A new era
I was really excited for Michigan State football to start on Friday night. My wife can attest that I sat on the couch like a kid on Christmas morning waiting for the presents to be opened. @mrsbozz even looked at me at one point and said "I know this is your favorite time of year". I replied yes, it is one of them.
Unfortunately, it turned out to be a pretty frustrating evening for me. If you read my post last week, you know that this is a new era for the Michigan State Spartans. They have a new coach from out west and a lot of new players in the roster.
The expectations haven't been too high for this team through the off season, but I was really hoping they would prove everyone wrong and give us some nice surprises.
All of those hopes and dreams went out the window when starting quarterback Chiles threw an interception on the opening play of the game. Sure, it was a questionable call, but it went in the favor of Florida Atlantic nonetheless.
From there it was just a couple hours of disappointment after disappointment. There were so many penalties on MSU in this game that it was absolutely ridiculous. They looked like a bunch of undisciplined thugs running up and down the field.
When you have not one but two players ejected from the game for targeting, then you know things aren't going well. I honestly can't even wrap my head around how horrible they played. Sure, they came away with the win 16 to 10, but it was more of a technicality than anything.
They had two big turnovers right at the goal line on separate occasions and what could have been a statement game for them turned into nothing but a steaming pile of crap.
I understand it is a building year for the Spartans, but this wasn't a good look at all. It's embarrassing honestly. Despite the win, there were very few Spartans fans bragging after the game in my social media feed as you might expect for the opening game of the season.
Michigan State has a long season ahead of them with some quite difficult match ups in the first half. The only thing that gives me a little hope is the fact that Michigan didn't do much better in their opening game. Sure, they put up 30 points, but most of those weren't scored until closer to the end of the game.
Ohio State is looking really good, but I will cover more of the other team results tomorrow.
Right now I am still trying to figure out how I am going to survive this football season. If nothing else, at least basketball season is only a couple of months away!
All I know, is that Smith has a lot more work ahead of him as the new head coach. He has some tough questions to answer and there is going to be a really big magnifying glass looking down on him.