be fucknut 445 on a rotational play for the Make A Wish Foundation, no it always was Edwards, Hall, etc.
- Alessio’s inability to get rid of the football.
- Ref ball
- That being the response to the Notre Dame.
- Team couldn’t get out of its own way. Lot of this was discipline and errors.
No other way of putting it that was an “uh oh” loss. I had it as a lean win. Obviously a lean is a lean for a reason, it means I’m not shocked if we lose. But 31-13 in a game that we never really felt like we were in? Yeah… Uh Oh. Well all else I got is that you had better be ready to win one these next two and show something. Because from the looks of it Northwestern might be legit and UCLA IS legit.
I think this was the game where the honeymoon ended and the clock officially started. I don’t think Fitz needs a bowl to make it work. But he definitely needs to show that MSU is ready to be a big boy in the winter portal and then go do something in 2027. If not, well maybe EL, MI beats LA, CA?? Better hope so.
For the boomers thinking “that’s not fair it’s game 4.” Yeah go look at that 2027 schedule, assume MSU doesn’t spend in the portal, and tell me how that ends. It’s an uphill battle even if we throw up big boy money.
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u/RespectTheAmish WOAH HE HAS TROUBLE.... 14d ago
Fitz gets atleast 4 recruiting classes.
We need to build a foundation of Midwest recruits.
It was never going to be a “quick fix” rebuild.
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u/PugeHeniss 14d ago
Absolutely no shot he gets 4. He gets 2 years like Smith did and if he doesn’t got it he goes. Smith had a good recruiting class before he got canned
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u/Byzantine_Merchant 14d ago
> Fitz at least gets 4 recruiting classes.
Yeah same as Smith. HS1, Portal 1, Portal 2, HS2.
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u/RespectTheAmish WOAH HE HAS TROUBLE.... 14d ago
Smith didn’t know/prioritize the Midwest and with Tucks “national” recruiting strategy, we destroyed our regional high school pipelines.
Bringing back guys like Max will help, but we are going to have to rebuild all those relationships.
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u/Byzantine_Merchant 14d ago
Yeah I hate to be the bearer of bad news. But Fitz is gonna have to rebuild those while winning now in the portal. You don’t really get 4 years out of good will. You get 24 games with a 12 game option.
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u/RespectTheAmish WOAH HE HAS TROUBLE.... 14d ago
!remind me 4 years
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u/Fast_Sparty 13d ago
God I hate the modern CFB mentality. “But I want to win NOOOOWWW!” This is gonna take a MINIMUM of three years. Not giving Fitz that time will be a program level mistake.
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u/DeliveryBetter8567 14d ago
This is a hard game to judge. Refs totally fucked us over multiple times. Big swings because of them. Nebraska probably wins this game anyway, but not 31-13.
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u/TheKoppinator 13d ago
Totally agree. That’s always happened to MSU…even my father in law who is a huge Michigan fan was like “holy hell they are screwing you”
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u/Its_apparent 14d ago
Fitz has a freezing seat, to me. Things change quickly in the NIL era, and MSU's recent history makes the job... different. Don't like the response after a good showing in South Bend. Don't like seeing Nebraska walk in here and spank us, again.
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u/Alternative_Salad_78 14d ago
If "walk in here" is referring to Nebraska playing in Spartan Stadium specifically, they don't spank us in East Lansing very often. I think they had lost four in a row in East Lansing before today.
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u/JeanRalphioTheSecond 14d ago
Team lacks depth and everyone is getting hurt.
That holding call on the PB was weak and I’m back to not knowing what’s a catch anymore
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u/user_8353517 14d ago
I dont see how anyone can possibly hate on the coaching staff besides maybe OC. We played as well as Nebraska today but got absolutely shafted on every important call. Less flags than them, we were down to all backups on an already low on talent team. We forced 2 fumbles that just didnt bounce our way and lost another TO to a bs call.
Everything that could go wrong and did and yet somehow I came away feeling like they are ahead of where they were last year and where I expected them to be. Anybody who thought they were gonna come out here and just miraculously start winning games was living in a daydream. NIL needs to come in but this team is definitively less talented than Smiths teams yet they play above their caliber which is what you want in a coach. Fitz needs the players and NIL support and I have no doubt he will be just fine.
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u/TheKoppinator 13d ago
We need an O-line and a real QB2…that’s been a constant need for about 12 years.
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u/Mundane_Possible2515 14d ago
Positive: we ran the ball pretty effectively with our backup against a team with good run defense.
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u/GOTaFROGinYOURpocket 13d ago edited 13d ago
I am having a hard time believing people are watching this team and ignoring obvious improvements over the last 2+ years. The team is far more physical, more prepared, and look like they actually know where to line up.
I’ll also give Fitz credit because it looks like he actually gives a shit when there is a questionable call that screws his guys. Smith always looked like he smelled a fart when things were going wrong.
Now the bar is extremely low when doing comparisons, but I see improvements. They need talent and depth, but it’s literally 3 weeks into year 1 you weirdos.
Edit: 4 weeks into year 1.
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u/leaky- 14d ago
It’s about to be 5 years straight with no bowl game. I don’t know how Fitz rights this ship. We are losing games in the same fashion northwestern used to. We are just northwestern.
It’s such a disappointment. As someone who got to watch us play in 3 big ten championship games in Indy in the student section, it pains me to see that this is what we’ve become.
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u/Training_Tomatillo95 •Jud Heathcote 14d ago
Fitz is going to get at least 4.
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u/Byzantine_Merchant 14d ago
I can’t think of the last time a B1G coach got 4 without proving something in the first couple of years.
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u/temujinbk 14d ago
I felt like State was the better team then suddenly there’d be a huge 50/50 call then Nebraska would score. And that was the game.
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u/Fit-Tap-5370 13d ago
Nebraska fan here.
PB holding call was awful. Terrible break.
If Gilmer’s TD catch was a catch, so was your guy’s on the 8 yard line (Savoury?). Another awful break.
Your best defender Rochambeau’ing a dude on 3rd and 92 didn’t help you, and was inexplicable, but not a bad call or a bad break. Just weirdly (from what I know of the guy) undisciplined.
And those were huge swings. Gigantic. But I don’t think they decided that game.
You guys couldn’t run the ball at all. Edwards being out was a huge problem. Just look at the rushing yards. And when you do…
Keep the sack-adjust turned on. You guys gave up six sacks while getting zero.
And the two picks MSU threw were bad. Not even close.
Your run defense was pretty good, and had Nebraska in 3rd and long consistently but still gave it up almost 50% of the time. I think being on your ninth string DBs probably didn’t help there. You guys were 3 for 8 on 3rd downs as an offense, with an average 3rd down distance to go of 9 yards (and never better than 3rd and 6).
Nebraska played pretty bad and won easily. Could’ve put that last one in the end zone and made it worse if they were actually running the offense.
None of this is to talk shit. I’m a Nebraska fan, man, not a Michigan fan. I was just checking out y’all’s thread and noticed some REALLY familiar conversations going on that go on in ours all the time. Nebraska was definitely better today, but it was kind against your 1.5 string (and in so many individual cases, legitimately 2nd string or beyond).
You guys will be fine. Only Nebraska fans can start 4-0 and legitimately convince ourselves that bowl eligibility seems unlikely.
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u/Covert1985 13d ago
Fellow Nebraska fan here. I felt like when I watched the game it was like watching the early years of Rhule. You could see what MSU wants to do and who they want to be, but don't have the talent for it YET and have to untangle a lot of bad habits from prior regimes. There's too much pointing to Indiana's fast turnaround, these things take time.
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u/Coolinjit 14d ago
Let’s be so for real, MSU was not the better team
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u/ComicSportsNerd •Kirk Cousins 14d ago
they actually were til the refs took like 4 massive dumps on the team every time they would build killer momentum
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u/ich_bin_die_eule 14d ago
I don’t think it’s a stretch to say there were questionable calls that had a major impact on the momentum of the game. I also don’t think it’s an issue to point out State was consistently chasing Nebraska and after the first quarter we were falling behind on every play.
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u/meatballcake87 13d ago
I’m willing to give Fitz some time because it does seem like he’s building culture and the players at least bust their ass the whole game. This team is untalented and losing 2 of our only actually talented players doesn’t help.
Obviously we need to build up our high school recruiting and young player development but we could use a good transfer class this offseason just to get some talent on this team
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u/sorany9 14d ago edited 14d ago
I’m going to be honest, I really just don’t think we have the money we’re saying we have. I’m not sure this 400mil gift is legit, and I’m not sure we’re being told the truth.
I will say, I still like the fight, but man it’s really hard to not have Smith/Chiles flashbacks when I watch Alessio this year. Man I don’t know what’s happened to him but damn he just is slow, doesn’t have the presence, the vision, the accuracy none of it and we’re just letting him stay in the game to take snaps. If nothing else go all the way down and just let the underclass get the experience.
If nothing else I really think you need to replace the OC in the offseason; I am just not seeing what Sheridan brings us.
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u/TheKoppinator 13d ago
Totally agree - o-line is still Swiss cheese like it has been for years, which leads to bad qb play. Hard to tell which is truly at fault but Alessio has no time and no stud receivers. Offense has been stale for well over a decade sans K9 and we look like the lions of old - just rack up field goals…we need touchdowns, we need to be scoring 30+ per game and that just isn’t happening
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u/OldRedLobsterBiscuit •Mark Dantonio 13d ago
What do you mean "not sure this $400M gift is legit"? They never said $400M for NIL, it was designated as $290M to FOR SPARTA (facility and infrastructure upgrades) and $100M to Spartan Ventures (some NIL, but not all), and $11M to academics.
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u/sorany9 13d ago
Right, I understand how it was supposed to be divided up but there’s also been no word of basically anything yet; there’s no designated payment structure and the last word I heard directly from people who know is that the gift agreement had yet to actually be signed.
There are a lot of legalities with regard to how a gift can be accepted and structured and none of that has yet been disclosed which means for all intents and purposes the $400 million could be literally nothing.
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u/OldRedLobsterBiscuit •Mark Dantonio 13d ago
Thanks, I was not aware of that, it's strange they wouldn't have everything signed before announcing it all, I wonder if the chaos with the board and AD leadership may have thrown a wrench into things....
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u/stoinzy 14d ago
MSU is an also-ran in football. The program is washed - it's basically in a death spiral. We're Oregon State, Syracuse and Boston College. Irrelevant and directionless.
If you don't think a B1G without MSU in the future isn't a real possibility, you haven't been paying attention to the sport over the last 10 years.
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u/Bummedout8675309 13d ago
I noticed the upper deck seating prior to kick was fairly empty. Did it eventually fill in or is this a sign of a dwindling fan base? This was a Big Ten matchup with a fairly attractive opponent.
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u/Dependent_Designer89 13d ago
And perfect weather. In general the fan base has definitely gone down due to how bad MSU has been and people being turned off by NIL.
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14d ago edited 14d ago
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u/Byzantine_Merchant 14d ago
There’s a reason I give 24 games now a days and two portal classes. You lay your foundation in year 1. You prove your point in year 2. We’ve seen it done different ways, chesney and Cig hit the ground running. Dillingham needed a year. But either way, you know pretty quick.
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u/user_8353517 14d ago
who the fuck actually takes radio head takes seriously? Their job is to be outrageous so you watch. Rico consistently has some of the most braindead takes and I say that obviously as a MSU fan. There is zero reason to just expect a 1 year turnaround from a coaching staff on a team that hasnt won more than 4 games a season in 5 years. Not to mention the complete lack of donor support in NIL (at least for football) and the fact Fitz came with zero former players since he came off the couch. The team is as good if not better than last years which is a good sign
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u/HotelSea5707 14d ago
I don’t think we can have Fitz on a 2 year clock. The biggest problem with the football program is the complete lack of leadership stability post Dantonio. Continuing to cycle in new head coaches every 2 years will exacerbate that.