3&Out: Three quick opinions from Michigan State training camp, including the latest on the ground game
East Lansing, Mich. – Three opinions on Michigan State football as the Spartans head into the final two weeks of preseason practice:
1. Nathan Carter Continues To Look Like An Upgrade
I haven’t yet seen or heard much from the second scrimmage, but as long as the running backs come out of it healthy, I think the Spartans are in good shape to experience an upgrade at the tailback position in 2023, led by UConn transfer Nathan Carter.
He is listed a few pounds heavier than his original enrollment weight. He’s been killing it in the weight room, turning in fast MPH times in practice on the GPS system, and running tough.
“What I liked about him in the first scrimmage is he ran physical,” said Michigan State running game coordinator Chris Kapilovic. “Great running backs finish forward. When you finish forward, that’s another yard, maybe two yards. If you’re finishing backward, those yard or two add up with situations and everything else. So he really runs hard, finishes forward and he has shown the ability to bounce or break through a hole and go the distance, which is big.”
2. Tight End Blocking Remains Point Of Emphasis (As It Should)
It doesn’t matter how much talent and ability Nathan Carter (and South Florida transfer Jaren Mangham) adds to the Michigan State running game if blocking isn’t air tight up front.
Michigan State’s tight end blocking was not good last year. Mel Tucker grouched about it earlier in the week, as a call to action for tight ends to elevate their game. Tucker hovered around the tight end/tackle blocking area during individual reps this week, and challenged them to become more physical.
Kapilovic approved of that message.
“If you know football and you are going to have a tight end in the core every snap, then he has to do his job,” Kapilovic said. “He has to be the guy to kickout an end or get on a backer. If that side of the line gets reduced, it eliminates a lot of your run game.”
What’s the latest?
“They have made a concerted effort to be better there,” Kapilovic said. “You look at our tight ends and we lost some and gained some. Malik (Carr) is a guy that is very talented in the passing game. He knows to get to that next (NFL) level, he has to be a force in that blocking game. I like where they’re going. You can see a concerted effort from him and the coaches and even Coach Tuck has made it a point to push them and point that out.”
They’re saying all the right things, and lighting all the right wicks, but it’s up to Carr and the players behind him to come through and deliver the blocks.
Clues continue to come in that Evan Morris (6-5, 245, Sr., Elsie, Mich.) is repping high with the tight end group, possibly as the No. 2 man, behind Carr.
“He’s a tough kid,” Kapilovic said. “He is a grinder. He has tremendous pride in what he does and he will put his nose in there. I like the way he is coming along.
“Some of those young guys are coming along, too, which is really good. But Morris is an old school, hard hat, lunch pal guy. That’s who he is.”
A mixture of first- and second-year tight ends, plus transfers, continue to vie for a role at Michigan State.
“(Jaylan) Franklin has come in and done some things,” Kapilovic said.
Franklin was the first guy Kapilovic mentioned, after I asked him about Morris. I’m not surprised that Franklin received mention and compliments. He looked like the best blocker of the tight ends during the short amount of scrimmaging we saw at the spring game.
And then came a compliment for redshirt-freshman Jack Nickel.
“Nickel, the young kid, has shown some ability to block, which has been really good,” Kapilovic said.
I didn’t ask about Nickel (6-4, 245, R-Fr., Milton, Ga.). Kapilovic brought up his name. I’ve been waiting for a coach to mention Nickel over the past 20 months since Nickel enrolled. And now he’s starting to gain some traction. That’s a good thing.
“We have some young kids that are going to be there, but I think we have some guys that are ahead of them,” Kapilovic said. “(Tyneil) Hopper was dealing with some stuff in the spring and wasn’t showing and then he has really come on in the last week and a half in camp. That’s four guys right there that you think you have a chance to play with and do some good things.”
That’s positive insight about Hopper. Hopper struggled with his blocking in brief snaps during the spring scrimmage. I wasn’t aware that he had been dealing with a physical ailment.
I went back and watched one of Hopper’s Boise State games last winter. He showed good hands on a reception down the seam. He showed good hands during a practice I watched earlier this month. But he wasn’t a regular starter for the Broncos, and wasn’t featured guy in the offense, nor did he look like a plus blocker.
But now we’re hearing acknowledgement that he wasn’t 100 percent in the spring and that he has been playing well in the past two weeks.
Again, these are only words. From coaches. It’s talking season. We don’t get to watch much practice. We don’t get to see any scrimmaging. So we feel around in the dark, trying to get a sense for what things look like.
And, to an extent, the coaches aren’t sure about some aspects of the team, either.
“I feel like we’re ahead, but we’re the one level of football where you don’t get any scrimmages before it gets real,” Kapilovic said. “We’re going to find out here in a couple of weeks, but I do feel like we (the offensive line) is quite a bit ahead, with all the reps that we’ve gotten and the way we have been able to practice and push them, and then the competition from the defensive side. They say iron sharpens iron and I think that’s happened.”
3. SOME THOUGHTS ON THE ALCOHOL THING
I’m out of touch on this issue. I work in the press box on Saturdays in the fall. Drinking isn’t part of my gameday thing. If this were the 1920s rather than the 2020s, I might throw a few back, in the press box, during or after the game while writing. But Hemingway, I’m not.
I get some tailgating time in prior to games. I sit in the stands for games, maybe once a year. But overall, I don’t witness drunks the way some of you apparently do.
That being said, I’m not really sure why our state politicians, on either side of the aisle, felt compelled to legalize alcohol sales at college sporting events. I missed the memo as to why this was pushed along by lawmakers.
As for the university, there are claims, and some statistics, which contend that legalized alcohol in stadiums has led to a reduction in alcohol-related problems at other Big Ten schools.
Whatever.
It all comes down to serving and entertaining the customers. There are concerns about dwindling ticket demand in the future, protecting revenue streams and creating new ones.
Colleges are scrambling to make the gameday experience something that continues to attract and retain fans. Alcohol sales are the next step in providing bread for the circus.
Last year, Purdue grossed more than $1.7 million in alcohol sales at football and basketball games. The vast majority of the profits from that $1.7 million will go to the athletic department, if not all of it.
Michigan State will expect more that $1.7 million in gross sales per year, in 2024, when the project hits full steam for all games. A portion of Michigan State’s profits will go to the athletic department, although the percentages haven’t yet been worked out, according to athletic director Alan Haller.
Being able to buy a beer at the stadium will enhance the gameday experience for some. It will become an eyesore and ear sore for others. Others will barely notice a difference.
A Michigan State friend of mine was excited to be able to buy beer at an Ohio State game last year as a visitor to Ohio Stadium. But he said he missed about 10 minutes of a game time, waiting in line to buy that one over-priced beer. He suspects it will be the same way at Spartan Stadium, and he doesn’t plan to sacrifice game time to purchase a beer. He feels the presence of beer sales at Spartan Stadium will be a non-issue, partly because it will take too much of a time commitment to make a purchase.
Another friend of mine enjoys tailgating, full-tilt. He says he uses four hours of game time to sober up before the drive home. His point of view wasn’t represented at the Board meeting last week.
I’m not strongly against beer sales at the stadium. But there used to be so many things that distinguished the college game from the pro game. I enjoyed the stark differences. Increasingly, the lines between pro football and college football are being blurred and erased, and beer sales at games is the latest on the list.
I’m all for change in many aspects of life and society, but I’m concerned about these changes, and others, that are turning college football into NFL-lite. That’s not a compliment.
College football has traditionally had a feel to it. Are we in the process of losing that feel?
I think we will quickly get accustomed to beer being available at Spartan Stadium. Ten to 15 years from now, there will be fans who will wonder what it was like to have a dry stadium, and why it was ever organized that way in the first place. Hopefully, we don’t lose the feel of college football along the way.
Most of our focus this week has been on beer sales for football games. But I’m wondering what impact it will have on the game experience at Breslin Center.
Alcohol has always been a part of Michigan State home football games, mostly in the form of tailgating. But alcohol has not been a part of the game experience at Breslin Center. Now it will be.
There won’t be problems. But Breslin won’t be quite the same.
I hope we don’t get to the point that the middle-aged fans at college basketball games become like NBA fans … sitting with a drink in hand, watching the game, not cheering, waiting for the home team to do something first, before cheering second, if at all.
In the end, I suspect the enjoyment factor will escalate for some, and the overall net impact on fan interest and ticket sales will be positive. But for old people like me, there will be a part of it that will no longer feel completely like the college game we grew up with and grew to love.
More so than any other sport on campus, I usually attend Michigan State hockey games as a regular, ticket-buying spectator. I’m not much of a drinker, but when the time comes, might I have a beer at Munn Ice Arena while watching a game? Probably.
Will that enhance my game-viewing experience, and my time with friends? Maybe it will.
Will it feel like an on-campus college hockey game? Not as much. For now. Then I’ll get accustomed to it. For better or worse.
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