Tag: Rocky Lombardi

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.

[jwplayer xwcRkXEd]

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.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1362]

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:

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:

WATCH: MSU Football releases new hype video ahead of Iowa match-up

Kickoff between the Spartans and Hawkeyes is at 12 p.m. EST. The game can be seen on ESPN.

[jwplayer xwcRkXEd]

“This is not the end for us, this is just the beginning.”

Those are the opening lines from new Spartans football head coach Mel Tucker in the latest hype video released by MSU Football. The video takes a look back at last week’s upset win over then-No. 13 Michigan and sets the stage for today’s match-up with the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Watch the roughly one-minute-long video below:

Kickoff between the Spartans and Hawkeyes is at 12 p.m. EST. The game can be seen on ESPN. Click here to see all of the game details or click here to see the Spartans Wire staff predictions for MSU-Iowa.

Stay with Spartans Wire throughout Saturday for the latest updates and highlights from MSU-Iowa.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1362]

MSU at Iowa Prediction: What’s next for this roller coaster Spartans squad?

It’s already been a wild season for Michigan State football, and we are only two weeks into the campaign.

It’s already been a wild season for Michigan State football, and we are only two weeks into the campaign.

Nearly every Spartan fan out there thought MSU would roll past Rutgers in the season-opener — but that didn’t happen. Then, nearly every Spartan fan expected a blood bath in week two against then-No.13 Michigan — and that didn’t happen either. It’s truly been a roller coaster of a season already, and like I said we are only two games in.

Ultimately, we thought MSU would be 1-1 entering this week’s trip to Iowa City but we didn’t expect it to be like this. We didn’t anticipate the Spartans would be riding the wave of momentum from a huge upset victory over in-state rival Michigan. However, that’s where we are and now it’s time to try to figure out which MSU team we’ll see on Saturday.

Will it be the bunch that couldn’t stop shooting themselves in the foot with countless turnovers in the opener or will it be the resilient squad that can play with anyone on their schedule (minus Ohio State) that we saw last week? Let’s see what the Spartans Wire staff thinks in this week’s MSU-Iowa prediction.

Michigan State QB Rocky Lombardi named Manning Award Quarterback of the Week

Michigan State’s Rocky Lombardi was named Manning Award Quarterback of the Week for his strong play against Michigan.

[jwplayer YVGxlizd-PROpJzTY]

Michigan State quarterback Rocky Lombardi put all questions to rest about his role as the starter in last week’s big win over Michigan. The redshirt junior threw for 323 yards and 3 touchdowns on the road against MSU’s in-state rivals, and he was rewarded for that performance by being named the Manning Award Quarterback of the Week.

The Allstate Sugar Bowl selects eight Manning Award Stars of the Week each week. Fans then vote for the Quarterback of the Week out of that pool of eight players. This week, the field was:

  • Rocky Lombardi, Michigan State
  • Matt Corral, Ole Miss
  • Aidan O’Connell, Purdue
  • Desmond Ridder, Cincinnati
  • Jack Sears, Boise State
  • Nick Starkel, San Jose State
  • Taulia Tagovailoa, Maryland
  • D.J. Uiagalelei, Clemson

[vertical-gallery id=31520]

Last week’s winner was Dillon Gabriel out of UCF. Trevor Lawrence won the week before that.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

Ricky White named Big Ten Co-Freshman of the Week

Ricky White had quite the game against Michigan. A game in which he almost had 200 receiving yards, was enough to earn some awards.

[jwplayer AyZHPp3A-PROpJzTY]

Ricky White had quite the game against Michigan. After a game in which he had one reception for 5 yards against Rutgers, he exploded onto the scene on a national stage against the rivals from Ann Arbor. He went off for eight receptions 196 receiving yards and one touchdown which was good enough to earn the honor of Big Ten Co-Freshman of the Week.

The Marietta, Georgia native shares the honor with Northwestern safety Brandon Joseph who had two interceptions against Iowa. White is the first Spartan to earn the honor since Rocky Lombardi won it back on October 29th, 2018 against Purdue. Expect White to be thrust onto the scene and potentially compete for Freshman of the Year.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

Locked On Spartans: WE LIKE TO PARTY! WE LIKE, WE LIKE TO PARTY!

TAKE A WILD GUESS WHAT THIS EPISODE IS ABOUT. MICHIGAN STATE BEATS MICHIGAN. LET’S PARTY.

[jwplayer TkR436JB]

TAKE A WILD GUESS WHAT THIS EPISODE IS ABOUT. MICHIGAN STATE BEATS MICHIGAN. LET’S PARTY.

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

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1362]

MSU vs. UM: Five takeaways from Michigan State’s incredible upset of Wolverines

It’s amazing how quickly things can change in just one week’s time. Check out three takeaways from MSU’s 27-24 victory over Michigan.

It’s amazing how quickly things can change in just one week’s time.

This time last week, I felt like I was grasping at straws to find positives from Michigan State’s abysmal season-opening loss to Rutgers. It was a brutal way to kickoff the Mel Tucker era, but a lot — if not all — of the pain and frustration from that loss was wiped away with yesterday’s upset win over the hated Michigan Wolverines, 27-24. The win was Tucker’s first as the Spartans new head coach and gave MSU fans something to truly point at as confidence in where he can lead this program.

Despite entering the game as more than three-touchdown underdogs, Michigan State never trailed in Saturday’s rivalry match-up. This was no fluke, and shows Michigan State may not be as bad as we all thought after last week.

Here are a handful of takeaways from yesterday’s win over No. 13 Michigan: