#20 Michigan State Football has a new offensive coordinator this season in Brad Salem and no one really knows what to expect from the new-look Spartans offense, including Tulsa Head Coach Philip Montgomery. Of course, Michigan State hosts Tulsa this Friday at 7 P.M. ET on FS1.
“For us, it’s made it very difficult,” Montgomery said.“You go into it and you’re expecting certain things. Hopefully we’ve pinpointed the right things and our defense is really ready to be able to attack whatever it is they throw at us.”
Aside from the coaching change, MSU is also in a weird place offensively. They no longer have long-time starting RB LJ Scott and Brian Lewerke could barely lift his arm last season. Additionally, no one really has much of a clue how good the offensive line will be, which has typically a strong-point for MSU but lately has been a major flaw.
Brad Salem hasn’t called a play since 2009 at Division II Augustana (that’s where the cover photo of this post is from), but he’s been on MSU’s staff working with the running backs since then. It’s worth noting that MSU’s running backs since 2009 have been elite (Le’Veon Bell, Jeremy Langford, LJ Scott).
“Obviously, changes have been made on the staff, yet it’s not a new personnel type of deal,” Montgomery said. “They’ve shuffled people around. Everybody has their own kind of philosophy about what they want to do offensively, and so by doing what Coach Dantonio has done, it’s not like you’ve grabbed a coordinator from somewhere else, where you can grab that tape and kind of get an idea or at least a philosophy from what he was doing.”
Tulsa is coming off a 3-9 season and has yet to announce who their starting quarterback will be Friday. It could be incumbent starter Seth Boomer, or, junior transfer from Baylor Zach Smith.
