Greg McElroy makes the case for Michigan State to make
Outside of a surprise 11-2 record in 2021, Michigan State has had a losing mark in their other four seasons in this decade, including in 2015 in the Spartans’ launching year under Jonathan Smith. Nevertheless, entering into his second season in East Lansing, Greg McElroy thinks that the Spartans will go bowling once again for the first time considering that 2021.
McElroy recently tiered the Huge 10 during an episode of Always College Football. Michigan State was his only team in tier 4, entitled “Bowl Bound” behind the “Spoilers” in tier 3 and those with “Work To Do” in tier 5, as part of that ranking.
“These are teams that we anticipate to get to the postseason. We anticipate them to be bowl-bound,” said McElroy. “But, what will they be able to do?”
Once again, a lot has changed over the past four seasons for the Spartans. Things turned dramatically, on and off the field, coming out of the tenure of Mel Tucker and into Smith’s time leading a program overhaul last offseason. That entered into last season where Michigan State won just two of their final 9 to complete 5-7. Now, though, in Smith’s second year, McElroy thinks the Spartans begin to see more of the turnaround that he proved he could do at his previous stop at Oregon State.
“Michigan State? I enjoy Jonathan Smith, will continue to like Jonathan Smith,” McElroy stated. “They type of hit rock bottom a couple of years back– among the worst programs in school history, one of the worst seasons in school history. But you got believe this group is going to be much, far better here in the years to come.
“This is a quite significant transition and you would hope that this is a year where you can get that second-year jump from what we’ve seen from Jonathan Smith in the past.”
That needs to start on offense for the Spartans after having two of the country’s worst systems the previous pair of seasons, balancing just 17.6 points and 311.9 lawns per game. That led McElroy to look at QB Aidan Chiles to make the developments lots of have expected from him, now as a third-year player in college and second as a full-time starter, along with a few of the pieces around him like his two returning pass-catchers and a re-worked offending line.
“Aidan Chiles, he is the focal point. He’s their quarterback. He was a five-star guy,” McElroy said. “Like I said, Aidan Chiles. He’s the straw that stirs the drink. As a real freshman at Oregon State, there’s a lot of things to like. In 2015, there were some parts of his game that you appreciated. He wanted to stretch the field, however he’s got to be much better from a situational viewpoint. He’s got a big arm. He can toss the ball down the field. He’s pretty evasive. His capability to rush might be a big distinction.
“Seems like it’s time for him to take the next step and maybe this will be the group that can do it. They was among the worst offenses in the nation 2 years ago. Last year, it wasn’t a lot much better,” McElroy included. “You have actually got Nick Marsh back at pass receiver. That’s massive. You’ve got Jack Veiling, who was an All Pac-12 player at Oregon State a couple years ago. Those are your three pieces that you’re going to be constructing around. You’ve got a lot back on the offending line as well.”
Then, defensively, McElroy kept in mind the requirement to find some new names for that group having lost 4 of their top-five in tackles and their 3 leaders in sacks. That might be the difference-maker for them, specifically if the offense does not come along and isn’t any much better than it’s been recently.
“If you look at the defense, they have actually not been quite the exact same. That’s going to be something that they actually have to determine since you lose some real star power in the front 7 defensively,” McElroy said. “If they can get that star power back, then Michigan State possibly has a chance to make a little noise, maybe knock off a few of these groups that have high hopes this approaching season.”
However, as is the case for a lot of these teams toward the back of the tiers, Michigan State has a schedule that McElroy believes lowers their ceiling to very little more than.500. That’s with a non-conference game against Boston College, a group which beat them a year ago out of the ACC, and a conference slate featuring 7 of the lots teams in the tiers ahead of them per McElroy’s score with 5 of those seven being competitors to be in or win the CFP.
“They go to ‘SC. Penn State’s at home, Michigan’s in your home. At Iowa, at Minnesota. Against UCLA. At Nebraska. Western Michigan, Youngstown State both pertain to them and then Boston College comes to them as well. They go to Indiana on October 18th,” McElroy said. “So, really tough spot.”
Michigan State is projected here to be improved, potentially publishing its second-best record of the previous 8 seasons in total returning to 2018. Still, that may just imply so much in what’ll be year 2 under Smith.
“They are the sole group in the Big 10 in tier for where I think they’ll go bowling however, beyond that, it’s going to be tough for me to visualize this as a substantial surge,” stated McElroy.