Subscribe
Follow Us
Previously undefeated Michigan State got crushed by Washington Saturday, in its first football game after head coach Mel Tucker’s suspension. Interim Spartans coach Harlan Barnett says the week leading up to the game was a lot, and he’s got some ideas about how to get his team back on track.
“There were a lot of different things that came about, but it's going to all settle down this week,” Barnett told reporters, per ESPN, after the game. “I got some things in my mind I want to do as far as me coaching and try to normalize us again. Whereas this past week, we were off-kilter a little bit.”
The Mel Tucker suspension for sexual harassment came as a shock, and surely this was a strange week for the Michigan State football team. However, “off-kilter a little bit” may be an understatement.
Michigan State gave up a staggering 713 yards of offense to Heisman Trophy hopeful quarterback Michael Penix Jr. and the Washington football team’s offense. That is a record number of yards in the 125-year history of the Spartans program.
On the offensive side of the ball, things weren’t much better. That unit had just 261 yards of offense for the team.
Despite the big loss, the Spartans players seem to have faith in Harlan Barnett moving forward.
“Our team bought in to Coach Barnett; we trust him fully,” Senior offensive lineman JD Duplain said. “We had good unity going into this weekend, guys were bought in. I think everyone was mission focused. We just made too many mistakes. And we're going to go back and watch film, we're going to learn from it, because the best teams, they learn from games like this.”
Michigan State’s schedule doesn’t get much easier moving forward as they continue to navigate the fallout of the Tucker scandal. The team’s next four games come against Maryland, at No. 25 Iowa, at Rutgers, and home against their in-state rivals, No. 2 Michigan.
