Mel Tucker is a defensive-minded head coach who has brought Michigan State to national relevance again this season.
That earned him a reported $95 million contract extension to remain in East Lansing, negotiated before the Spartans played one of their biggest games of the year against Ohio State.
Obviously beating the Buckeyes in Columbus is a tall order, but it’s hard to imagine things going worse for a team than they’ve gone today for Michigan State.
Here, let’s watch a short video that shows how:
C.J. Stroud had a ridiculous first half performance: 29-31, 393 pass yards and 6 touchdowns 😳 pic.twitter.com/C1row39Vz6
— ESPN (@espn) November 20, 2021
29-31 for Stroud is tough to beat, and Stroud was certainly accurate and on-time. But let’s also take a moment to note how wide-freaking-open those receivers are. Stroud has popped up into Heisman consideration this week thanks to “being the quarterback of a good team”, and today’s stats are going to be enough to reinforce that for some people.
But players like Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave are so, so good themselves. And that’s before we even get to the offensive line play on display, just in that video; Stroud has all day while his receivers get wide separation down the field. It’s a team sport, even when the quarterback is playing as well as Stroud clearly is.
In any case, the game was such a joke very early on that it kind of upended the entire daily schedule. A juicy noon matchup between top ten teams ended up being essentially decided before 1 PM. Frees up the whole day for neutral fans! Go out there and explore your options!
It was also such a blowout that a prominent Ohio native and OSU supporter took to Twitter to mock MSU grad Draymond Green:
Can somebody check in on my brother @Money23Green please! Haven’t heard from him today. 🤣🤣🤣. #GoBuckeyes🌰 OH…… @OhioStateFB
— LeBron James (@KingJames) November 20, 2021
Yeah, it’s hard for even the most fervent Ohio State haters to deny today’s performance. It also might be bad enough to make some people question the wisdom of that Mel Tucker extension, no matter how fair or unfair that might be.
