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What Mel Tucker said after Michigan State’s loss vs. Indiana
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It’s now been two weeks since Michigan State pulled off a win on the road at Michigan in the Big House, and it’s still baffling that the Spartans pulled off that win.
Outside of the performance of a lifetime against the Wolverines, Mel Tucker’s Michigan State squad has struggled mightily, including on Saturday against an Indiana team in the midst of one its best seasons ever. The Spartans were shutout in a 24-0 loss on their home field.
All of Indiana’s 24 points came in the first half. While the Hoosier offense was firing on all cylinders, Sparty struggled with turnovers and penalties.
Michigan State committed six penalties on Saturday while also turning the ball over four times.
MSU coach Mel Tucker: Turnovers and penalties in the first half "against any type of team, you don't give yourself a chance."
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) November 14, 2020
Tucker: "Consistency in performance again is a killer for us." Adds, "That's the facts. It's just straight down the middle, it's obvious. You turn the ball over and have critical penalties against a good football team, you're gonna get beat."
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) November 14, 2020
Aside from those mistakes, the Michigan State offense was abysmal, going for just 191 yards of total offense. There were changes taking place all over the Spartan offense, including at the quarterback position.
Decision-making a reason Mel Tucker says Rocky Lombardi got pulled. Did not have a full evaluation of Payton Thorne, but assesses, "We're inefficient with both guys in there" on offense.
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) November 14, 2020
Tucker says CB Shakur Brown made some plays but needs to improve on technique and fundamentals in not giving up big plays.
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) November 14, 2020
Tucker on MSU's third game with 60 or fewer yards: "We have to figure out what we can do with the guys that we had. And when the holes are there, we gotta hit them. And when they're not there, we gotta figure out why, and can we run those plays or come up with something else."
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) November 14, 2020
Tucker: "It's a constant work in progress, but we need to be able to run the ball and we're going to continue to attempt to run the ball" to give MSU's offense balance.
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) November 14, 2020
Tucker says "everything is an evaluation." Putting a lot of the emphasis on lack of execution, at least on a consistent basis
— Matt Charboneau (@mattcharboneau) November 14, 2020
Tucker said poor decision-making early from Lombardi led to the move to Thorne … says again that "no position is set in stone."
— Matt Charboneau (@mattcharboneau) November 14, 2020
Tucker on MSU’s run game: "We have to figure out what we can do with the guys we have. When they holes are there, we need to hit them and when they’re not there, we need to figure out why."
— Colton Pouncy (@colton_pouncy) November 14, 2020
Mel Tucker: "There’s no position set in stone on this team. The quarterback position or any other."
— Colton Pouncy (@colton_pouncy) November 14, 2020
Michigan State is expected to face off against Maryland next week. Though there will certainly be questions about whether that game will be played as the Terps were off this week due to COVID-19.
Tucker says "We're expecting to play" Maryland next week "as long as we can meet the thresholds in terms of players available" and other COVID-19 numbers "until we're told differently. We need to play football."
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) November 14, 2020