EAST LANSING– The Greek phrase molon labe, credited to Leonidas I of Sparta, hangs above Michigan State football’s tunnel leading out to the field in Spartan Stadium. The saying translates to “come and take them” referring to the Spartans’ weapons, spirit, and ability to fight.
Saturday was the last chance for the senior players to read or tap the sign on the run out and they played with a will to defend what’s theirs. However, the effort to defend home turf and pride in a must- have situation fell short. The current Spartan warriors, fighting their battles on the grass, now have an official end date on their war of a season.
“Well, I think they’re about fighting back, and they continue to grind. I mean, I even thought the way we practiced this week heading into this, and really with the way these guys played throughout the game,” MSU head coach Jonathan Smith said. “Yeah, it turned in four or five and kept lining it up again and lining it up again and credit to Penn State, they were finishing. You’re speaking to in the fourth quarter there, but I think on our end, these guys are going. We’re working, we got to get better.”
Here are the takeaways from the Spartans’ 28-10 loss to Penn State on senior day.
Defense shows old-school grit but PSU grinds it out
MSU’s defense, after an inspired performance against Minnesota, came out with a similar fire against PSU and its vaunted run game. While it’s virtually impossible to shut down the running back duo of seniors Kaytron Allen and Nicholas Singleton, the Spartans played with great pursuit throughout.
Setting the edge on stretch plays and stacking the box in short yardage scenarios, the MSU front showed the effort of a group still playing for something. Senior linebacker Wayne Matthews III, in his last home game, played with leadership and pride. Matthews came away with eight tackles including a fourth and short stop, one for a loss, and a major pass breakup.
“Speaking for the defense, we felt good out there. We were getting stops early, early three and outs. We were stopping the run,” junior defensive lineman Alex VanSumeren said. “We’ll have to go back and watch the tape and everything, but we were kinda getting in a good groove it felt like. There was no doubt that we were gonna win the game. Our confidence was great. You know, we felt good.”
The Spartans also did a solid job of making redshirt freshman quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer uncomfortable in critical moments. He was faced with two hurries and two sacks with senior defensive lineman contributing to each. The highlight being four rushers giving chase to Grunkemeyer on another fourth and short with defensive linemen senior Grady Kelly and junior Jalen Thompson bringing him down.
He did, however, have a solid day in an extremely rush heavy system with 127 yards on 8/13 passing and two touchdowns. He also made the best throw of the day from either passer with a 75-yard bomb to senior wide receiver Devonte Ross who got behind the safeties on a deep post. In the final 15 minutes though, Allen and the rushing attack finally broke through with a nine-minute drive featuring 12 straight rushes in a soul crushing march to the goal line.
“They got good running backs. They are hard runners. We knew that going into it,” VanSumeren said. “We just needed to rally more guys around the football because they were squeaking yards out after contact.”
If the end around toss and touchdown to Ross made it out of reach, Allen’s 26-yard dash to the endzone put the nail in the coffin. Allen reached work horse status with 181 yards on 25 carries with a chunk of that against a gassed defense in the fourth quarter. MSU held their own as long as they could, as hard as they could, but eventually collapsed late with zero offensive support.
“I am proud of the guys fighting. That’s the mission is to get on the field is to fight and to go give it everything you’ve got. It stings. It’s a bitter pill to swallow not being able to get the job done,” VanSumeren said. “Going from here there is no choice other than to keep going and knowing we’ll get through to the other side.”
Tau-Toliver a bright spot to start, but offense gets lost in the dark
The Spartans’ offense got a decent repeat result from their bout with the Gophers and not much else. Senior running back Elijah Tau-Toliver wasted no time carrying his big day last week over to this one, ripping off a 57-yard rush to the right side for a touchdown on the first MSU offensive play from scrimmage.
“Yeah, we’re going to need to find ways – we have the one explosive run and then, yeah, it’s pretty slim pickings as it goes along,” Smith said. “Each team’s a little bit different schematically with matchups and all of that. But we want to have some balance offensively. The run and the pass game wasn’t good enough tonight.”
He continued to be a solid option out of the backfield with 79 rushing yards on only six carries. He was also the leading receiver on the day with eight catches for 73 yards; only junior tight end Michael Masunas was anywhere near him with 29 yards on three catches. Sophomore and star wide receiver Nick Marsh was targeted eight times but only came away with two grabs for five yards.
“Selectively, a couple of shots. I do think one sack, we’ve got a play way down the field open. Schematically, some selective explosive plays,” Smith said. “But we needed to be efficient in the run game and in some of the possession pass game to stay and maintain some drives, and we didn’t do it that well enough.”
This is also an indicator for redshirt freshman Alessio Milivojevic’s performance on the day, going 17-27 for 128 yards. Tau-Toliver looked to set the tone for the Spartan ground game and offense in general but the unit was completely stone-walled instead, coming away with zero second half points.
“It’s just keeping that positive attitude at all times. When things aren’t going your way there is no point to get negative, that’s not gonna help at all,” Milivojevic said. “I think just keeping that positivity, keeping the guys going, keeping the energy up.”
Nittany Lions on the hunt
A major part of the Spartans’ inability to score was found within the trenches and the animals MSU faced on the other end. Milivojevic ended last week on his back seven times and this game was not any different.
The young gun was constantly under siege and pressure with six total QB hurries coming from six total Nittany Lions. Milivojevic was able to hit his receiver a few times under duress or get rid of it out of bounds, but he had no such luck against senior defensive end Dani Dennis-Sutton.
He made his mark with that blocked punt in the first half but his sequence of the game at the end of the third and start of the fourth. With the game still in reach for MSU, Sutton’s two tackles, both sacks on straight plays, brought down Milivojevic to set up a 3rd and 30.
“I thought he avoided well, Alessio showed a little bit of athleticism. I thought he showed a few reps for the ball was getting out of his hand, getting to his third and fourth read,” Smith said. “we got to protect with the five guys in front of him, the schemes, schematics. But you got to pick and choose once in a while to be able to try and push it down the field and you run that risk.”
PSU as a whole came away with five sacks including a late strip by junior cornerback Zion Williams resulting in a turnover. This came after PSU over pursued on two straight roughing the passer penalties.
“Obviously, the couple hits, they had two flags pulled on them. Big boost for the drive,” Milivojevic said. “And then got us with a look at the end and it ended up not our way. But, I gotta get the ball out faster.”
Not only did the Nittany Lions run game and pass rush sealed MSU’s fate for the game but the season at large. The Spartans seven-game skid has officially taken them out of bowl eligibility for a fourth straight season.
“The message to the team in the locker room is heavy about the seniors, who just played their last game in the stadium,” Smith said “Talk about the respect for everyone in the room individually, but also the respect for the amount of work that’s been put in. And so we got two more opportunities and that’ll be a message of still finishing this thing the right way.”
MSU still has two games left with a trip to Iowa City next on the docket. The Spartans will take one Iowa next Saturday still in need of a B1G victory with kickoff time TBA. Jacob Maurer and Kyle Keegan will hit the road as well with the broadcast available locally at 88.9 FM and streaming at https://impact89fm.org/.
