Spring Pregamin'
I don’t want to read to much into the spring game. Because, as it was so eloquently put by Pete over at TOC, it doesn’t matter.
Why doesn’t it matter? The short answer is that it doesn’t count in the standings, and the long answer involves a football variant of Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle states that you can know how fast you’re going, or where you are in time and space, but you can’t know your velocity and location at the same time.
Yeah, what he said.
I went to my first spring game last year, and if I learned anything, it’s that the stats definitely don’t matter. But the overall story lines seem to be relevant and sometimes, maybe just a bit insightful? Without further adeu, here’s what stuck out in my mind as I parked myself below the south end zone video scoreboard and took in the action.
Bullets!
- Andrew Maxwell is still pretty green. Numerous times he was throwing into three and four man coverage. He just didn’t seem to be at the point where he was going anywhere into his progressions. And I don’t want to rag on the kid too much, because he’s still young. But I bring it up because if Cousins goes down, I think we have a significant conundrum. Do we go with Nichol, and pull him over to the QB spot from wide receiver, or do we go with Maxwell? Right now, if it was my call, I’d pull Nichol over to play QB.
- Speaking of Nichol, it was pretty clear to me today why he’s the top receiver on the depth chart. When that was first announced, I was surprised. Over Dell? Over Cunningham? Over Keyshawn? Yes, yes and (tentatively) yes. Nichol strikes me as being next year’s version of Blair White – a solid go-to possession receiver. Keyshawn seems like he would still be the big play guy.
- Caper really showed break-out ability today. He and Baker will be a solid one-two combo next season.
- Gantt, yet again, looks like a good release valve for Cousins. He has great hands for a big guy.
- Yes, the field goals will drop off this season. This isn’t a surprise to anyone. But I definitely don’t think we’re going to see the drop off that we saw after Dave Rayner left a few years ago. Dan Conroy was 1-for-2, making a 31 yard kick and missing on a 35 yarder. Meanwhile, Kevin Muma made his lone attempt from 19 yards out.
- Cousins could be the best quarterback in the conference this season. You read that right. I’m not convinced on Terrelle Pryor (obviously), and who else is in the running? Scott Tolzien? Ricky Bobby Stanzi? Cousins has the arm strength, and the touch, to be the best in the Big Ten. And without the absurdity of a season-long QB battle, Cousins will have the confidence of knowing that he’s the guy, no questions asked.
- Kickoffs are still going to be an issue. Muma was the best kickoff guy on the day, booting the ball an average of 59 yards (or to roughly the 11 yard line). Conroy was only getting it to the 20 yard line on average. That’s a significant field position issue, and something we had issues with last year as well. To put this in context, Muma’s kickoff average today would place him last in the conference based on the stats from the ’09 season. Woof.
And finally, a word on the new unis. I may write a post about this whole thing later on, but I wanted to at least touch on it now.
In general, my opinion on college football jerseys is that classic is almost always better. College football is filled with tradition, and the great programs have had consistent uniform elements through the years. The uniforms that we’ve had the last three years, in my mind, have been great. The only gripe I had was that I would have preferred the lettering of “MICHIGAN STATE” on the front of the jersey was larger. Other than that, those things were as close as perfect as we could get.
When the new uniforms came out yesterday and I saw the images for the first time, I was in the “strong dislike” category. But when I saw them in person today in the atrium of Spartan Stadium, I have to admit that they didn’t look that bad.
The new font is still very similar to traditional block lettering, with an accentuated serif (I think that’s what it’s called – hey, I’m not a font expert), and with a notch that cuts into some of the lettering. The numbers will now include a bronze accent for the stitching. Frankly, I’m not a fan, because I prefer the two-color scheme vs. a three-color scheme. Three colors just starts to look too busy. There will now be contrasting shoulder panels, go for the green jersey there will be white shoulder panels and vice versa. Again, I’d prefer a solid color for the entire jersey cloth.
There were three football uniforms presented yesterday, and all three were on display in front of Sparty at Spartan Stadium today. I took some pics, posted below.
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