Copyright M Live Michigan
EAST LANSING – Compete for a Big Ten title? Nope. Make a return to the College Football Playoff a decade after the first trip? Not a chance. Upset the archrival in a potential season-saving game? That opportunity is also now gone. Michigan State’s 31-20 loss against Michigan last week marked its fifth consecutive defeat by double digits. With each passing game, the Spartans (3-5, 0-5 Big Ten) watch their goals disappear as second-year coach Jonathan Smith’s job security appears even more tenuous. That leaves reaching a bowl game as the top accomplishment available in the final month of the schedule, which begins with a trip to Minnesota (5-3, 3-2) on Saturday (3:30 p.m. ET, BTN). “It’s a big emphasis right now considering where we’re at,” wide receiver Omari Kelly said after practice on Tuesday. “We know that’s something that we can accomplish, we have the ability to, we just have to all focus on our jobs and keep going, don’t give up. … I know it’s hard right now, it’s raining right now but rain don’t last forever.” Earning a 13th game and snapping the program’s three-year bowl drought would require Michigan State winning three of the last four on the schedule. For a team that hasn’t won a game since before the MLB playoffs began, that looks like a daunting task but one to focus on. “Told the truth quite a bit yesterday, looking at things,” Smith said on Monday. “There’s still a lot out in front of us and we spoke to that because the preparation, we weren’t second guessing the week of work leading into that and really the energy, the passion we played with.” The final third of the schedule begins at Minnesota, which got thumped 41-3 at Iowa last week after beating Nebraska. Following the second bye of the season, Michigan State will host Penn State (3-4, 0-4), which has dropped four straight. James Franklin was fired earlier this month, starting quarterback Drew Allar suffered a season-ending injury and the Nittany Lions will face No. 1 Ohio State and No. 2 Indiana in back-to-back games before heading to East Lansing. Michigan State’s final true road game is Nov. 22 at Iowa (6-2, 4-1), which almost knocked off Indiana in September and its two losses are by a combined eight points. Then the Spartans close the regular season at Ford Field against Maryland (4-3, 1-3), which has dropped three in a row by a total of 10 points. “When you’re going through a struggle like this losing the last five games, you don’t feel like we’re playing up to the standard and football is your life, it makes it seem like all the walls are crashing down,” running backs coach Keith Bhonapha said of coaching college kids. “So what you try to do is give them a sense of there’s things out there where there’s small victories that you’ve got to pay attention to.” Bhonapha wants his players to remain focused on execution, trust and improvement, even if that’s difficult to do when a season is spiraling. He believes the culture remains solid to push ahead with optimism. “There’s definitely a buy in and belief,” center Matt Gulbin said. “I think there’s a lot of tough kids on our team that know how to handle adversity and how keep pushing through it.” Michigan State edged Maryland 19-16 in the 2019 regular-season finale to become bowl eligible and then-coach Mark Dantonio had hats made for players with “PROGRAM WIN” on the back. That basically meant achieving the minimum standard for a team that had been a national power less than five years earlier. The Spartans have reached a bowl game just once since Dantonio abruptly retired in February 2020. When goals were set at the beginning of the season for this group, ending that skid wasn’t a battle cry. “It’s more of an adjustment because nobody wants to play just to get to a bowl game,” Kelly said. “We obviously want to go to the playoffs, things like that, but it hasn’t went that way so now we have to shift our mindset and work towards a new goal.” Kelly played at Auburn and Middle Tennessee State before joining the Spartans in the offseason and is second on the team with 30 catches for 435 yards and a touchdown. He’s a naturally positive person who brings internal motivation to the end of his college career. “I get to wake up and play this game I’ve been playing since I was 3 years old and the fact that I’m still able to play, it’s a blessing,” Kelly said. “I have no reason to be in my feelings or feel any type of way just because we’re losing right now. I still get to go out there and play with my dawgs. … I know what I have to do to help contribute to the team and I’m going to do that to the best of my abilities every day no matter what’s going on.”
