Week 5 is in the books and some Michigan State football players have seen their stocks rising. Who impressed vs. Iowa?
Michigan State football lost its first away game of the year and is now 2-3.
With fans frustrated with this game, it’s time to take a step back and see whose stock is on the rise and who, or what, is falling.
Stock Up
This is now back-to-back games where Jordan Hall has been one of the best defenders on the field for MSU. It seemed like he was all over the field and was making plays both in pass coverage and stopping the run. Hall should continue to get a lot of playing time now that Jacoby Windmon is done for the year but he deserved more playing time before the veteran UNLV transfer got injured. Hall is one of those young players that fans should be excited about and he is just going to keep getting better.
Nathan Carter has been one of the best players on offense this year for Michigan State and that continued vs. Iowa. When you give the ball to him, you can almost always expect him to at least get back to the line of scrimmage, at worst, and also find the hole. You can see the coaching staff trusts him as they keep going back to him over and over again and he had another game leading the team in total yardage.
This was one of the best games the secondary has had this year and Malik Spencer was up one of the best on the field. Now, fans might say the reason why this is the case is because Iowa is so bad at passing the ball and at the wide receiver position leaves a lot to be desired. While that is mostly true, it seemed like Spencer took away the tight end position whenever he was covering them and was also running down hill when Iowa was running the ball. Spencer continues to impress and he is another young player I want to continue to see play at a high level.
Imagine if someone told Michigan State football fans that their kicker would make a 58-yard field goal in a game this year. I think if you told them that, they probably won’t believe you because it has been years since the Spartans have had a kicker that could do that. Turns out, Michigan State has a kicker that can and his name is Jonathan Kim. That was one of the most impressive kicks I have seen from a kicker at Michigan State and this is one of the many reasons why Kim’s stock is up.
Ryan Eckley also had a great game as well. Some fans might question why his stock is up especially after the one really poor punt. If you look at his total work in this game, there were multiple punts within the 10 and some of those were inside the five. That alone should get him in the category of stock up.
Stock Down
In the last 10 quarters, Noah Kim led one touchdown drive. That is not good enough. Kim has not been good enough and he has to know it. The coaching staff has to know it. Fans know it. There needs to be change at the quarterback position. Do I think a change is going to solve all these issues? No, I don’t and that is because I believe the adults in the room have not been putting Kim in a position to succeed. It should have never gotten to this point and that is not on Kim, that’s on the coaches. I know Kim has been trying his best to make these plays but they are just not happening, he is turning over the ball and the it seems like once the offense gets to third down, we don’t convert it. He was not good against Iowa and if the saying “ball security is job security” is true, I think a change will be made.
Coaching has been an issue throughout this year and it continued on Saturday night. Several times in this game, Michigan State could have stayed aggressive and went up two scores which could have ended the game but the staff got complacent. The other really big issue in this game with the coaching staff was going for it up three on the 30-yard-line on 4th-and-1. Some fans might not be mad at that decision but when you run a quarterback sneak, you should convert that even if the other team knows its coming. If Michigan State punts the ball, I think Michigan State wins this game because again, Iowa was not doing well on offense and the defense was getting stops. There were several calls in this game that were important and it just seems like the coaches made the wrong decisions each time.
All the tight ends in this game outside of Maliq Carr saw their stock go down. From penalties that hurt the momentum of the game or not running routes as hard as they should, the tight end position had its stock go down. There were some plays that the tight ends made that were very good and helped the team but when it seemed like they needed to make a huge play, it just seemed like a penalty was called or they just weren’t getting open.
This is one of those games that fans come out of it demanding changes and it’s time for them to happen. While it’s time for changes, there are players on this team that have played well all year or their stock is continuing to rise. If coaching can be better and these changes that fans want take place, maybe people will stick around a little longer, depending on the results that take place after those changes.
Michigan State football has a bye in Week 6.
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