Harlon Barnett breaks down Michigan State's QB situation behind Katin Houser

The Michigan State Spartans have a number of questions at various positions, both offensively and defensively, that need answering this offseason. But there’s still a laundry list of questions that need answering over the Spartans’ last two games. And interim head coach Harlon Barnett has his work cut out for him there, especially regarding the Spartans quarterback position.

It was recently revealed that true freshman quarterback Sam Leavitt would preserve his freshman and redshift, which means Michigan State is low on options at quarterback. The Spartans season-opening starter, Noah Kim, is out injured, leaving Katin Houser to take over the role. But what if he goes down, too? What will Barnett and the MSU coach staff do? According to the interim head coach, they have a few options if things get bad.

“We have some other options if worse comes to worse. We’ll figure it out,” said Barnett. “There are some other things that we could possibly do, and hopefully, it doesn’t get to… No, no, he (Kim) is not ready. He’s still healing up.”

The most significant news from Barnett’s statement is the outlook on Kim’s status for the final two games of the Michigan State season. From Barnett’s comment at the end, one could easily surmise that the Spartans leading passer on the season is a no-go for Saturday’s contest at Indiana.

Barnett weighs in on Michigan scandal

When a reporter asked Michigan State interim head coach Harlon Barnett his thoughts on the Big Ten’s response to Michigan’s “sign-stealing” scandal, he couldn’t help but smile. After a moment of silence, he gave an unexpected response.

“What do you think?” Barnett said to the reporter.

Crickets.

“I’m teasing,” Barnett said after laughing off the awkward silence. “I’m thinking like most people in this room. I’m hopefully thinking. I’ll leave it at that.”

If the accusations are true, Michigan State suffered the consequences on an intimate level. On Oct. 21, Michigan rag-dolled the Spartans in 49-0 fashion. No matter what signal Michigan State sent into its offense, it didn’t work.

The team tallied just 182 total yards in the loss while only picking up 10 first downs. The Spartans also committed two turnovers. When further accusatory stories arose surrounding Michigan, wandering eyes looked back to the lopsided affair, Barnett included.