Keon Coleman had a near-perfect debut with Florida State and his three-touchdown performance brings up questions for MSU.
Keon Coleman is out of this world. Michigan State fans already knew this, and now the rest of the world does, too.
To the surprise of Spartan fans, Coleman entered the portal this offseason in search of a new home. He was looking for a program that could offer a big stage, strong quarterback play, and a system that would give him an opportunity to show his versatility heading into the NFL draft.
By all accounts, he’s found all three. Florida State dominated LSU Sunday night. With a final score of 45-24, Coleman was the best player on the field for either team.
Watching Coleman dominate on the field was certainly a bittersweet feeling for Spartan fans. It felt like the world was being exposed to what we already knew. The kid is special.
After that, the thought process begins to ask, “Why couldn’t we keep a guy like that?”
As we saw this weekend, Michigan State has no shortage of talented pass-catchers. Tyrell Henry still has the best catch we’ve seen all week. Jaron Glover made a great catch down the sideline, over the shoulder. These young guys along with Montorie Foster, Tre Moseley, etc., prove that the Michigan State receiver room will be just fine. But there’s no denying it’d take on another dimension if Coleman were still in East Lansing. The winner in all of this is Michigan State wide receivers coach Courtney Hawkins. The man knows talent and knows how to develop wide receivers.
Social media was a mixed bag of emotions from Spartan fans on Sunday night. While we’ve all moved on, there are a few questions that come to mind. If the Spartans want to be able to attract and keep high-level talent in the future, we have to figure out why we couldn’t keep a guy like Coleman satisfied.
Was his decision based on the quarterback?
From the day Keon Coleman left East Lansing, it was speculated that he wasn’t pleased with the quality of the quarterback play. Given the timing of his decision, we don’t know if Coleman was still anticipating Payton Thorne to be the starter, or if he didn’t have confidence in the room as a whole. Jayden Reed was drafted in the second round of the NFL draft but one major note on his evaluation was that he was held back by quarterback play. There’s no doubt teams used that information as a talking point with Coleman this offseason.
Is Jay Johnson’s system partially to blame?
In an offseason Florida State-based podcast, Coleman gave the first indicator of why he made the switch. Keon mentioned that he wasn’t a fan of the offensive scheme Michigan State was using. He stated that he wanted to be more than just a deep-ball catcher. The irony here is that Keon primarily dominated as a deep ball receiver in Sunday night’s win over LSU. If you watched both football games, it’s clear why a talented wide receiver would want to be a part of the high-powered offense at Florida State.
While Michigan State had some encouraging plays in the passing game, it’s not a high-volume, versatile passing game. The hope would be that the system would fit the players just as much as you want the players to fit the system.
While systems are important, the team also needs to be willing to create enough margin for great players to be great. Players want to be coached but they also want a voice. If a guy like Keon Coleman tells you how he wants to be utilized, it’s probably a good idea to listen.
How’d MSU have both Jayden Reed and Keon Coleman and miss a bowl?
When you had a second-round pick, and a likely first-round pick, playing with each other in the same offense, you don’t expect five wins. As a reminder, Reed missed some time last year with a back injury, but he was still present for most of the season.
There were multiple factors for the Spartans’ 2022 record. First, the secondary continued to give up yards at a historic rate. Second, the Spartans weren’t able to establish the run game necessary to open up the offense. Third, starting quarterback Payton Thorne was playing through injury for most of the season. Fourth, and most importantly, the offensive line struggles were the lynchpin for it all.
The Spartans have only played one game this season and there’s not much we can take away from it. The secondary wasn’t tested. The running game was strong on the legs of Nathan Carter but we’ll want to see more of that against stronger opponents. The quarterback play was a roller coaster ride. The offensive line looked better but not as dominant as Michigan State fans were expecting.
Did MSU not meet NIL expectations?
In today’s game of college football, almost every time a high-level recruit changes or chooses schools, there’s money involved.
When you ask yourself what “changes” a player could’ve been advocating for but have no control over, NIL funds are near the top of the list. Recently, head coach Mel Tucker has been critical of Michigan State’s commitment to NIL. If the head coach is saying that himself, it’s clearly a frustration within the program. Paying your head coach a $95 million contract communicates that you want to win. Not having competitive NIL funds communicates the opposite. Michigan State needs to figure out which side of the coin it’s on.
Some have speculated that these “changes” were in regard to the starting quarterback position for Michigan State. If that were primarily the case though, Thorne had already moved on to Auburn before Keon chose to go to Florida State.
The Spartans have had strong back-to-back recruiting classes and have more talented players committed for 2024. The goal for Michigan State needs to be winning enough games this year to keep the talented players they have so we’re not watching another former Spartan be great elsewhere in the future.
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