Oregon vs Michigan State Football

5 Oct 2024

Addicted to Quack

We talk today with Oren Basse of the Michigan State site The Only Colors

I asked Oren Basse of The Only Colors (our sister blog for Michigan State) about the Spartans and today’s football game, and he was very kind to indulge me with the following responses:

ATQ: Let’s get this out of the way, because the vast majority of Oregon fans have not the slightest clue of what has been transpiring in the Spartans program. Kindly indulge me, and walk us through how Michigan State fans processed the retirement of Mark Dantonio, and the (rise and) fall of Mel Tucker. I mean, to fans that must have been the ultimate gut punch…am I right about this?

TOC: Starting with Mark Dantonio, we knew he wasn’t going to coach that much longer, maybe a year or two, as there was a clear decline in his success in coaching and recruiting in the last few years of his reign. But the timing of his announcement to retire, in early February after the coaching carousel was pretty much over, caught us all off guard and put MSU in a bad spot; so MSU went on a mad dash to find a replacement and they lured Mel Tucker from Colorado after he was there for just one year. That first year was the Covid year, so that, along with the fact that he had no time to recruit anyone (and the transfer portal wasn’t much of a thing just yet), led to a predictably bad first year. But at least we defeated um (BW: Michigan. Same as me calling the team up north washinton). Tucker’s second year is what Spartans call “The Kenneth Walker Year”. We had a great season, went 10-2, beat um again, and were cheated out of a NY6 bowl game. And Walker was cheated out of the Heisman; he should have at least been a finalist. So at this point, Spartan Nation is amped up, thinking Mel Tucker is the real deal, and eating up the catchphrases “Tuck Coming” and “Keep Chopping”. But then Walker went pro, the QB play quickly deteriorated (despite having the same guy under center as the year before and having a pair of WRs who now play on Sundays), and MSU had a bad season that ended without even making a bowl. Cue 2023, MSU wins their first two games, but the evening after the second game is when the news breaks about the Tucker scandal and, predictably, the rest of the season goes down the drain. The interim coach lost the team and MSU got blown out by all the decent teams on their schedule. And yeah, Tucker received all the blame for what happened even after he was put on leave and ultimately fired, deservedly so. We feel he did not recruit well and he did not develop the players he did get, and that led to an awful product on the field. It is an era of MSU football we want to forget about.

ATQ: Jonathan Smith is a savvy dude. We in Oregon are quite familiar with him as a player and a coach. What was the general consensus of Smith in East Lansing when his predecessor was fired? How did the fanbase react to Smith’s managing of the roster and recruitment?

TOC: The hiring of Smith was welcomed, though at the time, coming off the Tucker saga, there was a pretty low bar around here. I don’t know that he was anyone’s top choice among the Spartan fans, but he was at least on several top-5 lists. Shortly after he was hired, the news of the PAC-12 eruption came out, so we had a good idea that he would be able to bring a good amount of his Oregon State guys with him, and that is what played out. That was the best part of his first recruiting class, as he did not really have the chance to make to many inroads in the Midwest in that first offseason. So far it seems like his 2025 class will be a little better, but we still are waiting to see him get some 4-star recruits. Hopefully he can have another great year in the portal. Recruiting aside, Smith has been doing a good job coaching. He is getting great play out of these guys and is keeping everyone engaged. Case in point - even though we got destroyed by Ohio State this past weekend, it was clear that everyone was still playing until the final whistle. That is not something we saw last year.

Photo by Rey Del Rio/Getty Images

ATQ: Roster management is so critical in this day and age. What are the positives about the players that Smith brought in with him and through the transfer portal? I know that in the first year it’s difficult to cover all the bases, but are there any glaring deficiencies that you can identify?

TOC: The big name that came with Smith was Aidan Chiles, who was the backup quarterback at Oregon State, though he did get a fair amount of playing time in his freshman year. Results have been mixed on Chiles so far. He is a turnover machine with 8 interceptions already this year, along with a few fumbles. But he also has shown an ability to hit absolute dimes to his receivers, even though his accuracy is not always great. We are telling ourselves to be patient as this is his first year as a starter and he is just 18 years old, so hopefully some improvement comes with time. Aside from Chiles, we also got Jack Velling, the TE from Oregon State who has been great so far. And Smith really seems to have done his best work in recruiting defensive linemen as there are a number of new names contributing on that unit this year. We need to see him bring in some more beef for the O-Line next year, as that is probably the weak spot of this roster.

ATQ: Who are the players on offense we should know about? Who on defense is going to make life difficult for the Ducks?

TOC: On offense, look out for freshman WR Nick Marsh. He can be hot and cold, but the guy is a highlight waiting to happen. He has speed, moves, and great hands. Just a matter of Chiles getting him the ball. On defense, I’ll give you a name at every level. On the DL, Kris Bogle has really taken a leap this year. Looking at him purely from a physique point of view, he is the last guy on this team I would want to get in a fight with. Dude must live in the weight room. Among the LBs, Cal Haladay has been a stud for MSU for years now. He is always at or near the top of the tackles list. And on the back end, Charles Brantley is having a big year. He already has 5 passes broken up, 2 picks, and one pick six which he returned all the way from five yards deep in his own endzone (and that was right after he had another pick-six earlier in that drive negated by a penalty).

ATQ: How do you think this game will play out…what is your best and worst case scenario for Michigan State?

TOC: I’ve been keeping an eye on Oregon and they were looking a bit overrated in the first two games, though they have looked much better these past two weeks. I am not thrilled about going cross country on a short week for this opponent. I would have liked one more day to prepare. MSU needs to cut down on the turnovers and personal foul penalties that have been an issue all season. The Spartans are inflicting too much damage on themselves. I think that will show up again this week. So worst case scenario is we make this easy for Oregon and the game resembles what just happened against Ohio State. Best case scenario is the mistakes get cleaned up, MSU makes the game interesting, and somehow steals it in the end. I think what will happen will be somewhere in the middle, Oregon winning by 10 or 14. Let’s call it Ducks 34, Spartans 24.