katin houser

The Paul Bunyan Trophy is up for grabs this weekend as Michigan and Michigan State do battle on Saturday night in East Lansing. Michigan State comes in at 2-4, riding a four game losing streak and reeling from a titanic collapse against Rutgers last weekend in Piscataway. Their offense didn't have a bad outing and were boasting a new QB, so plenty to talk about today: 

The Film: Due to the elevation of Katin Houser to the starting QB job, I had to go with last week's defeat at Rutgers. Thankfully, Rutgers has a pretty solid defense, so we won't be undergoing a crazy strength of opponent adjustment in comparing what Houser faced last week to what he'll see against Michigan. 

Personnel: Click for big. 

Coming out of the bye week, interim head coach Harlon Barnett tabbed class of 2022 4* Katin Houser to be the Michigan State starting QB. Houser had some moments in garbage time against such teams as Maryland and Washington, leading fans to call for his promotion, while previous starter Noah Kim's inability to lead the team to victory nor prevent the turnover was a key factor. Houser's first career start was last week against Rutgers, again showing a few flashes but being a clearly limited player who is not ready to be an operational downfield QB, hence the cyan designation. 

Our Dangerman for this piece is RB Nathan Carter, who makes his second appearance as a Dangerman in two seasons, for two different programs. Carter was listed as the Dangerman for the UConn Offense last season and in the offseason he packed his bags and relocated to East Lansing. Carter is not a superstar, but he's the closest thing to an impact player that this toothless MSU offense has. He's supplanted returning starter Jalen Berger and is currently dwarfing his workload in carries by nearly 5:1. Those two RBs are the guys at the position, as there's not even really a #3 RB to speak of on this team. 

WR was our big question mark coming into the season after MSU shed two premium NFL talents (Keon Coleman and Jayden Reed) and the result is basically what we expected: all the WRs are mid. Tre Mosley is still around as a solid player, but has not made any proverbial leap to speak of. Montorie Foster Jr. has emerged as the other primary target, leading the team in both catches and yards. After that there's a bit of a drop-off in targets, with Jaron Glover clearly the most used based on snaps, but in catches Tyrell Henry and Christian Fitzpatrick are not far behind. The real third receiver is the TE, Maliq Carr, still a 6'6" thicc boy, boasting 17 catches for 169 yards and a TD to his name. He's the only TE who gets any substantial work as a downfield target, with Evan Morris and Jaylen Franklin mostly being blocking-only players (despite being quite bad at blocking). 

The MSU offensive line, having long been a major weak spot for the program, may have its best unit in recent memory. That said, it still isn't impeccable by any stretch. We didn't cyan anyone in the starting lineup, which is a step up, though the depth is iffier. The starters at tackle are Brandon Baldwin at LT and Spencer Brown at RT, Brown being the stronger of the two but they held up alright against Rutgers. Houser was given quite a bit of time to throw by the entire line.

At guard, JD Duplain is a multi-year starter opposite Kevin Wingenton II, a new name. Though I have liked Duplain in the past, I thought he was rather disappointing against Rutgers and was outplayed by Wingenton. PFF agrees with that assessment for the full season. Center Nick Samac is also a returning starter, one I hated last season, but he was quite a bit better against Rutgers and gets his cyan circle removed. The backups were all a step down for me, Ethan Boyd a cut below the starters at tackle and Geno VanDeMark a steep fall from the caliber of the starters. If either reserve is out there, look for Michigan's DL to take advantage. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: who are we afraid of?]