Tag: Rocky Lombardi

Tucker avoids naming starting QB vs. Northwestern; ‘it’s gonna be an ongoing thing’

Fans will again have to wait until gameday to know who will be lining up under center for the Spartans.

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Fans will again have to wait until gameday to know who will be lining up under center for the Spartans.

Head coach Mel Tucker avoided naming a starting quarterback during his weekly press conference on Tuesday, citing that it’s an ongoing situation that’ll be evaluated throughout this week of practice.

It’s assumed that either junior Rocky Lombardi or redshirt freshman Payton Thorne will get the nod this week against No. 13 Northwestern. Lombardi has started all four games this season, but was replaced by Thorne in the second quarter of the Spartans’ last game on Nov. 14 against Indiana.

Lombardi has been extremely inconsistent this season, with turnovers continuing to be an issue for him. He has 890 passing yards, six touchdowns and seven interceptions this year. Five of those interceptions came in the last two games, leading to Thorne replacing him against the Hoosiers.

Thorne has played in each of the last two games, but got his first true game reps of his career against Indiana. He completed 10-of-20 pass attempts for 110 passing yards and one interception against the Hoosiers. He also ran for 25 yards on eight attempts.

Tucker hasn’t revealed much this season so it’s not surprising that he didn’t name a starter on Tuesday. We will have to wait until kickoff at 3:30 p.m. EST on Saturday to see who will get the first crack at trying to get MSU’s offense back on track.

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Locked On Spartans: NBA Draft night! Mel Tucker is fired up! A QB competition!

Wil and Matt are fired up for the NBA Draft and excited to see where Cassius Winston and Xavier Tillman get drafted.

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Wil and Matt are fired up for the NBA Draft and excited to see where Cassius Winston and Xavier Tillman get drafted. Then they talk about Mel Tucker’s very direct comments regarding attrition and transfers. Then they dive into the QB battle between Rocky Lombardi and Peyton Thorne.

You can find the episode on iTunes, Spotify, and Google Podcasts.

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Locked On Spartans: Should Rocky Lombardi start against Maryland?

Wil and Matt play another round of Take or Fake. Topics include: Starting Rocky Lombardi again, Jay Johnson, and MSU’s dearth of linebackers

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Wil and Matt play another round of Take or Fake. Topics include: Starting Rocky Lombardi again, Jay Johnson, and MSU’s dearth of linebackers.

You can find the episode on iTunes, Spotify, and Google Podcasts.

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MSU vs. Maryland Game Details Announced

Game details for Nov. 21’s match-up between Michigan State and Maryland were announced on Sunday.

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The noon kickoffs just keep on coming for Michigan State football this year.

Kickoff has been set at 12 p.m. EST for next week’s match-up between Michigan State and Maryland in College Park, Md. All five of MSU’s games this season have been at noon.

The game will be televised on the Big Ten Network.

 

As Graham Couch of The Lansing State Journal pointed out, Saturday’s game against the Terps is currently in jeopardy after a COVID-19 outbreak hit Maryland this past week. The Terps were forced to halt all football activities and had to cancel their game against Ohio State. We should hopefully know the status of this match-up in the next few days.

Following Saturday’s loss to Indiana, Spartans head coach Mel Tucker was asked about next week’s game potentially being canceled but he said they’ll be approaching this game like any other and not worry about that possibility.

“We’re expecting to play,” Tucker said during the post game press conference. “I don’t know what their situation is. I’m not sure why they are playing or not playing. We’re going to be prepared to play as long as we can meet the thresholds in terms of players available and the COVID numbers that are set forth by the Big Ten. As long as we can stay within those numbers and field a team, we’re going to play. We’re going to prepare to play until we’re told differently. We need to play football.”

Maryland currently is 2-1 on the season with back-to-back wins over Minnesota and Penn State. The Terps’ lone loss was a season-opener blowout against Northwestern.

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MSU Football shutout at home for first time since 1985 in ugly loss vs. Indiana

For a second straight week, MSU football found themselves on the wrong end of a blowout, this time a shutout against No. 10 Indiana, 24-0.

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For a second straight week, Michigan State football found themselves on the wrong end of a blowout, this time a shutout against No. 10 Indiana, 24-0. It was the first time the Spartans were shutout at home since 1985.

The Spartans’ defense started off strong with a pair of early stops, including a nice interception from Shakur Brown, but things went downhill quickly after that. The MSU offense committed three first half turnovers — two interceptions from Rocky Lombardi and one fumble from Anthony Williams Jr. — leading to a 24-0 deficit at halftime. Lombardi was benched in the 2nd quarter following his second interception of the game and seventh of the season.

Redshirt Payton Thorne replaced Lombardi on Saturday as the Spartans’ quarterback, but he didn’t experience much more success. Thorne finished the day with 110 passing yards and one interception on 10-of-20 passing attempts. Thorne’s best play of the day came on a 38-yard run in the first possession he took over for Lombardi.

MSU was outgained 433-to-191 in total yards by the Hoosiers. Indiana quarterback Michael Penix Jr. finished the day with 320 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions on 25-of-38 passing attempts. His favorite target was Ty Fryfogle, who tore up the Spartans’ secondary for 200 yards and two touchdowns on 11 receptions.

Potentially the lone positive for MSU from Saturday’s game was Brown, who finished the game with two interceptions. The first halted the Hoosiers’ opening drive and the second came in the endzone, which at the time appeared to be a huge play towards keeping the game close.

MSU falls to 1-3 on the season after Saturday’s loss to the Hoosiers. The Spartans have been outscored 111-to-34 in their three losses this season.

Michigan State is scheduled to play at Maryland next week, but the Terps are currently in the midst of a COVID-19 outbreak that resulted in the cancelation of their match-up with Ohio State on Saturday. We should know in the next few days whether or not next Saturday’s game against Maryland will take place.

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MSU vs. Indiana Prediction: Can Spartans knock off another ranked foe?

Let’s see if anyone on the Spartans Wire staff is bold enough to peg MSU for another upset this week.

The 2020 Michigan State Spartans have been extremely fitting for this year because like with 2020, you literally have no idea what you’re going to get from week-to-week with MSU.

We are only three games into the season, and we’ve already seen the high’s and low’s of the Spartans. The high was obviously in Week 2 when Michigan State upset hated rival Michigan — who was ranked No. 13 at the time — in the Big House. And the lows were the turnovers-provoked blowout losses to Rutgers and Iowa. It’s literally flip-flopped from week-to-week so far this season.

The lack of consistency from week-to-week would normally be extremely frustrating as a fan, but with MSU — who entered the season with low expectations — it gives you the ability to see how they can potentially win every game, except for Ohio State. No, that doesn’t mean I anticipate the Spartans running the table — that’s not what I’m getting at. What I’m saying is, on paper this should be an easy Indiana win but since we’ve seen how good MSU can play at times this year, we know an upset is possible. Not likely, but possible.

With all of that being said, let’s see if anyone on the Spartans Wire staff is bold enough to peg MSU for another upset this week.

Locked On Spartans: The vengabus is crashing

Wil and Matt talk about Michigan State’s blowout loss to Iowa including why Rocky Lombardi was kept in for so long and issues at linebacker.

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Wil and Matt talk about Michigan State’s blowout loss to Iowa including why Rocky Lombardi was kept in for so long, issues at linebacker, and special teams. Then, a long talk about MSU’s quarterback situation.

You can find the episode on iTunes, Spotify, and Google Podcasts.

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MSU vs. Iowa: Five Burning Questions Following Saturday’s Blowout Loss

Here are a few questions the MSU fans may be asking themselves this morning as we move past Saturday’s brutal loss against Iowa.

The roller coaster that is Michigan State football continued on Saturday, this time heading down the cliff.

Iowa made easy work of the Spartans on Saturday, beating MSU by a score of 49-7. The game was out of reach at halftime, with the Hawkeyes holding a five touchdown lead heading into the break.

Michigan State’s turnover bug returned against Iowa, with three first half turnovers leading to the massive halftime deficit. One of the turnovers was returned for a touchdown, and the Hawkeyes also had a punt return for a touchdown in the opening half.

“We have a tremendous amount of work to do,” Michigan State new head coach Mel Tucker said during his postgame press conference. “We have to get tougher, we have to be more physical, and we have to play smarter. So, as I continue to say, this is the beginning for us, we trust the process that we have. We have to go back to East Lansing, we have to watch the film, we have to make corrections, and put in the work, so we can be tougher, so we can be more physical, so we can play harder, so we can play smarter next week, and that’s what has to be done.”

Tucker couldn’t have said it much better than that. There’s a lot of work still to be done for the Spartans — who now sit at 1-2 on the season.

Here are a few questions the MSU fans may be asking themselves this morning as we move past Saturday’s brutal loss:

Is QB Rocky Lombardi or LB Antjuan Simmons hurt? Spartans say no, but jury is still out

It appeared at times during Saturday’s beatdown loss to Iowa that the offensive and defensive stars for MSU were both dealing with injuries.

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It appeared at times during Saturday’s beat down loss to Iowa, 49-7, that the offensive and defensive stars for the Spartans were both dealing with injuries — but Michigan State isn’t revealing anything at this point.

Junior quarterback Rocky Lombardi was noticeably limping and struggling to move around throughout the game, and the ESPN broadcast team made note of him “not looking like himself” numerous times. However, Lombardi never missed a snap until late in the game when MSU elected to give backup redshirt freshman Payton Thorne some playing time.

When asked about Lombardi, head coach Mel Tucker combated any injury talk, stating if he’s out there playing then he’s “good to play.”

Lombardi — who finished the game 17-of-37 for 227 passing yards and three interceptions — also wasn’t opening up about what he was playing through, citing everyone is “banged up” but there’s no injury news to share.

Senior linebacker Antjuan Simmons also appeared to be playing through something on Saturday, but unlike Lombardi, Simmons missed numerous series. He left the game in the first half but later returned after halftime.

Simmons isn’t someone who generally misses a play, let alone multiple series so it was clear something was bothering the Spartans’ top defensive player. However, he also shrugged off any injury talk.

So what should we believe: what our eyes saw or what the players and coaches said? Probably a little bit of both.

I read all of these comments as pure coach and player talk, and that there definitely is something going on here. The good news is that both were in there at the end of the game so whatever injury they were battling wasn’t enough to truly sideline them. However, this will be something we will need to keep an eye on early next week against Indiana — as we know Tucker and the players won’t be revealing any secrets during media availability this week.

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MSU vs. Iowa: Instant thoughts from brutal 49-7 loss in Iowa City

Here are a few of my initial thoughts and takeaways from the Spartans embarassing loss at Iowa.

Well, that was rough.

Michigan State was unable to ride the wave of momentum from last week’s upset victory over hated-rival Michigan, as the Spartans were throttled by Iowa, 49-7, on Saturday. The Spartans never led in this one, falling behind on the opening drive and never getting it any closer after that.

Iowa took advantage of three-first half MSU turnovers to grab a 35-0 lead going into halftime. Things weren’t much better in the second half, but the Spartans were at least able to find the endzone.

It truly was a disappointing outcome after such a big win last week, but it appears we at least have a better idea of what to expect the rest of the year.

Here are a few instant thoughts on today’s Spartans loss in Iowa City: