Locked On Spartans: “Michigan State became the main character”

Welcome back to Locked On Spartans. I am Will Hunter. That is Shane Sheehan. Shane, I had a whole normal show planned for today, and then Michigan State decided to become the main character of college football.

I have read the release so many times that the words are no longer words. They are shapes. Nick Mansour is the head coach of Michigan State football. I keep saying it out loud like a carbon monoxide alarm is going to go off.

We are going to try to be useful today.

Dangerous choice.

We will talk through the logic, the risk, the roster, the staff, and what the first few weeks actually need to look like. We are not doing the thing where we either call him a genius or a fraud before he coaches a game.

I reserve the right to briefly do both.

The simplest version is this: Michigan State hired an alum with a very unusual football background and gave him much more than a normal first-time head coach usually gets.

Which is the part I cannot get past. If they hired him as some kind of personnel director, I would have been intrigued. If they hired him as an analyst, cool. If they hired him as a recruiting strategy guy, sure. But head coach with huge control? That is a different planet.

And the reason it happened, from what people around the program are saying, is that his interview sounded less like vibes and more like an audit. Roster, staff, recruiting, portal, NIL, the whole operation.

I do believe that part. I believe he could walk into a room and be extremely convincing about what is broken. My fear is that diagnosing the sink leak is different from being the plumber while the kitchen is flooding.

That is two plumbing analogies today if you listened to 100.9.

This fan base is processing through home repair metaphors.

The roster is not good enough for anyone to pretend this is just about coaching cleverness. Cam Edwards is the best player. He has to be the adult in the offense, the explosive piece, the guy who turns a blocked-for-four play into eleven.

And the linebacker room is the one place where I feel something close to peace. Jordan Hall, Dion Crawford, Dejae White, Pretzlaff, Stodghill, Piwowarczyk. There are real bodies. There is some athleticism. Coverage will get tested, but that room at least looks like a room.

I am fascinated by Tre Bell. The staff sees a slot defender with size, blitz value and run-fit ability, not just an outside corner. That is the kind of role decision where you learn whether this staff sees the roster differently in a useful way.

And Jayden Savoury is the other one. Young tight end. Big, fast, tough-catch ability. Not the safe choice, but the kind of player a new staff falls in love with because they can picture the matchup.

The interior offensive line is the thing I cannot make pretty.

Do not make it pretty. It is a gray carpet in a rental apartment. It exists. It will annoy you. You have to live around it.

We do have to talk quarterback, but I want to avoid turning the whole show into that because the hire is bigger than one depth chart decision.

Thank you.

Still, naming Leo Hannan the starter over Alessio Milivojevic is the first major football bet. Milivojevic gave last season some stability. He earned respect. Hannan gives you more physical upside.

My concern is not that they picked Hannan. My concern is whether they can live with what picking Hannan actually means. You cannot choose the developmental quarterback and then panic the first time he looks developmental.

Exactly. If they believe the upside is worth it, the offense has to be built to absorb mistakes. You cannot put a redshirt freshman behind a shaky interior and ask him to save the entire new era by halftime of Week 2.

Also, do not publicly diminish Milivojevic. He did what a program asks a player to do. He stabilized a mess. The way Mansour handles that relationship will tell players a lot about whether all the trust language is real.

The schedule gives you two games you have to handle, then Notre Dame. So what is success?

Look like an organized football team. That is the first bar. I know that sounds sad. It is also true.

Six wins would be a meaningful Year 1. A bowl would change the energy. Five with real development might keep people from fully melting. Seven and suddenly the whole thing gets loud.

Below .500 and fans will write 900-word posts about patience while privately wanting to throw their router into the Red Cedar.

The most important thing early is that the operation matches the language. If the team says clarity, it has to look clear. If it says player protection, the staff has to act like it. If it says evaluation, the staff-favorite players have to justify the trust eventually.

And if they go 2-0, I regret to inform everyone that we will be unbearable for six days before Notre Dame restores the concept of scale.