Harlon Barnett has focused on keeping MSU together, but results are eating away at efforts

EAST LANSING — There was no single enduring moment that stood out over 60 minutes of football, no one play that encapsulated what transpired.

At least not until the end.

All the analysis needed came from watching Michigan's Blake Corum and his teammates dash onto the Spartan Stadium turf as the clock hit zeroes, the star running back striking a Paul Bunyan pose on the midfield logo, the lack of green left in the stands when it happened and the final numbers on the scoreboard that spoke volumes.

No. 2 Michigan 49, Michigan State 0.

Total and thorough domination, from start to finish.

There wasn’t much interim coach Harlon Barnett or his players could add. At least not about Saturday’s first rivalry night game at Spartan Stadium that doubled as the program’s worst loss in the 100-year history of their home field.

“You have to watch,” Barnett said of reviewing the film of the annihilation in the coming days. “To face reality, you gotta face what really happened and then get better from it.”

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The reality is time is dwindling. For MSU’s players and coaches alike. For this season and beyond.

Only five games remain for the Spartans, whose five-game losing streak is their worst since 2019. They travel to Minnesota on Saturday for a 3:30 p.m. kickoff (BTN) to face a Gophers team coming off an emotional win over Iowa and still in contention for the weak West Division title.

MSU (2-5, 0-4 Big Ten) still technically retains hope of becoming bowl eligible. Yet it seems an improbable task based on getting decimated already by a combined score of 90-7 by U-M and Washington and with games against two other top foes, Ohio State and Penn State, still to go.

“You can imagine a lot of guys were definitely upset, disappointed. No one wants to have their rival beat them in their own house the way that we lost,” said sophomore running back Nathan Carter, who finished with 36 yards on 17 carries. “It's definitely tough. And we have to be able, as men, to pick our heads up and continue to move on and just grow from this. We still have five more games left in the season, and we got to go out there and do what we can to win those last five games. No matter what team it is.”

The Wolverines (8-0, 5-0) did to the Spartans much the same as what Washington did a month ago. Only more emphatically, with more ill intent. And in a much more demoralizing fashion.

Four hot knife-through-butter touchdown drives led by U-M’s J.J. McCarthy in the first half. Continued poor play at quarterback on the Spartans’ side, with redshirt freshman Katin Houser going three-and-out on five of his nine possessions and throwing an interception returned for a touchdown on another before being benched. Penalties that multiplied in volume and indiscretion as their frustration grew and grew along with the Wolverines’ lead in the second half.

U-M finished with a 477-182 advantage in total yards, MSU’s lowest offensive production since gaining 149 in a 38-0 loss at Wisconsin on Oct. 12, 2019. The Spartans allowed the Wolverines to convert on 7 of 11 third-down chances.

MSU committed 11 penalties Saturday for 102 yards. Eight of those flags and 72 coming after halftime, five of those personal foul penalties on defense. And three of those – two on defensive tackle and one on cornerback Dillon Tatum –  came on back-to-back plays that gave the Wolverines 36 free yards before McCarthy's fourth and final touchdown pass of the day. Offensive lineman Spencer Brown also got ejected for a nasty flagrant foul following Houser's pick-six in the third quarter.

“Penalties and turnovers and not getting off the field on third down are things that, you can't win football games if you're doing those things,” Barnett said. “And so you gotta talk to them about it again, put a heavy emphasis on it again, make sure they all truly understand. ... But most times, I can already tell you, I feel like most of them are gonna say, 'Yes, we understand. We're beating ourselves. We got to get it corrected, and this is how we're going to get it done.'

“And then we stay together, stay unified. We hold each other accountable on those things. And then we'll have a chance to improve and get better and possibly win some football games.”

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Barnett, who took over for suspended-then-fired Mel Tucker on Sept. 10, admitted his primary mission has been trying to foster unity and continue that over the next month-plus as MSU’s search for its next coach begins to intensify. Preventing his players from unraveling and trying to keep them both engaged and from leaving the program. Trying to salvage a recruiting class that continues to disintegrate.

“I've been trying to make sure we stay together,” he said. “That's been my No. 1 thing, my No. 1 thing since I've been put in this position.”

Carter pointed to the ongoing struggles as a life-test that “goes beyond football.”

“There's going to be tough times that you're going to have to get through,” he said. “So you have to be able to not just fall down with the adversity but to continue to fight. ... I believe that's just a lifestyle. You have to be willing to fight, because in life, when the world throws crap at you, you gotta be able to stand up and fight. And where we are right now, we have to continue to fight. We can't lay down.”

Internally, linebacker Aaron Brule said the losing streak at times has turned players “heated, in the sense of just wanting and expecting the best out of everybody.”

“Once you enter the real world, life is way harder than just football,” the sixth-year senior said. “What we have going on here, if you can't get past this, you'll struggle when this is done. So I think just doing what you can here and I guess practicing for the real world with the adversity that we're having right now is gonna lead to better things after football is done.”

Barnett also talked about trying to resurrect his own ethos to become more demanding than he has been in his first time leading a program as head coach.

“I am a compassionate person. I understood the situation that we were in. So I was trying to just make sure everybody stayed together,” he said. “Now it's gonna be like, who you see out there are guys you know that are all in, gonna give us everything all day, every day. I'm talking on and off the field.”

Barnett, a proud program alum who has been part of 11 wins over U-M as a player and coach, knows his days coaching at MSU may be numbered as losses mount and the coaching search evolves. Particularly after the way in which this rivalry rout transpired. His players – many of whom, like Brule and Carter, are transfers – know a new staff also could bring another overhaul to the roster in the coming months.

Which leaves only one option.

“We're gonna continue to go out here and play our butts off, because this may be the last season for a lot of us. And nobody knows what it is,” Carter said. “So how do you want to be remembered? Do you want to be remembered as the guy who quit on a team, the guy who laid down and just let adversity hit them? Or do you want to be remembered as someone who fought and finished through it all?”

The Spartans have five more weeks to find out which it’ll be.

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: MSU football's Harlon Barnett admits he may need to be more demanding