After a sluggish start, Michigan State football was able to handle business and take care of Central Michigan, 31 to 7.
Now, the Spartans will look to hold off Richmond, who will look to rebound after being upset in their week one match-up.
Buy Spartans TicketsBefore the week of prep, Mel Tucker spoke to the media about his team and their upcoming game. You can find the best quotes from that media session below.
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Tucker summarizes Friday's win
Tucker calls it a "solid start" for the run game last week and the conditioning showed up late.
— Matt Wenzel (@mwenzel2) September 4, 2023
Tucker on Keon Coleman
Tucker on Keon Coleman: "I'm always pulling for him."
— Matt Charboneau (@mattcharboneau) September 4, 2023
Tucker on secondary, tackling
Tucker says tackling typically improves from games 1 to 2. "Live tackling in the first game is shaky, and it was for us in the first half." Sub patterns, assignments, cleaning up penalties and communication also typically improves for the second game.
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) September 4, 2023
Tucker on receivers
Tucker says the WRs did a good job blocking, TEs "did a solid job for the most part" but had issues. "I saw guys finishing, playing through the whistle…backs running hard, QB getting us in and out of the right plays."
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) September 4, 2023
Tucker says MSU has WRs who can make plays, then adds at the end unsolicited, "I did watch some games. I was happy for Keon (Coleman) last night. He did a really nice job."
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) September 4, 2023
Tucker on team demeanor
Tucker liked "things maybe you don't see, like our attitude and our demeanor throughout the game, and our poise and our confidence. Our patience was great." Said he told players "we might get booed, which we did. I said don't worry about it. Just continue to play the next play."
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) September 4, 2023
Tucker hints that they might get Jaren Mangham for Richmond game
Tucker says MSU expects to get healthier at RB. "We'll hopefully add another guy to the mix," which would mean the expectation is that Jaren Mangham could return after being listed as questionable and not playing vs. CMU.
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) September 4, 2023
Tucker on QB Noah Kim
Tucker says Noah Kim got better as the CMU game progressed "and we got better around him."
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) September 4, 2023
Tucker on special teams
Tucker says the special teams meeting today "was extremely loud" with some of the missed plays coaches and players saw rewatching the CMU game. "But there was a lot of positives," particularly in the kicking game.
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) September 4, 2023
Tucker on Derrick Harmon's unsportsmanlike conduct penalty
Tucker says he still doesn't know what happened on Derrick Harmon's unsportsmanlike penalty. Submitted to the Big Ten.
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) September 4, 2023
