Michigan State football stock watch after CMU win in Week 1

Michigan State football wrapped up a season-opening win over Central Michigan on Friday night. Whose stock is up?

Game one has come and gone and with a win over Central Michigan, Michigan State football had some players and positions that really played well and others that took a step back.

Whose stock is up after this game and whose is down?

Stock Up

Dillon Tatum

One of the biggest issues that the defense had last year was in the secondary. There really never seemed like a player took over and was all over the field. That was not the case in this game. Dillon Tatum was all over the field, both in pass coverage and stopping the run. You saw Tatum aggressively pursue the ball and nearly had a pick in this game. This is one of the best performances we have seen from a player in the secondary in years and Dillon’s stock will continue to rise if he keeps playing like this.

Wide receiver depth

One thing that coaches talked about this offseason was the wide receiver depth. They kept bringing up that they had multiple players who could play and make an impact and we saw that tonight. We saw trusty Tre Mosley make some plays but players like Jaron Glover, Christian Fitzpatrick, and Tyrell Henry showed up throughout the game. These three wide receivers made big play after big play which led to one of the best catches we have seen from Henry to put Michigan State up 24-7.

The defense/Scottie Hazelton

This is one of the best defensive performances we have seen from a Scottie Hazelton unit. Not only was the defensive line causing issues for Central, but the secondary was staying with their man. While Bert Emanuel wasn’t good at throwing the ball, Michigan State kept him under wraps for the most part. The defense was able to run sideline to side very well and fill the gaps when Central was trying to run the ball. Central Michigan only had 219 yards of offense.

While every game has good performances, there were some that underperformed. There were three main groups that had their stock go down after this game.

Stock Down

Play-calling in short-yardage situations

To me, getting stopped on two 4th-and-1s in any game is unacceptable. This isn’t an issue that is just coming up now. This is an issue we saw all of last year as well. This is on Jay Johnson. Have you heard of a quarterback sneak? Has Michigan State football run a quarterback sneak under Jay Johnson? When it’s 4th-and-1 and you get stuffed twice by Central Michigan, that’s just unacceptable and needs to get fixed. Call better plays, Jay.

Start of games

Michigan State has never really been a team that has started games fast and this was another example of that. For the first three quarters, the offense was stalling, while the defense kept them in the game. If Michigan State wants to win games against better opponents, it cannot have these slow starts. Now some of the drives stalling were because of drops but it just seems like the offense could never get it going until late in this game.

Special teams coverage

This stock down doesn’t have anything to do with Jonathan Kim who had an overall good game, especially with his 47-yard field goal. This has everything to do with the special teams coordinator Ross Els. Under Els, the special teams have struggled, especially with the coverage. There was a kickoff late in this game that Central was one tackle broken away from a return touchdown. Now this happens from time to time but this seems like a constant thing. The other coverage issue was on a punt that should have been downed within the 10. Instead, it went off a player and into the endzone.

The coverage in special teams has not been good and it needs to improve.

Overall, this was a good performance from Michigan State. While the first three quarters weren’t great for the offense, they started to get it going towards the end. The defense was great the whole game. There are more positives than negatives from this performance. Overall, I am happy with this game and look forward to seeing who’s stock rises and falls in the next game.