3&Out: On Michigan State overhauls, chopping and Harlon Barnett recruiting
East Lansing, Mich. – Harlon Barnett isn’t looking to overhaul the Spartans’ offensive and defensive schemes in his second week as interim head coach at Michigan State. He just wants a tighter operation.
That’s the first subject of my 3&Out as Michigan State tries to shed the pain of last Saturday’s 42-7 loss to Washington as the Spartans look ahead to this Saturday’s game against Maryland (3:30 p.m., NBC).
1. HARLON BARNETT NOT LOOKING FOR OVERHAUL
“Anything that I would suggest or tinker with, it wouldn’t be anything way out of the structure from what we’re (already) doing,” Barnett said. “It would just be a minor little deal. We did some things different this off-season that we liked, that we implemented. For now, we’re moving ahead with what we have and how we do it.”
The list of areas that need improvement is vast. Michigan State allowed a school record 713 yards to No. 8 Washington in a 42-7 loss on Saturday. And the Spartans were almost equally bad on offense.
Barnett directed the team and program to stay the course last week, for better or worse. Most of it turned out for the worse.
“Last week, we didn’t change a whole lot of things, because that’s what they knew,” Barnett said. “The changes that we did make were slight. And they all seemed to like those slight changes, but nothing that was so big that they were thrown off course for what we needed to get done.
“This week, kind of the same. We kept it fairly normal to what we’ve done in the past, with a few changes here and there.”
Some of it comes down to quality control; seeking an improvement in technique rather than making wholesale changes.
The deep zone coverages that Michigan State began the game with? They weren’t supposed to be that deep.
“A defensive back plays a deep ball one way in practice, but in the game he plays it totally different,” Barnett said. “You get a guy on the punt team and he doesn’t take the proper steps, and he did it all week in practice.
“How do we learn from it? Get better from it and that’s the focus now – the discipline of doing everything the right way.”
For the first time in Barnett’s coaching career, that means having overseeing quality control on both sides of the ball.
“I got back in the lab with Coach Johnson and talked about attention to details,” Barnett said of Spartan offensive coordinator Jay Johnson. “We are focused on the details and the discipline and you will see a better product because of that, this Saturday.”
On offense, Michigan State wasn’t able to establish the run or protect the quarterback. Noah Kim was hit hard in the earlier going and was uneasy in the pocket, going 12 of 31 for 136 yards.
Barnett was asked how many position groups escaped a failing grade.
“First of all, I didn’t escape a failing grade,” Barnett said. “So that starts with me, and then everybody else. I will say this: Everything wasn’t terrible. You saw some hope and some light at the end of the tunnel. It just wasn’t consistent enough. You need all 11 to execute.”
Barnett did all he could to help the team last week. This week, he feels he’s able to do more.
“Last Monday (Sept. 11), I met with 27 dudes,” Barnett said of his quest to meet with each player on the roster individually. “(This Monday), it was like 11 or 12. Big difference.
“I also jumped on Maryland film on Sunday. I’m watching Maryland, Maryland, Maryland. We got the (Washington) film graded on Saturday night, that’s how I do it, after the game. No matter what time the game ends, watch the film.
“So Sunday I had a chance to really focus on Maryland and watch them. And beyond what I normally would watch, I’m also watching their defense and special teams. So I’m watching the entire group and that was my focus on Sunday. So I already felt more prepared than I did last week for Washington because I didn’t really get a chance to watch their entire group like I wanted to watch them.”
Will being more prepared as a coach help the Spartans look more prepared on the field? Something needs to be done to get those screws tightened. Barnett sees the same problems you see. He’s on it.
2. CHOP LIFE IS STILL A THING
Barnett is in a difficult position of replacing Mel Tucker while also being careful not to untie some of the things Tucker preached that Barnett believes in.
Keep chopping? Barnett’s still using that phrase.
“Some of those things that we had implemented were good things, good for the team,” Barnett said. “Talking about some normalcy for the guys, it’s a tough balance but you work it out and figure out what to say and how to say things to the guys to get them to perform at their highest level.”
And some things are being conveyed with more gusto. Barnett knows this team needs it.
“Physicality, and running through contact, those are things I’ve talked about before,” Barnett said. “That’s where I’m coming from a lot because that’s my personality and I believe you can have a good football team if you’re physical and disciplined. Very, very physical. I think that’s intimidating. But you have to be disciplined, and smart as well.”
Michigan State wasn’t just overwhelmed athletically against Washington, the Spartans also came apart from a disciplinary standpoint. Missed tackles, substitution errors, alignment errors, gap control errors, route running errors, blocking errors. It might have been the sloppiest game of the Tucker era, if we can still call it the Tucker era, since his loss to Rutgers in his first game as head coach in 2020.
Discipline? Playing smart? Barnett is all about it now.
“Those are things that we have been talking about to the guys that may have been said but maybe not emphasized as much,” he said.
3. KEEP RECRUITING THE BACK BURNERS
Recruiting is going to be a problem for Michigan State over the next several weeks. It’s going to be hard to hang onto their 13 commitments, and hard to add more, until Michigan State’s hazy coaching future becomes clearer.
Barnett and his staff are working to maintain relationships with their committed players, and build on those relationships. Barnett is recruiting with the idea that he will be these recruits’ head coach next year. The likelihood of that being the case might fall as the season progresses, but that’s all he can do. And he’s doing it.
“I got a chance to speak with all the committed recruits and they’ve been really good so far, especially last week,” he said. “And we’ll do it again this week. And I’ll get on FaceTime with those guys and talk with them and they’ve been good. They’ve been good so far.
“Everybody knows what has to happen and all that kind of stuff. They’re hangin’.
“They love Michigan State as of now, right now, and everything. The parents are good. Talking to the parents and the kids, and they’ve been good. I’ve talked to all the parents and all 13 commits, and they were good.”
Barnett doesn’t know what his future holds at Michigan State. But he can speak about the university with honesty, and that’s how he is going about his recruiting pitches.
“It is about Michigan State for sure and what it means,” he said. “I can definitely talk about that as a former player and a coach for a long time, just the university in itself and Michigan State football in the Big Ten Conference. It’s a great place to be.”
I’ve covered lame duck coaching staff transitions in the past at Michigan State, and that isn’t yet the case with this group. In the past, outgoing Michigan State assistant coaches have been split as to how much time they have continued to spend on recruiting. Some continued to work hard at it, hoping that the next head coach would consider keeping them on as part of the next staff. And there were other assistant coaches who stopped recruiting entirely.
Controlling the assistant coaches’ recruiting effort could become difficult in the weeks ahead. Meanwhile, Michigan State has a deep recruiting support staff in place. The support staffers would be wise to continue with film evaluations of Plan B and C players in the Great Lakes Region to hand to the next coaching staff, which could help them retain a job at Michigan State for 2024.
SpartanMag recruiting anchor Jason Killop and I talked about this yesterday for a story he published yesterday, and the great job Mark Dantonio’s staff did in a short period of time in quickly putting together his first recruiting class in the winter of 2007. Dantonio signed six players in that class who went on to play in the NFL: Kirk Cousins, Nick Foles, Garrett Celek, Mark Dell, Chris L. Rucker and B.J. Cunningham.
Cousins, Celek, Rucker and Cunningham were not likely headed to major conference colleges before Dantonio began recruiting them late in the 2006-07 recruiting cycle.
Cousins, Joel Foreman and Kevin Pickelman were initially deemed as Plan B recruits by the previous Michigan State staff and did not have Michigan State scholarship offers when John L. Smith was fired. But they turned out to be key members of future Michigan State teams after they were recruited by Dantonio and his new staff based partly on evaluations that the previous staff had started.
After Michigan State lost blue chip QB recruit Keith Nichol as a commitment in December of 2006, holdover assistant coach Dan Enos was a big proponent of circling back and recruiting Cousins. Dantonio okayed the scholarship offer to Cousins and that turned out pretty well for the Spartans.
If and when the time comes for Michigan State to hire a new head coach, it won’t be until late November, at the earliest. The new staff will have about three-and-a-half weeks to put together a recruiting class prior to the December signing day. Dantonio had two and a half months when he put together his first class. There wasn’t a December signing day in 2006.
The next staff will have the benefit of the transfer portal. But that door will swing both ways, with some players headed out. Deion Sanders has achieved some recent glory with his ability to overhaul a roster at Colorado. But don’t expect any other coaches to be able to emulate that.
Michigan State will need to explore every avenue it can find to supply its roster for 2024. There are future NFL players who will be committed to Mid-America Conference teams and mid-major schools in November. Scouring those commitment lists and other Plan B lists could help Michigan State uncover a handful of helpful players. Every little bit will help. And some of those players will be better than many of the four-stars you’ve been reading about.
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