No eureka moment for MSU offense, but team shows some character with second half rally

EAST LANSING — There was no eureka moment, sudden epiphany or identifiable turning point, Noah Kim insisted. What sparked his in-game metamorphosis Friday from a quarterback who looked out of sorts at the beginning into one who was a model of efficiency by the end, felt more like a slow burn in his assessment.

“I think it was just a gradual thing,” he said after Michigan State football defeated Central Michigan, 31-7.

Kim and a retooled offense, under the direction of coordinator Jay Johnson, went through a feeling-out process in real time during the Spartans’ season opener, enduring a sluggish start that at times was frustrating, cringeworthy and dispiriting for all involved.

There were errant throws, drops, runs that went nowhere, and even alignment mistakes that led to collisions between teammates. In the early stages of their victory, the Spartans were an ugly mess, managing only a field goal in their first five possessions. But, if most objective observers were being honest, the struggles were unsurprising.

Kim, after all, was a new starter with just 38 snaps in his college career before he was privately anointed as the successor to Payton Thorne at some point last month. Running back Nathan Carter, the UConn transfer who received the first carry of the game, was making his debut at the Power Five level. The receiving corps had been overhauled following the offseason departures of their top two targets, Jayden Reed and Keon Coleman.

“Everybody didn’t know who was going to be the starting receivers, who was going to be the starting QB or who was going to be the running back,” redshirt freshman wideout Jaron Glover said.

“We had a lot of players who hadn’t played football in this capacity,” Carter added.

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The degree of change across all sectors was pronounced, and most figured it would take time for the redrafted lineup to jell.

That everything started to come together within 60 minutes of game action was an encouraging development.

Wideout Tre Mosley agreed.

“It was great to experience that,” Mosley said. “We want to face a little adversity so when we face it a little later it’s not the first time. It’s actually perfect.”

MSU was able to work out the kinks at its own pace without suffering any major repercussions. By the time Kim and the Spartans finally came alive with less than two minutes left in the first half, they trailed by only four points against a MAC opponent that lacked the firepower necessary to sustain its hopes for an upset.

After starting the game with eight incompletions in his first 12 throws, Kim immediately responded to the Chippewas’ only touchdown by connecting with Glover on three passes that covered 65 yards. They were the biggest plays during an 84-yard touchdown drive that recalibrated the trajectory of his debut as QB1 and reset MSU on a better course for the rest of the night.

Almost instantly, the Spartans’ offense found its groove and Kim entered a comfort zone. After halftime, he connected on 8 of 10 pass attempts for 134 yards and two touchdowns — both of which were scored during a run when MSU crossed CMU’s goal line on three consecutive possessions. That outburst was highlighted by a 72-yard reception by Christian Fitzpatrick on a well-executed out-and-up route and Tyrell Henry’s acrobatic one-handed catch in the end zone that sealed the Chippewas’ fate in the early minutes of the fourth quarter.

As Kim and his receivers fell in sync, so too did the ground attack. Carter and Jalen Berger, who began his second year in East Lansing, had more room to maneuver against a CMU defense that had been stretched by the Spartans’ revived pass attack. MSU, in turn, averaged one more yard per rush in the second half compared to the first.

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“We all knew what we could do,” Carter said.

But to see it materialize before their eyes in this kind of setting, under these circumstances, was important. It reinforced the belief inside the program that MSU is going to be OK in this life after Thorne, Reed and Coleman.

“We know we can make good plays,” Kim said. “We’ve seen it. There’s nothing to prove to anybody. We prove it to ourselves in practice.”

A game, however, is different. It has real stakes, with winners and losers. In the heat of competition is when a team’s makeup is usually tested. On Friday, the integrity of MSU’s offense was challenged. At first, it seemed it would all unravel. But it didn’t. Kim and the revolving cast of supporting players beside him showed some character, a little bit of verve and a whole lot of strength to keep intact.

As Glover said, “Everybody stayed as one.”

Contact Rainer Sabin at rsabin@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @RainerSabin.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Second half rally shows Michigan State football's character