It was an awkward exchange that captured the inelegant state of Michigan State football during an ultimately uncomfortable season. After Harlon Barnett’s Spartans lost 42-0 Friday at Ford Field in a defeat that served as a merciless killshot to a calamitous season, the interim head coach faced a veteran reporter who asked what he would tell the person who will soon be tasked with repairing this broken program.
“Well,” he replied, “I’ll be looking in the mirror.”
Barnett delivered that one-liner with conviction. But it fell on deaf ears among an audience of reporters convinced his days were numbered in the temporary post he occupied. Their reaction wasn’t so much an indictment of Barnett’s 10-game audition, underwhelming as it was. Instead, it was an acknowledgement of the reality confronting MSU eight weeks after it fired Mel Tucker for cause.
In no uncertain terms: The Spartans are in rough shape, and it’s unclear when they will contend again in a Big Ten welcoming four new teams in 2024.
“I think it can be fairly quick,” Barnett said.
The good times, Barnett continued, aren’t “as far away as others may think.”
Perhaps Barnett, a self-proclaimed optimist, is right.
Michigan State interim coach Harlon Barnett looks to talk to defensive lineman Malik Spencer in the fourth quarter of MSU’s 42-0 loss on Friday, Nov. 23, 2023, at Ford Field.
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After all, it was only 16 months ago when the Spartans openly talked about winning the Big Ten and competing for a national title. Both Tucker and athletic director Alan Haller had grand ambitions back then. MSU had completed a dizzying ascent in Tucker’s second season, climbing into the top 10 of both polls. But the 2021 rise proved illusory, as Wake…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/michigan-state-footballs-final-loss-110527949.html
Author : Detroit Free Press
Publish date : 2023-11-25 11:05:27
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