Forget Washington: Maryland is a true test for Michigan State football

Harlon Barnett had more time to focus on football this week. That should help Michigan State football’s interim coach. And that should help the Spartans as they prepare for Maryland Saturday.

How much is hard to say.

Just as it was hard to say how much the shock of losing their coach, in the way they did, hurt the players last week as they prepared to play Washington. The Huskies were obviously the much better football team.

But to suggest Mel Tucker’s suspension didn’t affect the game is disingenuous (not that many said that). Saturday’s contest against Maryland will provide a better test of where the Spartans are at the moment and, more critically, who they might be this season.

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Can the Spartans get to six wins? And to a bowl?

Or would a loss to Maryland, especially a non-competitive loss, snowball into the kind of season so many Spartan faithful are starting to fear?

Lose to the Terrapins and MSU hits the road at 2-2 with dates at Iowa and Rutgers — both undefeated through three weeks. After that, the Spartans come home to play No. 2 Michigan.

Rutgers is playing better football this year. Iowa is scoring a little more — thanks to a 41-10 win over Western Michigan — though even when the Hawkeyes struggle offensively, they remain difficult to beat at home.

And then there is U-M. It’s not hard to see 2-5 for the Spartans before October's even over. And, if it gets to that, it gets harder to see another win the rest of the season. After the Wolverines, the Spartans go to Minnesota, come home to play Nebraska, go to Ohio State, then Indiana, then finish against Penn State in Ford Field on Black Friday.

On the other hand, if MSU beats Maryland, or at least gives a good showing for most of Saturday at Spartan Stadium? That’s something to build on, and Barnett can tell his team, “Hey, we got better by doing these things, and we will continue to get better.”

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Then finding a way to win, either at Iowa or Rutgers, isn’t so daunting. And maybe knocking off Minnesota, Nebraska and Indiana — all foes who've shown flaws in their early games — isn’t impossible.

That would be a path to six wins and a bowl, and if Barnett pulls that off … well, he’ll have shown something under difficult circumstances and perhaps he's considered for a head coaching gig. Probably not at MSU, but maybe somewhere else.

At the very least, he’ll be considered in a different light in East Lansing, and wherever Spartans faithful reside, and every time he comes back, he’ll feel the gratitude. Even if he doesn’t get to six wins — or even four or five — all he truly has to do is keep the team together, keep it relatively focused and set the next coach up.

That won’t be easy, though.

First, he has to figure out how much he wants to change things and how much he wants to keep them the same. And then he has to decide how and when to deliver news of changes.

“You work it out,” he told reporters earlier this week. “And figure when to say, how to say to the guys and help them to perform at the highest level.”

Barnett doesn’t want to push change too far. Nor should he. Even though it’s still September, the majority of the players have known one system for at least a year and, for some, three.

As for the rest, they’ve been through camp — with some dating back to spring practice — and to redesign too much would only confuse them more. In that sense, Barnett is taking over with one hand tied behind his back.

At times, it must feel like both.

Despite the tall task, or perhaps because of it, Barnett said he’s relying on a simple message this week to help get his team ready for Maryland.

“The word I've been using this week is focus on discipline,” he said. “If we're disciplined, we're gonna give ourselves a chance to play a much better ball game on Saturday. Less penalties and substitution errors and things like that — you can't have those things. And we talked about that a lot, so discipline is key.”

Discipline is an old favorite for football coaches. Heck, for any kind of coach. But discipline is harder to find in a time of uncertainty. It's harder to find in a time of chaos.

And for some players, the last 12 days have surely felt like that. It didn’t get easier when MSU announced this week it was starting the process to get rid of Tucker permanently. Or when Tucker responded by, essentially, saying MSU was full of it.

Think about what that must feel like for the players, most of whom chose to play for MSU because of Tucker, or at least because of something he was selling.

This isn’t to say there aren’t players who wanted to become a Spartan and would’ve come regardless.

But the coach matters, more than any other factor. Now he’s gone, and not in a way that inspires any sort of rally cry.

He didn’t get sick, or hurt, or take a leave of absence because of a family illness or issue. He was forced out in a humiliating way. Of course, the players feel that.

Barnett has to acknowledge it, clearly. He also has to move forward. That's a tricky balance.

“We had to address the elephant in the room,” he said Tuesday. “We definitely addressed that. We got our butts kicked on Saturday. OK, bam. Now, how do we improve from that and get better from that?”

This is clear language from a coach who loves the green and white and is also trying to prove he deserves a shot. As he said when he took the job, he’d always dreamed of running this program, just not under these circumstances.

That elephant in the room isn’t departing anytime soon. Certainly not until next season. But it will shrink into the corner if the Spartans show improvement, however incremental, and if they learn to compete, to show resilience in the face of serious adversity.

The team gets its next chance to do this Saturday against Maryland.

Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him @shawnwindsor.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State football's success vs. Maryland will be full revelation