Michigan State football revved to stop Michigan's run game: 'It gives you a chance to hit'

EAST LANSING — It doesn’t matter that Harlon Barnett knows the rivalry from the back end of the defense. He realizes what Michigan State football must do anytime it faces Michigan football.

Stop the run.

That's especially true Saturday, if the Spartans are to have a chance at another upset in Ann Arbor.

“Every defense has to stop the run first, and so we will always put emphasis on that,” the Spartans’ secondary coach said Tuesday. “That is the goal, the No. 1 goal, every week. We have some things that we just continue to talk about and build upon, like we've been talking about since camp started. You just put an emphasis on it even more because of how well they run the football.”

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MSU (3-4, 1-3 Big Ten) enters its 7:30 p.m. kickoff Saturday as the last Big Ten team to beat No. 4 U-M (7-0, 4-0). The Spartans pulled off a 37-33 victory in 2021 in large part due to since-departed running back Kenneth Walker III and their own rushing attack. The Spartans out-rushed the Wolverines, 199-146 — the 46th time in the past 52 meetings the winner of the ground game came out victorious on the scoreboard.

Going into the 115th all-time meeting, it is the Wolverines who are running wild, however. U-M ranks eighth in the nation at 241.7 rushing yards per game, with junior Blake Corum sixth in the country (and third in the Big Ten) at 128.7 rushing yards per game. He also ranks 20th in the nation at 6.17 yards per carry.

MSU’s defense, which has had trouble with the pass for three seasons, has struggled against the run this season with a glut of injuries up front. The Spartans rank 78th among 131 Football Bowl Subdivision teams in allowing 153.3 rushing yards per game. That includes four straight running backs eclipsing 100 yards against them: Minnesota’s Mohamed Ibrahim, Maryland’s Antwain Littleton II, Ohio State’s TreVeyon Henderson and Wisconsin’s Braelon Allen.

However, getting back defensive tackle Jacob Slade and safety Xavier Henderson while shifting to a 4-3 defense also helped MSU produce perhaps its most complete defensive performance of coach Mel Tucker’s three-year tenure: a 34-28 double-overtime win over the Badgers. The Spartans allowed a Tucker era-low 131 passing yards, as well as the second-lowest total yards (283) by a conference opponent during his tenure.

“You have to be able to match personnel out there,” Tucker said Monday. “If they have bigger people out there, you need to put bigger people out there.”

And the similar personnel and play styles of the Badgers and Wolverines points to more of the three-linebacker look that worked two weeks earlier. Jacoby Windmon, who moved from defensive end to linebacker next to Cal Haladay and Aaron Brule against Wisconsin, said the Spartans had been working on the 4-3 since the spring.

“In order to be great at it and get better at it improvement-wise, you got to work on it as much as you can. That's what we've really been pretty much doing, working on it,” said Windmon, who had 11 tackles against the Badgers. “Whenever they get into those big personnel groups like 13 personnel — I know they like to bring a lot of tight ends out so they can run the ball — I think that'd be a good game to run this type of defense.”

A year ago, Michigan ran for 146 yards, but then-starting QB Cade McNamara went 28-for-44 passing for 383 yards and two touchdowns. J.J. McCarthy got some reps in that game; now the starter, he's completing 77.1% of his passes for 185.3 yards per game with nine touchdowns and two interceptions.

McCarthy has averaged just 27.5 attempts and 206 passing yards during four games of Big Ten play (all wins), but he hasn't needed to open it up with what the Wolverines have done on the ground. His best performance was a 304-yard, three-touchdown game against Indiana in which he went 28-for-36.

Though McCarthy has excelled as the starter, Barnett said the Spartans aren’t ruling out McNamara after what he did last year against MSU and in leading the Wolverines to a Big Ten title last season.

“They both can run around and see the field well,” Barnett said. “I guess they felt like the other kid is better, I'm assuming — I don't know that for a fact, but he's out there playing for them (and) you're trying to play your best players. But you got to be prepared for either one of those guys, because they both can play good football and they've won a lot of games for them. So we're preparing for either guy.”

Corum — who has 13 rushing touchdowns and 901 yards already on the season — also isn’t alone in the run game. McCarthy has the ability to get loose, and Donovan Edwards is averaging 61.4 yards a game with four touchdowns this season.

Windmon said what Corum and Edwards have done stands out on tape. And he is embracing the challenge of trying to stop U-M’s ground game.

“It's gonna be a real fun game, because as a linebacker, you gotta love games like this. It gives you a chance to hit,” Windmon said. “The name of the game is to hit. So it's real fun just running around and hitting. You feel like you're a kid again playing backyard football, it's just more organized.

“The mentality for me and I know the mentality for the rest of the defense is just to go hit and have fun with each other while doing it. You can't forget to have fun while doing it while keeping in mind that this is a rivalry game.”

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State football revved to stop Michigan's run game