All Big ten teams

[Sbee]

http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20131202/GW01/312020046/1023/GW

Darquez Dennard was DB of the year
Shilique Calhoun was DL of the year
Salder was 1st team
Isaiah Lewis was 1st team coaches
Kurtis Drummond 1st team coaches
Denicos Allen 2nd team on both coaches and media
Connor Cook was 2nd team coaches (who called that in September?)
Blake Treadwell 2nd team coachces and media
Jack Allen media 2nd team

 

[Spartanmack]

Lets not forget about Max Bullough...1st team coaches and media...

 

[Sbee]

Lets not forget about Max Bullough...1st team coaches and media...

shit, can't believe i forgot him.

watching the selection show last night made me feel bad for devin gardner, not because he wasn't on the team but because he was getting sacked or picked off in every defensive highlight

 

[johnny2x2x]

1st, 2nd, and HM teams is an embarrassment of riches for the defense. Only Micajah Reynolds and Taiwan Jones did not get at least HM among our defensive starters.

Glad to see Jack Allen get recognition, he's been an absolute beast this year on the O line. Jack Conklin may have deserved at least HM, really was a standout in pass blocking especially. Who would have thought Conner Cook and Jeremy Langford would get 2nd team All B1G honors? Blake Treadwell was great all year long, glad to see him get recognized, might be the strongest player on the team, I think he can play on Sundays. Sadler is awesome.

Next year I predict on defense Calhoun, Rush, Waynes, and Drummond will repeat their honors or better, they'll be joined by Taiwan Jones, and Damon Knox as players receiving at least HM Big Ten. Offensively I see Langford, Allen, and Cook getting accolades again, but Conklin, Jackson, Pendleton, and one of our WRs, perhaps Lippett, will also join them. Our freshman kicker Geiger was overlooked this year IMO, only missed 1 FG.

We'll miss some players on defense, but the future is very bright. No reason to think we can't win 10+ games again next year.

 

[Sbee]

Replacing Dennard will be tough but really, we're looking to replace Wayens since he'll take over as the boundry corner and end up as an all big ten player there.

we keep rolling out these red shirt underclassmen who are just ready to dominate. look for Ed davis and Demetrius cooper to play huge roles next year

 

[johnny2x2x]

Replacing Dennard will be tough but really, we're looking to replace Wayens since he'll take over as the boundry corner and end up as an all big ten player there.

we keep rolling out these red shirt underclassmen who are just ready to dominate. look for Ed davis and Demetrius cooper to play huge roles next year

Davis has already played a big role this year, I think he has 5 sacks, he'll step into Denicos Allen's roll as the rush LB. Not sure if Jairus Jones will apply for a 6th year, but if does that will be huge to have another experienced LB to rotate in.

The D line is absolutely loaded next year. Heath and Knox are already making plays as well as Scarpinato.

In the secondary, people don't realize that we have 4 excellent safeties right now in Lewis, Drummond, Williamson, and Cox. Lewis is good, but I do not expect a drop off at safety. Dennard is great, but MSU fans know that Waynes has been almost just a good, he's just as quick and physical, taller, and might have more top end speed. Duzzi says that Waynes might have had a better season than Dennard this year. Ezra Robinson or Darian Hicks will step into the cover corner role opposite Waynes. Both have been raved about by Barnett and Duzzi. My bet is on Ezra, there was talk he would compete with Waynes and Dennard for the starting spot before he got into a little trouble off the field.

It's all about MLB and Shane Jones has been a standout on the scout team and will get a chance to compete at MLB. Darian Harris is also an option. No doub the defense will miss Bullough more than any other player, he gets us into the right defenses every play, can't count the number of times he's corrected the D linemen this year on their gaps.

Demetrius Cooper almost played this year. He's the player I can't wait to see. He's an absolute freak athlete, who has put on enough weight now to play, he's a legit 6-6-1/2 at 240 lbs now, and should play above 250 next season. The film on him from camps in high school is insane, just totally unblockable, an incredible 1st step and great with his hands. Same buzz we heard about Shilique Calhoun we're hearing about Cooper, except even more so.

Fowler might get a 6th year too on offense.

 

[Sbee]

I'm looking forward to seeing AJ Troup next year, i think he would have been an impact player pre injury

 

[LuciousGameWinner]

I'm looking forward to seeing Lawrence Thomas.

 

[johnny2x2x]

I'm looking forward to seeing AJ Troup next year, i think he would have been an impact player pre injury

DeAnthony Arnett has been the Scout Team offensive player of the week 3 times, he's gained 20 lbs of mucle and has taken the redshirt year very well, he'll have two years left.

Lawrence Thomas has been making some plays on the D line already. Like I said, the D line is absolutely loaded in 2014, the only thing it might be missing is a big block eater like Reynolds at 6-5, 310 lbs. But out DT rotation should be deeper and better overall next year and our DE rotation will be sick.

As I've talked about before, we rotate 8 O linemen, so I don;t see a huge step back in O line play as long as we remain reasonably healthy, Jackson and Allen will form a great combo at LG and center, Conklin is going to be an All B1G guy maybe as early as next season. We'll replace France and Fou with Kruse and Clark who have played in every game this year extensively.

The offense is returning intact. Losing basically nothing if Fowler gets another year and adding Arnett and Troup. TE is also now deep.

 

[gotime909]

I think the biggest thing is if Narduzzi is still here.

 

[johnny2x2x]

I think the biggest thing is if Narduzzi is still here.

While I love Narduzzi, the defense is great because of Dantonio more than Narduzzi IMO. He's the best evaluator of defensive talent in the game according to Nick Saban. He's also been instrumental in developing the scheme. Duzzi is a great asset, but this defense will be great still without him.

As long as Dantonio is here I will have confidence we will be competitive and have a good defense. As great of a season as it has been, MD is not done building this program.

 

[LuciousGameWinner]

I think the biggest thing is if Narduzzi is still here.

Uconn seems like they will be coming after him big time this offseason. Uconn is not a Mac team, but pretty damn close. If not Uconn, someone will pick him up. Enjoy him for 2 more games guys, he's not coming back.

 

[Spartanmack]

We'll miss some players on defense, but the future is very bright. No reason to think we can't win 10+ games again next year.

The offense is improved but credit to the defense for every win this year. We lose a TON of key players on defense next year. The conference overall will still be weak but 10 wins is from from certain.

 

[johnny2x2x]

The offense is improved but credit to the defense for every win this year. We lose a TON of key players on defense next year. The conference overall will still be weak but 10 wins is from from certain.

Every game huh? We averaged 30 point a game this year. Not Oregon, but we had a decent offense this season.

 

[Spartanmack]

Every game huh? We averaged 30 point a game this year. Not Oregon, but we had a decent offense this season.

Every game. Oh wait, they scored almost 30 points per game? There you go again - destroying my argument with data. No fair. I guess we had a great offense this year. Tough to argue with that. But wait a second, when you actually look at the data, it turns out it's not so hard.

First, take out the YSU game and the average drops to 27 points against FBS schools. Then remove the 5 TDs the defense scored the average drops to 23.9 points. And don't forget, a lot of those remaining points came out of the short field the defense handed to the offense (we had 4 scoring drives of less than 25 yards in the Nebraska game alone).

Then you could compare what our offense did to the average offensive performance against our opponents defenses. On average, excluding our defensive TDs, we scored 5 points less than other teams did against our opponents (5.7 when you remove our opponents games against non-fbs teams). Then if you take out the garbage TDs against michigan and Nebraska we averaged a TD and an extra point less than everyone else (B1G and OOC, excluding non-FBS). And these numbers are low because I didn't take the time to remove our offensive point total from our opponents averages - that could easily add another point or two to those numbers.

Considering none of our opponents had a particularly good defense, it's a bit of a stretch to say we had a good offense this year.

Every game, my good man. Every game.

 

[Sbee]

Every game. Oh wait, they scored almost 30 points per game? There you go again - destroying my argument with data. No fair. I guess we had a great offense this year. Tough to argue with that. But wait a second, when you actually look at the data, it turns out it's not so hard.

First, take out the YSU game and the average drops to 27 points against FBS schools. Then remove the 5 TDs the defense scored the average drops to 23.9 points. And don't forget, a lot of those remaining points came out of the short field the defense handed to the offense (we had 4 scoring drives of less than 25 yards in the Nebraska game alone).

Then you could compare what our offense did to the average offensive performance against our opponents defenses. On average, excluding our defensive TDs, we scored 5 points less than other teams did against our opponents (5.7 when you remove our opponents games against non-fbs teams). Then if you take out the garbage TDs against michigan and Nebraska we averaged a TD and an extra point less than everyone else (B1G and OOC, excluding non-FBS). And these numbers are low because I didn't take the time to remove our offensive point total from our opponents averages - that could easily add another point or two to those numbers.

Considering none of our opponents had a particularly good defense, it's a bit of a stretch to say we had a good offense this year.

Every game, my good man. Every game.

and those evaluations of other schools scoring always removes short fields and weak opponents. also, other teams never score late in games, they always take a knee on the 10 yard line like MSU did in the last two

 

[Spartanmack]

and those evaluations of other schools scoring always removes short fields and weak opponents. also, other teams never score late in games, they always take a knee on the 10 yard line like MSU did in the last two

I'm not removing points scored on short fields. But if you want to dispute that argument, please show me some data that indicates the Spartan defense didn't hand our offense any more short fields than other teams. I'd love to see that. Generally speaking, teams with substantial leads don't score late in games but the point was well established BEFORE adjusting for the 2 garbage TDs. You want to leave them in there, go ahead, they're not necessary to prove the point. We're still 2 FGs shy of the average points scored against our opponents.

And yes, it is appropriate to remove scores against non-FBS teams. If you think 55 points against YSU in week 3 when up to then our defense had as many or more TDs than our offense is indicative of MSU's offensive prowess, you're NUTS. similarly, our opponents defenses padding their stats by holding non-FBS teams to a below average point total is equally unimpressive and should be ignored.

 

[johnny2x2x]

We beat Illinois 42-3, Indiana 42-28, and Nebraska 41-28. We beat Michigan and NW by a combined 59-12. The Iowa game we had 6 scoring drives against a legit top 10 defense on their home field.

It's basically the same defense as last year, just a little better, the difference between 6-6 and 11-1 is the offensive improvements. We haven't played a close game this season either save for the loss at ND. We are top 3 in the nation in TOP, that's as much the offense controlling the ball as it is the defense forcing TOs and 3 and outs.

Last year we all said that all we need is a functional offense and we would have been 10-2 or 11-1, this year proves that. No one is saying we're Baylor, but the offense is much much better than at any time last year.

Michigan State 27 Ohio State 21

 

[Spartanmack]

Do you realize that your first line just made my point? We held 3 teams to less than a TD this year - 2 of those teams beat us last year!!! And I already said the offense is improved but clearly we're winning games because of our defense. And don't forget that our schedule has been a lot easier this year swapping Illinois and Purdue for wisco and osu. But lets take a closer look anyway...

On average FBS teams score 35.53 against Illinois (34.9 excluing MSU), so 42 isn't all that impressive. Illinois scored an average of 32 pts against everyone else, we held them to 3. We didn't play them last year but clearly the defense won this game.

FBS teams scored 41.5 against IU, 42 isn't all that impressive. Last year we scored 31 on them and they scored 27 on us (despite your hero Johnny Adams being on the field all day), this year they scored 28. We beat them last year, this year's offense made no difference.

Last year Michigan scored 12 pts on us, this year they had 6. This year our defense handed the ball to our offense at midfield 5 times an all our offense could muster was a single FG. Last year NW hung 20 on us, this year they had 6. We didn't need the incremental points our offense put up in either game.

Every decent team Iowa has played has put up more than 360 yards of offense - that "legit" top 10 defense is a fraud based on an easy schedule. Only 2 of those 6 scoring drives were more than 48 yards. 4 of them were FGs, one after a 3 play 8 yd drive and another of 8 plays and 34 yards. Thank you defense.

Nebraska is the only game you could even make a case for the offense making a difference but like I already pointed out, the defense gave them them great field position all day.

 

[johnny2x2x]

You put this year's offense on last year's team and we win 10 or 11 games. We averaged 20 points a game last year, and that also included a blowout of Central Michigan and 31 points against Indiana.

The offense was beyond terrible last year, the defense was great. The defense is even better this year and the offense is average to pretty good. That's why we're 11-1 and not 6-6.