Michigan State football: Conner Moore proud of effort so far, but not complacent

Michigan State football is 2-0, and Conner Moore is proud of his team, but he knows there’s a lot to be improved upon.

On Saturday, Michigan State football avenged their loss to Boston College last season, prevailing 42-40 in double overtime. The main difference for the Spartans this year was a mix of a potent run game with giving quarterback Aidan Chiles enough time in the pocket. One of the Spartans helping the quarterback get that time was tackle Conner Moore.

On Tuesday, Moore spoke to the media, discussing his own improvements, alongside what this team gives. Moore is happy with his improvement in pass protection on the right side of the ball, a foreign position to him until transferring to Michigan State this winter.

“I’m a lot more comfortable with pass protection on the right side,” Moore said. “It was kind of tough when I first came here, trying to move over there. I still have a lot of room for improvement in pass protection on both the left side and right side, I’m still struggling on some stuff. There’s lots of room for improvement there.”

He expanded on his room for improvement, critiquing almost every element of his own protection, saying he still has a lot to learn.

“I need to stay square in my set, I need to have a better punch, I need to move my feet better, it’s just everything,” Moore admitted. “Especially in pass protection, you’re never good enough.”

One of the storylines around the Spartans in the early season has been the offensive line rotation. Moore went an called it a fun challenge, saying he likes it.

“I kind of like playing both sides, it’s been a fun challenge,” Moore said. “I’ve liked it so far, I feel like I haven’t had many problems with it so far.”

The junior tackle also downplayed the switching of sides. That said, he did agree it is hard to establish a rhythm flipping sides.

“You’re playing offensive line at the end of the day,” Moore pointed out. “A wide man is a wide man, a pass set is a pass set regardless of what side you’re on you’re still doing the same thing. Obviously, it sucks, having to go back and forth, you can’t get a rhythm that way. It’s still the same thing at the end of the day.”

Michigan State football is on the verge of being scary

One thing Moore complimented about this team is the defense and offense both standing out during games one and two, respectively. That said, they are awaiting a complete “team game,” and the tackle is firm in his belief that the team will be scary when that happens.

“I feel like we’ve done a good job as a team,” Moore said. “The first game was more defense, this game was more offense, when we put a whole game together, it’s going to be scary.”

One thing that has remained consistent during Moore’s first two games has been the energy from Spartan Stadium, and the lineman was extremely complimentary of the atmosphere against Boston College.

“Oh my god, it was sweet, it was packed out,” Moore complimented. “It was loud all the way until the fourth quarter. It was cool. It was a pretty cool atmosphere.”

While next week is Youngstown State, an opponent hailing from the lower FCS division of football, Moore is not overlooking the squad. After all, he starred at the lower level before his move to East Lansing.

“I have a lot of respect for the FCS level, obviously playing there,” Moore said. “There’s a lot of good players at that level, a lot of good teams. Having that respect for everybody is huge.”

The Spartan run game is coming together

This season, the Michigan State football run game looks vastly improved from last year. In part, it comes from sophomore back Makhi Frazier providing a dynamic element to the offense. Moore had quite a few compliments for the Texas native on Tuesday.

“He’s a heck of a running back,” Moore praised Frazier. “He runs hard, physical, he’s quick, he makes guys miss. It’s a fun time blocking for him.”

The big element, however, has been the improvement in run blocking. However, Moore has lamented that a few big runs could have been true house calls from beyond midfield with a few tweaks.

“We’ve done a really good job up front,” Moore said. “There’s a lot of room for improvement. We’ve had a lot of good runs, we’ve been really close on a lot of runs that could bust for 50, 60 yards. So, I feel like we can have a lot of improvement there still.”