Michigan State football moves past Rutgers, steps into intensity of Michigan week
Mel Tucker went into his Michigan State football debut imagining what it would feel like to run out of the Spartan Stadium tunnel for his first game as head coach.
He never envisioned walking back to the locker room defeated by Rutgers and dejected by a 38-27 loss.
One rule applied for his players, either way.
“If in fact you do lose a game, how do you handle a loss? What is your mental disposition coming off of a game like that?” Tucker said on a videoconference call Tuesday. “The process is, win or lose, it's a 24-hour rule and then it's time to move on to the next to the next game. Because the most important game is the next game.”
The most important game to the Spartans — against Michigan — also happens to be their next one. And come noon Saturday in Ann Arbor, anything that happened a week earlier needs to be well in their rearview.
Because the Wolverines aren’t Rutgers. And MSU veterans Rocky Lombardi and Antjuan Simmons made sure to impart that to their younger teammates Monday.
“Antjuan and I talked to the freshmen yesterday about how important this rivalry is to us, to the state, to the program,” Lombardi said Tuesday. “This is gonna be something that everybody's going to talk about for the next 365 days or however long it is until we play next.
“So it's definitely a big deal for us to make sure that everybody understands that this is not just any other game. This is a big game for us, this is big game for Coach Tuck, this is a big game for our program.”
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The backlash for Tucker and Co. after losing to Rutgers, which had lost 21 straight Big Ten games and hadn’t beaten MSU since joining the conference in 2014 — was swift and vitriolic, venturing into overreaction after only one game under a new coaching staff. Some of it had to do with who the Spartans lost to, but much of it had to do with what fans saw — a team that looked overmatched and unprepared.
Tucker understands the public reaction.
“That's to be expected. I believe this is my 24th year of coaching, and when you don't have success, there's disappointment,” said the 48-year-old, who went 5-7 last year at Colorado in his first season as a college head coach. “There's disappointment from the coaching staff, there's disappointment on the players' side of it, and then the fans and everyone involved. The expectation is to have success and do that on a consistent basis. And so, we go to the truth and understand why were we not able to have the success on the field that we expected and that's up to the standard. Why were we not able to play up to that standard? And the answer is, obviously, turnovers.”
MSU had seven turnovers and turned it over twice on downs. The Spartans ran for just 50 yards on 39 carries, a measly average of 1.3 per carry. Three of the Scarlet Knights’ scoring drives started after turnovers in MSU territory and another near midfield after a kickoff return.
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That wasn’t all. Tucker pointed to the Spartans' seven penalties for 62 yards as another tripping point.
“You look at those things and you say, ‘These are the reasons why we weren't successful.’ Then you look to get them fixed, and then you move on,” he said. “I do feel the disappointment. But it's important for me as a head coach and as a leader to move on to the next game and turn the page.
“We'll learn from it. We've got a young football team that's bought in and is eager, that's motivated and wants to do well. We've done some good things, and this is a week to get some things cleaned up and improve.”
One of those positives was the passing game. Lombardi completed 31 of 44 passes for 319 yards and three touchdowns despite two interceptions and a fumble at his own 1. Receivers Jayden Reed and Jalen Nailor showed potential as explosive playmakers, combining for 17 catches, three touchdowns and 212 yards despite making three turnovers. And the Spartans’ defense, despite giving up a 75-yard scoring drive to open the game, allowed just 201 yards the rest of the game despite being set up often with short fields to defend.
But they also saw how good Michigan looked Saturday night in dismantling Minnesota on the road, 49-24. And the Spartans know they have plenty of work to do on top of correcting their own issues.
“They were pretty good. They put up a lot of points,” said Simmons, a senior linebacker. “It looked like they were able to achieve what they wanted to achieve last weekend. They put a lot of good things on film for them.”
The Spartans already watched that footage, and Tucker said they “are well into our game plan for the school up the road” with “a laser-focus on this game on Saturday.”
They also watched their own tape. And they realize how much work needs to be done to make the big leap in performance between Game 1 and Game 2.
Especially when the leap in competition — and intensity — will be a quantum one in those seven days.
“We know that it's always a physical game,” Tucker said. “It'll probably be one of the most physical games that will play this this season, so we've really got to focus on being fundamentally sound, taking care of football. But first and foremost, we gotta be physical on both sides of the ball and on special teams.”
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari. Read more on the Michigan State Spartans and sign up for our Spartans newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan-MSU football rivalry heats up after Spartans' loss to Rutgers
