After crushing loss, Michigan State football finds itself in the abyss
EAST LANSING — It was a tableau of despair, the saddest of scenes capturing the dreary state of a fallen program.
As the final seconds ticked down in Washington’s 41-7 annihilation of Michigan State football, only two fans remained in the southeast corner of the gray upper deck at Spartan Stadium. Huddled together on the top row, they sat just below a sign displaying one of Mel Tucker’s famous quotations.
“Into the deep water, where we live,” it reads.
Indeed, that is where the Spartans can now be found — residing in the lowest reaches of the Power Five, far below the best teams, sunken and buried in the college game’s vast sea.
They’re there after being set adrift by none other than Tucker, their coach who was suspended last weekend after the publication of a USA TODAY investigation that detailed a sexual harassment claim levied against him.
The revelation of his alleged misconduct rocked a team that already faced a hazy future under his stewardship. As he steered the Spartans into Year 4 of his tenure, their direction was unclear. But now it appears painfully obvious: They are headed downward, plummeting at rapid speed toward rock bottom, where sometime in the months ahead the wreckage will be discovered and maybe even salvaged.
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Some of the pieces recovered will be shards left from the demolition seen Saturday, when quarterback Michael Penix Jr. and the powerful Huskies blew MSU off the field and left a path of destruction from end zone to end zone. Washington produced a whopping 713 yards of total offense and led, 35-0, before halftime, as Penix shredded a defense that was overmatched and outwitted at every turn. Receivers ran freely into open zones, made spectacular catches and forced missed tackles — exposing a woebegone secondary, which has been MSU’s weakest link since Tucker arrived in East Lansing back in 2020.
Harlon Barnett couldn’t peel his eyes away from the horror in front on him, forced to watch every grisly moment during his debut as acting head coach. The devastation nearly broke his spiritual core.
“A couple of times,” he said. “Almost, almost, almost.”
For Barnett, it had to feel like torture. He’s what the old heads around here call a Spartan Dawg, after all. Earlier this week, he told reporters, that he is “green all day.” Barnett has seen the good times from the very same sideline where he stood on this miserable evening. A former defensive back for George Perles, he celebrated a Rose Bowl win once upon a time. Later in life, he was an integral part of Mark Dantonio’s staff when MSU enjoyed a golden age last decade.
But now Barnett finds himself the caretaker of damaged program that looks nowhere near competing with the top teams in the sport.
The Spartans instead are an abject mess. In their first true test of the season against a quality opponent, they failed miserably. The offense was comatose for long stretches. The pass protection was dreadful, the run blocking was poor and quarterback Noah Kim was ineffective. His throws routinely sailed high and wide of their intended targets as he wilted under the pressure applied by the Huskies. By the time he exited the game toward the end of the third quarter, his completion rate dipped to 39% and the Spartans hadn’t scored a point. Kim became the face of MSU’s struggles in a game when the Spartans committed a series of dumbfounding penalties and groan-inducing errors.
“We made too many mistakes,” receiver Tre Mosley said.
Mosley wore a placid expression as he processed the loss. A holdover from the Dantonio era, he endured the rough start to the Tucker era during the COVID-19 pandemic, the dizzying ascent that transpired in 2021 and the downfall that has unfolded ever since. Only 13 months ago, he and his teammates were talking about winning a conference championship and competing for a national title.
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Now, they are trying to convince outsiders that their program isn’t near ruin.
“We have no choice but to keep pushing forward,” Mosley said.
But that will be hard.
The Spartans have a schedule rated among the toughest in the nation. On the horizon are games against three teams ranked above Washington — Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State. Each of those Big Ten heavyweights could send MSU to even lower depths.
That’s not something Barnett wants to consider, after he called the loss Saturday a “valley moment” for the program that is his pride and joy. Amid the doom and gloom, he tried to project optimism.
“We’ll come back,” Barnett murmured.
But it’s hard to forecast when MSU will return to the surface. Right now, they are stuck in the abyss after being dragged into the deep water by none other than Tucker.
Contact Rainer Sabin at rsabin@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @RainerSabin.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: After crushing loss, Michigan State football finds itself in the abyss
