Michigan State football plays guessing game in preparing for Michigan's QB carousel

Michigan State football plays guessing game in preparing for Michigan’s QB carousel

Posted by Admin October 24, 2024 Football

EAST LANSING — What’s that old football adage? If you have two quarterbacks, you have none?

How about three? Or maybe four?

There is at least one plus for coach Sherrone Moore as Michigan continues to spin the QB carousel: It has Michigan State football players and coaches guessing who they might face Saturday night — and whether it will be one, two or more of them.

“It just makes it the preparation a little bit tougher, because that means you got to prepare for all of them, for the different guys,” linebacker Cal Haladay said Wednesday. “That’s just how the game plan goes. We don’t know who exactly we’re gonna get, but we just have to have a plan for all three.”

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A year after their own offense played quarterback roulette and lost big, the Spartans (4-2, 2-2 Big Ten) head to Ann Arbor (7:30 p.m. Saturday, Big Ten Network) to face a wounded Wolverines team that has lost two straight games for the first time since 2020, in large part due to the instability under center.

The start in U-M’s sloppy 21-7 loss last week at No. 21 Illinois went to well-traveled veteran Jack Tuttle, his first in two seasons with the Wolverines (4-3, 2-2). It was the second quarterback change of the season, with run-first junior Alex Orji starting three games after senior Davis Warren, a former walk-on, got the nod for the first three games.

Moore at his Monday press conference gave a vague “we’ll just see as we go this week” response when asked about who will start, but later that evening said he expects to give Tuttle his second straight start.

“We’re prepared for any of the three to play,” linebacker Jordan Turner said Wednesday. “So whether it’s 13 (Tuttle), the other one, 10 (Orji), it doesn’t matter. We’re still preparing for each quarterback.”

New MSU defensive coordinator Joe Rossi, who helped scheme against the Wolverines three times while on staff at Minnesota from 2017-23, pointed to a different opponent when trying to address and assess how the Spartans will handle the uncertainty. It also was another triad that Tuttle was part of the mix while at Indiana. With Michael Penix Jr. ruled out for the 2021 season with an injury, Tuttle started losses against MSU and Ohio State. But when the Hoosiers faced the Gophers, IU instead went with Donaven McCulley and Grant Gremel in Minnesota’s easy win.

Rossi said he anticipates U-M potentially using multiple quarterbacks in different packages to keep the Spartans off balance.

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“We don’t expect to know,” Rossi said of who will start and play most. “We’ll kind of see when we get there. … I think they all have some different strengths and weaknesses and different skill sets. I think they all, at various times during the year, have moved the ball and scored points.

“So we gotta have the mindset that we could see any of them, and we’ve got to have an answer for the things that they present.”

There also is the remote chance U-M could work in four-star true freshman Jadyn Davis. He has yet to play this season with five regular-season games remaining; he could play in four games the rest of the way and still retain his ability to redshirt.

“You prepare for him by preparing for their offense,” Rossi said of Davis. “He hasn’t been on film, and you haven’t had a chance to see him. If he comes in, what are they gonna do? They’re gonna to run their offense, and they’re going to run those plays. They may have tailored some things to him, but we kind of put our focus on the guys that we’ve seen on film and have seen in games.”

None of Michigan’s three QBs have passed for more in a game than the career-best 208 yards Tuttle had in last week’s loss to Illinois, going 20-for-32 with an interception. The 25-year-old seventh-year senior, who began his career at Utah in 2018 before his first transfer to Indiana, also is the only QB to have started against MSU. Tuttle subbed for an injured Penix in 2021 and went a meager 28-for-52 for just 188 yards with two interceptions, including a pick-six by Haladay, as the Spartans grinded out a 20-15 road win.

“It’s on the film, so we’ll see what he’s done,” said Haladay, who along with defensive backs Angelo Grose and Charles Brantley are holdovers from that MSU defense. “I’m sure he’s gotten better, and it’ll be interesting. We just gotta make sure we do our jobs.”

After transferring to U-M before its 2023 national championship season, Tuttle replaced starter J.J. McCarthy in the third quarter during the Wolverines’ 49-0 blowout at MSU. Despite being up 42 points when he entered, Tuttle went 5-for-6 for 63 yards. He returned to the sideline in the fourth quarter as Orji took over and ran five times for 30 yards, including a salt-in-the-wounds 6-yard touchdown run with 8 seconds remaining.

For Haladay — a part of the Spartans’ 2020 team that won a crowd-free game at Michigan Stadium, though he did not play — last year’s defeat and the 29-7 loss in Ann Arbor in 2022 remain low points of his five years at MSU. He called the Spartans’ epic 37-33 home win over U-M in 2021 “one of the best games of my career here” and “an all-time game.”

He also realizes he and the few remaining veterans have a chance to tilt the scales one final time in their favor.

“Last year was really unfortunate. Really. It’s hard,” Haladay said. “It’s really just both ends of the spectrum. It’s either the ultimate high or ultimate low, depending on the outcome of the game. …

“A winning record would be ideal. We want to go out and just know that this game means more to our guys and then to the guys coming through that haven’t been here and that are going to be here next year.”

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.

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