Football schedule

[Sbee]

two night games so far with Maryland and Nebraska, I'd assume the opener will be a late game as well. the schedule sets up nicely for us again with a bye after Michigan before OSU. it would be tough to get up for those two back to back, the bye really helps like it did last year between Michigan and Nebraska

2014 MICHIGAN STATE SCHEDULE

Aug. 29, Jacksonville State, TBA (BTN)

Sept. 6, at Oregon, TBA

Sept. 20, Eastern Michigan, TBA

Sept. 27, Wyoming, TBA

Oct. 4, Nebraska, 8 p.m. (ABC, ESPN or ESPN2)

Oct. 11, at Purdue, TBA

Oct. 18, at Indiana, TBA

Oct. 25, Michigan, TBA

Nov. 8, Ohio State, TBA

Nov. 15, at Maryland, 8 p.m. (BTN)

Nov. 22, Rutgers, TBA

Nov. 29, at Penn State, TBA



From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140422/SPORTS0202/304220063#ixzz2zdOTO6BQ

 

[Spartanmack]

As bad as the B1G was last year, I don't expect many of the teams to be much better so the issue to me is, how good will the defense be given that we lost several key players and is the offense really starting to click - can we expect to see the unit that beat OSU and Stanford week in and week out or the squad that did their best not to lose games?

I expect the offense to be significantly better and the defense to be not as good but definitely good enough to compete in an offensively challenged league. Can't wait until late August - once the Wings are done, i'll hit a major sports drought...

 

[Sbee]

As bad as the B1G was last year, I don't expect many of the teams to be much better so the issue to me is, how good will the defense be given that we lost several key players and is the offense really starting to click - can we expect to see the unit that beat OSU and Stanford week in and week out or the squad that did their best not to lose games?

I expect the offense to be significantly better and the defense to be not as good but definitely good enough to compete in an offensively challenged league. Can't wait until late August - once the Wings are done, i'll hit a major sports drought...

was the big ten really that bad? OSU and MSU were both good, Nebraska and Wisconsin were decent as well. I wouldn't say we weren't that bad, our best team beat the best team in the pac 12.

also, I hate saying this because we should be good next year but 2015 could be scary good. we'll most likely lose Calhoun and Langford will graduate but that team could be really, really stacked

 

[LuciousGameWinner]

was the big ten really that bad? OSU and MSU were both good, Nebraska and Wisconsin were decent as well. I wouldn't say we weren't that bad, our best team beat the best team in the pac 12.

also, I hate saying this because we should be good next year but 2015 could be scary good. we'll most likely lose Calhoun and Langford will graduate but that team could be really, really stacked

I think Waynes will leave after this year. Just my opinion though!

 

[jdeb]

Your Spartans may win it all this year... YOU SUCK... JK, you deserve it buddy.

 

[Spartanmack]

was the big ten really that bad? OSU and MSU were both good, Nebraska and Wisconsin were decent as well. I wouldn't say we weren't that bad, our best team beat the best team in the pac 12.

also, I hate saying this because we should be good next year but 2015 could be scary good. we'll most likely lose Calhoun and Langford will graduate but that team could be really, really stacked

Yes, it clearly was that bad. Wisco and Nebraska were hardly decent. Wisco beat 1 B1G team with a winning record in conference and lost to a crappy South Carolina team in a bowl game. Nebraska did not beat a single team with a winning record in b1G play. They didn't play OSU and still managed to lose 3 conf games - including Minnesota and 2 losses at home. They did somehow win a bowl game despite getting clearly outplayed by a depleted Georgia team. Collectively we were 2 & 5 in bowl games including losses to Syracuse and Kansas state.

We squeaked by some pretty lousy teams and while Stanford may have been a decent team, they were hardly the runaway best team in the PAC12, itself a pretty mediocre conference. Yeah, the B1G was that bad.

 

[Sbee]

Yes, it clearly was that bad. Wisco and Nebraska were hardly decent. Wisco beat 1 B1G team with a winning record in conference and lost to a crappy South Carolina team in a bowl game. Nebraska did not beat a single team with a winning record in b1G play. They didn't play OSU and still managed to lose 3 conf games - including Minnesota and 2 losses at home. They did somehow win a bowl game despite getting clearly outplayed by a depleted Georgia team. Collectively we were 2 & 5 in bowl games including losses to Syracuse and Kansas state.

We squeaked by some pretty lousy teams and while Stanford may have been a decent team, they were hardly the runaway best team in the PAC12, itself a pretty mediocre conference. Yeah, the B1G was that bad.

who did MSU squeak by? we beat the #2 and #4 teams in the country in back to back weeks and neutral sites

 

[Spartanmack]

who did MSU squeak by? we beat the #2 and #4 teams in the country in back to back weeks and neutral sites

We squeaked by these 3 HORRIBLE teams - 1 or 2 bad bounces and we could have easily lost these games
- South Florida (Defense did most of the scoring and it was a 1 score game until offense finally scored in the 4th qtr)
- Purdue (led 7-0 thanks to defensive TD until offense scored in 4th qtr on trick play)
- Minnesota (hung 14 pts on a team that would have trouble stopping a paper bag in a mild wind)

And we struggled in a bunch more (WMU, Iowa, IU) not putting crappy teams away until very late - teams we should have dominated from the opening kick. You could even include michigan in this group.

 

[Spartan23MSU]

Our offensive play calls need to be more aggressive, Ive saying that for years. When weve aired it out 4-5 times a game we win. not going down field more than 15-20 yards over a whole game lets teams know to protect short...then the running game is stumped. When there is 30 seconds left in the first half and youre on the 50 yard line, try to get a few points instead of running out the clock etc...

 

[Sbee]

We squeaked by these 3 HORRIBLE teams - 1 or 2 bad bounces and we could have easily lost these games
- South Florida (Defense did most of the scoring and it was a 1 score game until offense finally scored in the 4th qtr)
- Purdue (led 7-0 thanks to defensive TD until offense scored in 4th qtr on trick play)
- Minnesota (hung 14 pts on a team that would have trouble stopping a paper bag in a mild wind)

And we struggled in a bunch more (WMU, Iowa, IU) not putting crappy teams away until very late - teams we should have dominated from the opening kick. You could even include michigan in this group.

if we want that to be the standard then there aren't many good teams ever, of course FSU was great, they were top 5 nationally in offense and defense. outside of that, who was really, really good? i guess that' the company we want to run with but if we weren't that good, I can't think of many teams that were.

 

[Sbee]

Our offensive play calls need to be more aggressive, Ive saying that for years. When weve aired it out 4-5 times a game we win. not going down field more than 15-20 yards over a whole game lets teams know to protect short...then the running game is stumped. When there is 30 seconds left in the first half and youre on the 50 yard line, try to get a few points instead of running out the clock etc...

this is starting to sound a lot like the knock against tressell, he was conservative on offense but he had a great defense and special teams unit, he didn't have to be aggressive to win and he did win.

if our defense wasn't so good, we might have had to take a few more shots downfield. Cook had a great TD/INT ratio even though a few potential INT's were dropped. if we were playing from behind a lot our offense would be a lot better.

conservative offense is a luxury you have when you have a top defense

 

[Spartanmack]

if we want that to be the standard then there aren't many good teams ever, of course FSU was great, they were top 5 nationally in offense and defense. outside of that, who was really, really good? i guess that' the company we want to run with but if we weren't that good, I can't think of many teams that were.

That's definitely not true. Plenty of very good teams have played in crappy conferences - Oregon comes to mind from the majors, Boise State, Louisville and a few others have dominated crap conferences and won or competed well in bowl games they weren't expected to. Texas, Oklahoma and Nebraska have all been good when the Big12 overall was not - they have also been very good when the rest of the conference was better. But you're changing the argument. It was never about whether or not we were good last year, it's about whether the B1G overall was good - it was not and has not been for awhile now.