Cross-sport statistical irony
Posted by kj on Friday, December 28th, 2007
Just as the MSU basketball team seems to be turning the corner on holding on to the ball, the MSU football team takes a swan dive in the opposite direction. After turning the ball over only 13 times in 12 regular season games, the Spartans of the gridiron handed it over five times tonight in the Champs Sports Bowl.
Nevertheless, I’m hopeful about the direction of the MSU football program. They were within a touchdown of winning in all six of their losses this season. Hopefully, Coach Dantonio finds a way to shore up the defense and turn some of those close losses into wins next year. The days of the MSU football season serving as a mere prelude to the basketball season (in my mind, at least) may be drawing to a close.
There you go: two full paragraphs of football analysis. I’m afraid that’s all I’m qualified to offer.
Filed in msu
Kurton 29 Dec 2007 at 2:37 am 1While i didn’t get to watch the game past the first quarter, because of work, I was happy with the final score. I mean, losing sucks. but they were ranked No. 2 at one point, and MSU beat the expectations game. I think they made a step in the right direction and I look forward to Dantonio continuing to take the program in the right way. It’s fun being able to get excited about spartan football again.
spartanbloggeron 29 Dec 2007 at 9:33 am 2The big disappointment is losing a game where you dominate the running game on both sides of the ball. I know that running the ball and stopping the run aren’t quite as important as the TV commentators want you to believe (Football Outsiders column), but it’s would have been a great win for both MSU and the Big Ten to show that playing physical football can still work.
Dr Huxtableon 29 Dec 2007 at 1:26 pm 3With another year of Hoyer at the Helm ahead of us, I fail to see MSU turning any close losses into wins. He was horribly innacurrate all season and he can’t look off his first option (9 times out of 10 that was Devin Thomas). Unless Dantonio is willing to play Foles or Dixon next year we probably won’t be bowling in ‘08.
Spartalyticalon 29 Dec 2007 at 6:54 pm 4I waited a while and stayed off the anti-Hoyer bandwagon, but wow. At 7-6, this football team was mere inches and a bit of composure separated from being 12-1.
[dramatic and traumatic pause as the kid just pooped in the tub and i had to come off the bench to help out momma]
All the Spartans’ losses this year, with the exception of Ohio State (and even that one had us all thinking we could pull off the upset AT the ‘Shoe if we could just keep the ball out of our offense’s hands) should have been wins. At Wisconsin, Northwestern, at Iowa, Michigan, and then Boston College. All six losses were suffered by a total of 31 points, left fans feeling like their hearts were ripped out of their butts, and were too often grasped from the jaws of victory by Hoyer (usually with another name or two to throw under the bus too, but his blame seemed to be a constant throughout).
I think Dantonio’s the right guy for this program, and I think he’ll improve it greatly with his recruiting connections. But it won’t be a quick turn-around, and I don’t think anything dramatic (as in, poop-in-the-tub dramatic) will happen until Hoyer’s gone, which is unfortunate, as he’s a good kid who’s actually pretty decent until anything’s on the line.
witless chumon 29 Dec 2007 at 10:10 pm 5I thought Hoyer had turned a corner with the Purdue and PSU games, where he played well and was the difference.
Spartalyticalon 30 Dec 2007 at 10:21 am 6I wanted to think that as well, but only Penn State was actually a close game (therefore Purdue doesn’t really count, to me, at least). I guess I’m not convinced.