Terps Game Preview: Michigan State

Opponent: Michigan State Spartans (2-4, 0-3 Big Ten Conference)
Location: Capital One Field at Maryland Stadium (51,802)
Date: Saturday, October 22, 2016
Time: 7:30 PM ET
TV/Radio Broadcasts: Big Ten Network, Maryland Sports Radio Network
Series Record: 6-1 Michigan State

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Opponent Preview

When the Terrapins and the Spartans meet on Saturday, both teams will be entering the game in the midst of losing streaks. While Maryland has lost just 2 games in a row, Michigan State has lost 4, with their last win coming more than a month ago. The Spartans are struggling mightily as a team this season. After a shaky win over Furman, and a decent win over Notre Dame, they have lost 4 games in a row to Wisconsin, Indiana, BYU, and Northwestern. This is an oddly bad season for the Spartans, especially coming off of a Big Ten Championship win just a year ago.

Mark Dantonio is in his 10th year as Michigan State’s head coach, so no matter how badly this season goes for his team, his job won’t be in jeopardy. Dave Warner and Jim Bollman are both in their 4th seasons as the team’s co-offensive coordinators, and Harlon Barnett and Mike Tressell are both in their 2nd seasons as co-defensive coordinators, but have held other positions on the staff since Dantonio arrived in 2007.

Offensive Preview

Michigan State is one of the few teams left in college football who run a pro-style offense, but even their system has morphed into a hybrid scheme. At its core however, it is a traditional offense based on powerful running between the tackles, and play-action passes off of those runs. When Connor Cook was quarterbacking the Spartans over the past few seasons, Warner and Bollman added some more spread elements to boost the short passing game. They will mix up their tempos, but will primarily operate out of a huddle.

Players to Watch

Quarterbacks: Tyler O’Connor (Redshirt Senior) and Brian Lewerke (Redshirt Freshman)

When the Spartans roll into College Park this weekend, they’ll be bringing with them their full-fledged quarterback controversy. O’Connor is the senior who waited his turn behind Cook, and finally earned the starting job before this season. However, his poor play led to Dantonio’s decision to start Lewerke in last week’s game against Northwestern. But the redshirt freshman didn’t start for the entire game, as he was replaced by O’Connor early in the second half.

Dantonio will wait until game-time to make a decision on who will start, but did say that Lewerke will still play even if he is not the starter. Essentially, starting Lewerke would give Michigan State a chance to build for the future, while starting O’Connor may give them a better chance to win games (sound familiar?). It’s very likely that they play both quarterbacks against Maryland on Saturday night, so the Terrapins will need to be ready. Many Spartans fans however, are worried about starting Lewerke due to the potential for injury behind the team’s horrific offensive line.

Running Backs: LJ Scott (Sophomore) and Gerald Holmes (Redshirt Junior)

2016 was supposed to be the year that Scott broke onto the national scene after an excellent freshman campaign last season. However, offensive line struggles have reared their ugly head, and Scott has only averaged 56 yards per game so far this season. He was held to just 25 yards rushing last week, and just 9 against BYU the week before that. He has scored just 2 touchdowns all year long. He and Holmes have begun to split carries, and Holmes has been the better option over the course of the last few weeks. He is averaging nearly 5 yards per carry, and has rushed for 3 touchdowns. However, like the quarterback position, no matter who is running the ball must do so behind the Spartans’ awful offensive line.

Wide Receivers: R.J. Shelton (Senior) and Donnie Corley (Freshman)

Shelton is Michigan State’s best receiver from his slot position, and has put together a very nice year for himself. He is averaging over 16 yards per catch, and has caught 4 touchdown passes. He is also a threat to carry the ball, and is averaging over 11 yards per carry. He is one of the senior leaders for the Spartans this season, and one of the few bright spots on an otherwise disappointing team. Another bright spot is Corley, a true freshman who plays the flanker position for Michigan State. He is averaging nearly 15 yards per catch, and has caught 2 touchdowns.

Defensive Preview

As I mentioned above, Barnett and Tressell are each in their second season as the team’s co-defensive coordinators, but have both held other positions on the staff since 2007. Dantonio has always been a defensive mastermind, and his schemes have spread across the nation and even into the NFL. He runs a fairly basic 4-3 defensive front, but bases his defense out of an aggressive “Quarters” coverage. This is a basic Cover 4, which protects against the vertical passing game, but his cornerbacks play very aggressively at the line of scrimmage, allowing the front seven to focus on rushing the passer and stopping the run. Unfortunately for the Spartans, their defense has been extremely poor so far this season, something that they exhibited by giving up 54 points to Northwestern at home last week.

What to Watch For

The Defensive Line: This is the unit that has been the biggest problem for the Spartans. It’s where they suffered their most losses from last season, and they have struggled all year long. Two weeks ago, BYU ran for 260 yards and 3 touchdowns on Michigan State’s defense, and Northwestern ran for 209 and 3 scores last week. They have also recorded just 6 sacks all year long.

The Pass Defense: The Spartans’ defensive backs have been very inconsistent this season. Teams are averaging about 230 yards passing on them, but the week-to-week fluctuation is stark. Last week, they allowed Northwestern to throw for 281 yards and 3 touchdowns, but held BYU to 138 yards and 1 touchdown two weeks ago. They have recorded 5 interceptions on the year, but may be without some of their better defensive backs this weekend due to injuries.

The Red Zone Defense: Michigan State is allowing opponents to score points over 91% of the time that they enter the red zone. That makes them one of the worst red zone defenses in the nation.

Maryland Preview

Maryland fans will be watching their phones closely while they tailgate on Saturday afternoon to keep tabs on the injuries to Perry Hills and William Likely. Hills is hopeful that he is able to play, but there isn’t much new information regarding his injury other than what we heard last week. He missed the entire Minnesota game, but was dressed. Likely was injured during the game last week, and his injury seems a bit more serious. There is a good chance that the Terrapins will be without him against Michigan State.

Offensively, it’s clear that Maryland needs Hills behind center in order to move the ball with any regularity. Tyrrell Pigrome started his first collegiate game last week, and struggled mightily to do much of anything with the offense. Now, penalties certainly derailed the offense on many drives, but Pigrome’s inability to throw the ball with accuracy or touch, and his inability to read the defense’s coverage allowed the Golden Gophers to load the box and stop the run. Hills isn’t a world-class passer by any means, but he is able to read defensive coverages and put the ball where it needs to be with regularity. That means the defense has to respect his ability to throw the ball, which opens things up in the running game.

Michigan State’s defensive line has been horrific so far this season, and Maryland’s offensive line needs to take advantage of that. They cannot continue to commit penalty after penalty and put their offense behind the chains. If they can avoid that, they should be able to have success on Saturday night.

Defensively, Maryland has to prepare for both O’Connor and Lewerke under center for the Spartans. Both players have similar skill-sets, so it shouldn’t be too difficult. Stopping the run has to be the biggest priority for defensive coordinator Andy Buh’s unit, as that’s what Michigan State’s entire offense runs through. If they can do that, they ought to be able to get the Spartans behind the chains and rush the passer.

Zack’s Keys to the Game

• Play a Clean Game – Penalties absolutely killed Maryland last week against Minnesota, especially offensively. You can’t sustain drives and use tempo if you’re constantly behind the chains due to dumb penalties.
• Run the Ball – Maryland’s offense will live and die with their running game, and the offensive line has to open holes for their running backs (without holding). They did it well to begin the year, and must be able to get back to it this week.
• Stop the Run – Michigan State wants to run the ball. A lot. They haven’t been able to very much so far this season, and Maryland needs to be able to continue that trend.
• Come Out Strong – The Terrapins have the advantage of playing at home this week. They didn’t get off to a good start last week, so look for them to push the ball down the field on their first few drives.