Michigan State football stock watch: A few players ended season with a flourish

Here are the Michigan State football personnel who helped or hurt their stock in the Spartans’ 42-0 loss to No. 11 Penn State.

Three up

LB Jordan Hall: He got banged up and had to leave the game at one point, but the true freshman showed fiery passion that should make him one of the program’s best leaders should he decide to stick around. Hall flew all around the field on blitzes and in pass coverage, an area where he showed he needs some work, and finished his first season with a flourish. His personal-high 12 tackles included a well-timed blitz to drop PSU quarterback Drew Allar. Hall finished his debut season with 4½ sacks among his 67 tackles.

P Ryan Eckley: Taking the game inside to Ford Field allowed the redshirt freshman to put together one of the best days for a punter in MSU and Big Ten history. No Spartan was as busy or as productive as Eckley, who averaged 54 yards on his nine punts. He also sized up, took a good angle and made a perfect form tackle on Daequan Hardy’s 38-yard return to prevent a touchdown. Eckley’s 46.7-yard average for the season ranks fifth in school history, and he proved to be the heir apparent to Bryce Baringer, who had the top two averages the past two seasons (49 yards in 2022, 48.4 in 2021). Baringer now punts for the New England Patriots.

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TE Maliq Carr: The junior finished his season strong, catching a team-high four passes for 34 yards, one of them for 29 yards. Carr had career highs with 30 catches, 364 yards and three touchdowns. His next decision could be whether to test the 2024 NFL draft or return to school for his final season of eligibility under a new coaching staff.

Three down

Offense: A brutal season offensively ended in the worst way, with the second shutout loss of the season. The Spartans’ 53 total yards were the fewest in program history, their minus-35 rushing yards (including sacks) were the second fewest, and their five first downs were the fourth fewest. Six of their seven second-half drives were three-and-out possessions. And the offensive line allowed a season-worst seven sacks, the most given up since Ohio State had 12 on MSU in 2005. MSU’s 15.9 points per game this season was its worst average since 1991 and ranks 129th out of 130 teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision. The 289.3 yards of offense per game also was the worst in 32 years and ranked 125th.

Defense: Penn State ran all over MSU for 283 yards, the most the Spartans allowed all season and the most since Ohio State’s 322 in 2020. The 586 total yards the Spartans gave up to the Nittany Lions trailed only the school-worst 713 MSU allowed earlier this season against Washington. The Spartans failed to generate a turnover for the third time this season. Penn State turned MSU’s inability to tackle into a dozen big plays. The Nittany Lions finished with six passes of 15-plus yards, including one for 53 and another for 60, and six runs of 10-plus yards, including a 50-yarder and 40-yarder.

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Coaching: The swan song for the staff assembled by former coach Mel Tucker was an exercise in futility, as evidenced by the paltry numbers above. The barrage of injuries with the season winding down limited what could be done. However, the second-half play-calling on offense felt as if coaches were doing one of two things – either trying to protect the players who remained from suffering serious injuries or preparing their own resumes. After nine games of not quitting since Tucker left the program, the finale was the first time it felt like coaches and players were ready for the season to end and change to begin.

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

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State football stock: A few players ended with a flourish