V-Cast: Aidan Chiles? Defense? Run game? Michigan State with more pros than cons

EAST LANSING, Mich. – SpartanMag’s Jim Comparoni and Paul Konyndyk continue to break down the biggest topic in the Michigan State sports world for the past few days – the Spartans’ clunky victory over Florida Atlantic as Michigan State looks ahead to game two at Maryland.

Was the performance of the Spartans, and quarterback Aidan Chiles, as woeful as some are making it out be? Konyndyk and Comparoni tackle that question and take a deeper dive into what went right, what went wrong, what needs to be worked on, with the 1-0 Terrapins on top. 

“There were a lot of really good things on defense,” Konyndyk said. “I think lot of that can travel. To me, the defense is ahead of schedule. They put on the field what we heard during training camp. And Michigan State’s offense didn’t.

“What I looked for is are there players being beat physically? Those are the huge red flags, and we’ve seen that in some years when guys are physically not up to the task. I don’t think that was the case in this game. I think that people made some mental mistakes and some first-game mistakes.”

“Brian Lindgren and Jonathan Smith were saying all camp long he’s an 18-year-old. He’s a young quarterback with a lot of talent but he has to see what he has to see before he gets better. And the same thing with the offensive line. These are new things for a lot of guys. It’s one thing to do it in a scrimmage. Then you have to take some lumps sometimes before it shows on game day.”

Comparoni agreed.

“If all goes well I think Aidan Chiles will have 38 more games at Michigan State,” Comparoni said. “He’s played in one. I spent a lot of time going over that game again and I came away thinking that Aidan Chiles is dangerous, just the way he can move and get to an angle to deliver a pass. On Friday, he did not deliver them the way he expects to, and he said it after the game, and today (offensive coordinator) Brian Lindgren spoke about that a little bit and Jack Velling spoke about that. He said those are plays he makes every day in practice and he said he has no doubt that those are going to be complete in the future.

“Chiles had some really nice intermediate passes, too. He went into some tight windows and had some confidence to do it. Chiles is going to be okay.”

Comparoni said there were positive things, especially through the first three quarters of the game. And then in the fourth quarter, the defense continued to shine.

“Dude, everything was on schedule through the first 13 minutes of the third quarter, up to that interception,” Comparoni said. “Up to that point, Michigan State had a yardage advantage of about 260 to 160, they were up 16-3, they were on schedule to blow them out. We saw a lot of blowouts in the Mark Dantonio era that were slow-drip blowouts; games would be tight, tight, then in the fourth quarter, no. What they missed here was the fourth quarter, obviously.”

“This did remind me a few Dantonio games when the defense came to play,” Konyndyk said.

Paul introduces a new word in the English language, legal in Scrabble, “clean-up-able,” which pertains to some of the issues Michigan State had.

Michigan State had four players along the offensive line making their first start as Spartans. The run game lacked consistency, especially in the red zone and during the failed eight- and four-minute drills. 

“But Kristian Phillips, I like him,” Comparoni said of the sophomore right guard. “I thought Big Dooley Phillips, he threw his weight around nicely. On that 63-yard touchdown, that counter, when he’s going to kick out that end man on the line of scrimmage, you can see he is relishing just laying a hit on that dude.”  

Said Konyndyk: “I’m not going to discount FAU’s front seven. I think they were solid. It was a tough game for a team with a lot of new faces on offense up front. A lot of times, teams have things they have to work through early in the season. But it’s a step in the right direction.

“The defense getting its swagger in game one is very valuable.”

Comparoni countered: “The run blocking piece, with (Jim) Michalczik, who a lot of people in college football think is one of the best offensive line coaches in the country, he never made any promises through this spring and preseason practice, he said a lot of things need a lot of work and a lot of time. He said as varied as they want to be up front, it will take time. They don’t have the greatest parts to work with in there, but in time (as in future years) and in time this line will become as good as Michalczik can make it, and he’s one of the best.”

Comparoni also had strong compliments about the improvement shown from senior safety Angelo Grose and rush end Khris Bogle.