The first weekend of the 2025 College Football season has come and gone, and your Michigan State Spartans have moved to 1-0 with a 23-6 victory over the Western Michigan Broncos. As the kickoff game for the ‘25 season, there was plenty of off-the-field excitement; like the addition of fireworks, the return of Munn Field tailgates, and a nearly full, striped-out, raucous Spartan Stadium.
On the field, it was a tale of two halves. In today’s recap, we will take a closer look at the Xs and Os that spelled
out a dominant first half with a stumble to the finish line for the green and white. I couldn’t be more excited to welcome you guys to the first edition of the 2025 Film Room. (PSA: lots of football terminology ahead, I have tried to simplify as much as possible, but feel free to leave a comment if you need clarification on anything!)
Offense
Getting right into it, a big story in the first half was the improved run blocking and lanes opened for running backs Makhi Frazier and Brandon Tullis. As Jonathan Smith and Aidan Chiles both mentioned postgame, when the offensive line is setting the tone up front, it opens up the entirety of the playbook. Today we’re going to take a closer look at the MSU offense’s outside zone schemes.
Above, MSU is facing its second 3rd Down of the game, and Western comes out in a modified version of their standard 3-4 defensive front. Pre-snap, the boundary/weakside outside linebacker (or “Will”), #58, is on the line, which was WMU’s usual adjustment when State put a tight end down. #1, Western’s field/strongside outside linebacker (or “Sam”) is pressed tight to Chrishon McCray in the slot, with eyes in the backfield and the strong safety behind him rolling down, which is a key tell that the Broncos will be sending pressure from the field. With the Mike (middle linebacker) set just outside the box over TE Jack Veiling, OC Brian Lindgren has the perfect call dialed up to take advantage of the overload to the strength of the offensive formation.
The playcall is an outside zone run, or stretch concept to the right. All five offensive linemen will “reach” block, and violently fire off the ball to the right in order to gain position. The Spartans are able to run away from the aforementioned blitzing Sam linebacker, and even though Veiling misses the block on both him and the Mike, who also blitzes at the snap, it makes no difference. The speed of Frazier is too much for those Bronco LBs to catch up with.
The play is blocked nearly perfectly. LT Stanton Ramil, LG Gavin Broscious, and C Matt Gulbin all are able to successfully reach and “seal” their men inside. RT Conner Moore also wins the rep, sealing the weakside Defensive End inside. However, RG Caleb Carter isn’t able to seal the Defensive Tackle, so he does what he’s coached to do if he can’t seal: kick out. He dominates the kick-out block, and opens a gaping hole for Frazier to cut back into. With some help from a great downfield block from Nick Marsh on the cornerback, Makhi is off to the races and the result is a huge gain.
Outside zone concepts are a staple of the Lindgren offense, and in the first half the Spartans ran a variety of successful stretch plays, some with tosses, some from under center, and some with the help of fullback Jay Coyne. Stretch runs are generally great when you have a speedy running back with good vision, but they are also very effective in setting up the play action game. In the look below, the Spartans are once again driving and deep in Bronco territory. Here, MSU is in 21 personnel, with 2 backs and 1 tight end, and the WMU adjustment is to kick both of the outside linebackers down onto the line of scrimmage, effectively turning their regular 3-4 look into a 7-man box, with 5 on the line and the Mike and Mo (boundary side middle LB) stacked over each DT.
Lindgren’s call likely comes in as something along the lines of “Pro Right I Stretch Left Split Naked Boot Cross.” The Pro Right (or however MSU calls their formations) sets the offensive strength to the right, with TE Michael Masunas in a three-point stance on the right side. I speaks to the I formation with FB Coyne in the game, and the Stretch Left Slam means that the offensive line will once again be running an outside zone concept to the boundary. “Split” refers to the split zone action occurring, as Masunas will not be reach blocking with the offensive line, instead kicking out the stand-up edge rusher to the field- or so he thinks. The call is a naked bootleg off of this stretch action, so Masunas does a brilliant job of engaging the defender for a two second count before releasing free into the flat. And finally, the “Cross” gives Nick Marsh, the backside WR, his route. This is a teaching-tape level bootleg play in terms of execution, check it out below, as drawn up and as executed.
The stretch fake completely fools the Mike linebacker, and freezes the Mo, allowing for Chiles to hit Masunas in stride to move the chains. Most naked bootleg concepts are read by the quarterback low-to-high, meaning Aidan will check his shortest route first, before progressing to deeper routes. This is because there is no one to block the defensive end, along with the down Sam once Masunas leaves, which makes the quality of the fake hand-off all the more important to fool that D-end. The previous effectiveness of the run game opens up the play action, and Chiles makes the correct and quick decision. To me, this is a sign of Aidan maturing. In 2024, had he been in this situation rolling out, I can easily picture Chiles holding onto the ball, putting a move on the pursuing Sam, and attempting a heroic yet risky throw to #3, Rod Bullard, in the end zone. This year? Aidan took what the defense gave him, got the ball out of his hands, and the Spartan offense scored but a few plays later.
Now, to the second half. The Western Michigan defense’s main adjustment to counter the Spartan rushing attack was doubling down on blitzing their outside linebackers, along with bringing their field safety even closer into the box. Here is a great example of this look, where the strong safety is within five yards of the line of scrimmage, much more of a factor in the run game.
MSU has yet another outside zone run called to the boundary, and this time has to adjust the blocking scheme accordingly to Western’s heavier box, which you can see in the image below. Right guard and tackle will still be attempting to reach block the right side of the Defensive line, kicking out if they cannot secure outside leverage. The left guard and center will be double teaming the nose and hopefully working upfield for the Mike LB, who is in the middle of WMU’s three backers pre-snap. The left tackle will rise to the added strong safety, and Masunas will have to hustle inside to cut off the nearside defensive end. Finally, FB Coyne will be leading through the hole and is responsible for the Mo backer.
Definitely a tougher look to run a stretch play into, and the Western defense reacts much quicker than they did earlier in the game. Here is the full play below.
Keep an eye on the strong side, or right side of the play. #66, Ashton Lepo can’t seal his man inside, but he gets a great kick-out block, and RG #71 Kristian Phillips actually pancakes his man. Coyne successfully leads through the hole on the Mo, and there should be a great hole to run through. The difference on this play? With the Broncos’ extra man in the box, it isn’t enough for the LG and Center to just win their block on the nose tackle. Gulbin and Broscious are not able to rise up to the Mike backer, who impressively shoots the gap and makes the tackle.
My biggest takeaway from the run game in the second half? No need to panic about the offensive line (in the run game at least). Even in unsuccessful plays like these, there were bright sides, like Lepo, Phillips, and Coyne in this rep, and correctable mistakes were the difference. Also important to keep in mind, the Spartans were subbing in and out offensive linemen as frequently as Tom Izzo makes substitutions in an early November game. What it comes down to is that WMU made the correct adjustments to stop the run at halftime, and State never countered; likely in hopes of keeping the game one playbook relatively vanilla, not putting exotic concepts on film for future opponents.
Wrapping up with the offensive side of the ball, let’s take a look at what was, in my opinion, the most glaring concern Friday night: pass protection. As the second half wore on and MSU ended up in more third and long situations as a result of Western stopping the run more effectively, the Spartans were forced to dial up more traditional drop back passes as opposed to quick RPOs and play action schemes. In the play below, Lindgren has a fade/out concept called to the boundary, and a slant/in concept to the field. Chiles easily diagnoses a Cover 1 look from the Bronco defense, which is a man scheme with one free safety up top.
Notice the curved lines in front of both of Western’s edge rushers. After taking a few steps upfield, they bail out to the flats, which means the defense only has five to block once the middle linebacker comes on a blitz. With all five offensive linemen and Frazier in the backfield, that is a 6 on 5 advantage, and Chiles should have time to stand in the pocket and deliver to Marsh on the in route to the bottom of your screen.
Pass protection like this is a red flag to me. Matt Gulbin flat-out gets beat at the Center position, and Gavin Broscious at LG gets bull rushed directly backwards into Chiles. If two key offensive lineman on this squad are getting manhandled by MAC-level D-linemen, Aidan is going to have to run for his life quite a bit this season. No mental errors here, just concerning levels of physicality. On the bright side, Makhi Frazier actually does a great job of recognizing the blitz and performs a phenomenal cut block on the blitzing Mike. Frazier seems primed to be a Big Ten level starting RB, not just with the ball in his hands.
Defense
Now, to the opposite side of the ball. The young Spartan defense showed out Friday night, rallying to hold Western to no offensive points scored along with a safety, four sacks, and an interception. In fact, the Bronco offense had 13 whole minutes less than MSU in terms of time of possession, which speaks to the amount of 3-and-outs forced by the Spartan defense, field position battle win thanks to Ryan Eckley, and the strong run game by Makhi Frazier and co.
Inexperienced players shone all over the field, one great example of which being redshirt freshman LB Brady Pretzlaff, from Gaylord. Below is one of my favorite concepts run by the Bronco offense drawn up.
The backfield mimics a split zone run, where the offensive line blocks an inside zone play to the right, and the Tight End in a wing position will cross the line of scrimmage to kick out the backside defensive end. Sounds like a common enough play, right? Wrong. QB Brady Jones fakes the hand off, the offensive line, after firing out like an inside zone, throws their defenders by and rises to the second level to block for a screen. The TE, Blake Bosma #86, fakes the split zone kick-out and turns around to receive a screen pass. Everything seems to be set up perfectly, except for one small issue: #45 in green and white. Pretzlaff sniffs it out and breaks up the pass, preventing what would have likely been a big play for the WMU offense.
In a game versus a team with generally more highly touted athletes and personnel, WMU had to get creative with playcall, like the split zone screen pass above. Another unique concept they run is a “Super Counter” misdirection run play, as schemed up below.
In a traditional counter run play, the backside guard and tight end would be the pullers, skipping around their head-up defensive linemen and leading through the C gap (gap outside the left tackle). The left side of the line will “block down” and pin their defenders inside to the right. However, in the condensed set above, the Broncos have an extra puller in the outside WR of the bunch, giving the name, super counter.
This playcall turns out to be perfect for WMU, as State’s defense is overloaded to the bunch side. The pullers move away from the strength of the MSU defense, opening a sizable hole for the RB to hit. Pretzlaff pursues and engages the second puller, also known as “outside fitting” or “boxing” the run. Jordan Hall, the other inside LB, is likely responsible for “inside fitting” in this scenario, and is in position to make the tackle, but misses.
The most concerning part of this rep is Malik Spencer. Watch the senior safety stand nearly still for the first 2 seconds of the play, only recognizing the run play once the RB is already headed downhill. While Hall and Pretzlaff make aggressive decisions and read run early, Spencer is slow to crash and allows for a Western first down before making the play.
This is certainly an important note to watch for next week against BC and beyond, as against quicker running backs, this delayed read from the safety position can mean long runs broken off and poor angles from the secondary in pursuit. Hopefully Joe Rossi is harping on making quicker reads and crashing run lanes this week in meetings.
Takeaways and Looking Forward
In a game where the offense dominated time of possession, there was much less to break down on the defensive side of the ball. For the most part, the Spartans were disciplined, stopped the run, and got sufficient pressure, and an impressive number of tipped balls, against both Bronco QBs.
In terms of the offense, there is no doubt work to be done. From a schematic point of view, the offense dominated early on, a sign of a strong game plan and scripted plays by the offensive staff. As for the second half, a vanilla playbook was in effect, and the major difference in the two halves was the adjustments made by WMU, preventing the State offense from executing at the level they did in the first two quarters of the game. Yes, I have my concerns about the QB pressures leading to fumbles, but hopefully the Offensive Line rotation will be cut down in numbers, and our best 5 or 6 guys up front can start to develop more chemistry together to keep Aidan Chiles’ jersey clean. Between finding the best options up front and opening up the playbook even more against a Power Four opponent, I remain optimistic about the offense and think Lindgren and Smith will have Chiles, Kelly, Marsh, Frazier and all of the guys ready to go against Boston College this coming week.
I hope you all enjoyed the first edition of our 2025 Film Room, and I’ll see you next week, hopefully breaking down another Spartan victory! Go Green!
