RADIO RECAP: Harlon Barnett, Aaron Brule preview Michigan State-Maryland
Michigan State (2-1) will look to rebound from a discouraging 41-7 loss to No. 8 Washington when it plays host to Maryland (3-0) on Saturday (3:30 p.m., NBC).
Maryland won last year’s meeting between the Big Ten East foes, 27-13, at SECU Stadium in College Park, Md. Quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa led the Terps in that game, throwing for 314 yards and one touchdown on 78 percent passing.
This year, Tagovailoa will return to East Lansing as a redshirt senior and one of the most explosive quarterbacks in the Big Ten. Equipped with a powerful arm and elusive scrambling ability, Tagovailoa is a quarterback Michigan State’s defense will look to “capture,” rather than “kill,” according to acting head coach Harlon Barnett.
“You must have disciplined rush lanes when you’re going after him,” Barnett said. “(He’s) very, very elusive back there. He extends plays by doing that. Rush and cover work together, as we always say, but you can only rush so long and cover so long before things break down. We have to have disciplined rush lanes going after the guy.
“We talk going after the quarterback every week, is it capture or kill? And he’s a capture quarterback. We have to capture him. We can’t just go run in and think he’s going to stand in there and let us hit him. He’s going to be moving around, so we must capture him this week.”
Maryland enters Saturday’s game ranked No. 22 in the nation (No. 1 in the Big Ten) in total offense, averaging 480 yards per game (6.86 yards per play). The Terps are averaging 39.3 points per game through three games this season, which is tied for No. 26 in the country (No. 3 in the Big Ten).
Maryland has had a prolific offense every season since 2019, when it hired former Alabama offensive coordinator Mike Locksley as head coach. Though Maryland has played a less-than-competitive schedule this season, Barnett knows the Terps will look to start hot against his team on Saturday.
“He was a great offensive coordinator,” Barnett said of Locksley. “He understands that side of the ball extremely well. He understands defense and how to attack defense, plus he has some talented guys over there to work with. So it’ll be a challenge for us, but we look forward to that challenge.”
To attempt to stop Tagovailoa and the Maryland offense, Michigan State’s secondary will have to be better than it was against Washington in Week 3. Barnett knows that, and he feels like his defensive backs will be better after reviewing last week’s film.
“We have three guys back there who are true sophomores and haven’t played a whole lot of football here at Michigan State,” Barnett said. “No excuses, because that’s one of our deals. We talk about no excuses. I’m just giving an explanation. A lot of those guys who looked at the film were like, ‘Man, why’d I do that?’
“(It was) really their first big game, when you think about it. It was their first big game, and when you have your first big game, sometimes you’re so excited that you’re not as disciplined as you need to be, your eyes aren’t looking at the right stuff, you’re not doing some stuff that you’ve done all week in preparing for the guys. You’re like, ‘Man, why did I do that?’ It happens. It happens. But they will bounce back this week. They are true Spartans and they will bounce back this week and will be ready to go, I promise that.”
Aaron Brule also expects Michigan State’s linebackers to play a better game this week than they did against Washington. But what specifically did the linebacker room work on following the loss to the Huskies?
“Tackling, making plays on the ball, things like that for the overall defense and getting pressure on the quarterback to help our back end do what they have to do,” Brule said. “And all working together, man. I definitely think this is a good week for us to bounce back and really show what we plan to do all season.”
Michigan State’s linebacker room received a boost when it welcomed redshirt junior Darius Snow back against Washington. Snow, who suffered a serious lower body injury during the first half of last season’s opener against Western Michigan, worked his way back over the past year and made his return against the Huskies.
Michigan State will begin to rely on Snow once he gets back into game shape and re-learns the flow of the game. He projected as a potential difference-maker at linebacker last year before his injury, and Michigan State hopes he can return to that level at some point this season.
“We know Darius is capable of a lot of things,” Brule said. “He’s really good stepping up on the run from the Sam linebacker position and things like that. He’s working his way back into it. We’re definitely looking for Darius to step up in the coming weeks.”
Brule and his fellow linebackers will have to play sound coverage to be successful against the 5-foot-11, 208-pound Tagovailoa and his Maryland offense Saturday. Brule’s background as a defensive back should come in handy with that.
Brule began his high school career playing safety, but it wasn’t until his senior year when college coaches convinced him of his potential at linebacker.
“Toward the end of my senior year in high school, I kind of played a little bit of linebacker, too,” Brule said. “I was always a big safety, though, so I was around 205ish playing safety. Once coaches started really recruiting me, they were like, ‘You can be a safety but we think you can be an even better linebacker and just getting after the quarterback and the ball, period.’ That was when I started my transition. I really didn’t even try to pack on weight, it just kind of came. I probably was supposed to be a little bigger. I think the weight just came once I started eating real good in college.”
A long-time defensive backs coach and former safety himself, Barnett has noticed Brule’s defensive back tendencies creep out a bit during the linebacker’s time at Michigan State. Take yesterday for example, when Brule nabbed a “beautiful” interception during practice, according to Barnett.
“That really helped him understand what they’re going through back there, all the checks and everything,” Barnett said of Brule’s safety experience. “The actual interception that he had yesterday, (he) caught it with his hands, he saw the vision and broke on the quarterback and made a really nice play.”
Brule acknowledged the distractions that have come with Mel Tucker’s pending termination. But to play well against Maryland, and to play well the rest of the season, Brule believes he and his fellow leaders have to limit that distraction as best they can.
“That can be hard to deal with, especially for the younger guys on the team,” Brule said. “But us as the leaders, the older guys in the room, we have to get rid of those distractions. We know how good of a team we can be.
“I think this week is a statement game that we’re still here and ready to compete with anybody.”
Barnett agrees, and he knows Michigan State’s best path to victory over Maryland starts with better discipline.
“The word is discipline,” Barnett said. “And I told them not just this week, it’s going to be the rest of the year. So that’s all we’ll talk about, is discipline. We can’t help the other team beat us with 11 penalties and substitution errors and things like that. We can’t do that. Make them have to actually beat us. We can’t sabotage ourselves. And we’ve really been focusing on discipline and attention to detail and doing everything the right way each and every play. That’s where our mindset is. So if you see a player, say ‘discipline’ to them. Discipline, discipline, discipline.”
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