Couch: 3 quick takes on Michigan State’s 31-9 loss to Maryland

1. This isn’t likely to get better for Michigan State’s football team

EAST LANSING – To the Spartans’ credit, they didn’t quit. That’s as positive as I can be. I wasn’t sure they entirely wanted to be playing this game at halftime. But, in the second half, they played like a team that has some pride, that feared embarrassment, that wanted to prove they were better than what we’ve seen.

Unfortunately for them, they’re not.

I don’t think this going to get any better. Michigan State’s football team just isn’t good enough in any realm to overcome the challenges the Spartans are enduring.

They’ve got nothing to hang their hat on. No star. No dominant position group. Nothing that separates them. Not even certainty at quarterback. A team that was always going to exist with thin margins isn’t going to be up for this. Not as hope wanes, distractions mount and MSU loses the focus their opponents possess.

Maybe they’ll prove me wrong. It’s hard to see it right now.

We’ll never know what this season might have been. Finishing 6-6 seemed plausible. Showing improved depth of talent and signs of long-term promise a reasonable ask. This was never going to be a contending season — I didn’t pick MSU to beat Maryland before it began. But it shouldn’t look like this. Offensively, it shouldn’t be this.

It’s not all their fault. The Mel Tucker saga looks like it’s knocked some of the wind out of this program. Nothing we’re seeing on the field suggests these players and the remaining coaches on MSU’s staff are going to be able to overcome it.

Nothing yet suggests they’ll give up, either. That’s a sign of character. A trait worthy of acknowledging given the adversity at hand.

There were signs Saturday the Spartans’ defense might be OK, too. Maybe that limits the depths of the misery ahead.

But we’ve reached the point where we’re giving kudos for gumption in 31-9 home loss to Maryland. Those seasons tend not to end well.

2. MSU looks a long way from an answer at quarterback

I think we know how the coaches feel about Katin Houser relative to this quarterback competition.

After giving Noah Kim more than three and half games, Houser got one drive — with 10:53 remaining in the fourth quarter and MSU trailing 24-9. MSU, acting head coach Harlon Barnett said, was “looking for a spark.”

Then Sam Leavitt finished the game. Burned the first of his four games he can play without burning his redshirt year on a meaningless final drive. Which means it wasn’t meaningless.

For a long while Saturday, I wondered if MSU’s coaches saw the gulf between Noah Kim and Houser as so large that there was no realistic alternative to Kim. I wondered what the breaking point would be that would make Houser worth a look.

It came in the fourth quarter after the Spartans’ previous two drives ended with Kim missing a wide-open Montorie Foster deep and then being sacked and fumbling deep in MSU territory.

Barnett said Kim is still their guy, that you “have to be careful with those things,” once a QB has won the job all offseason. Even so, the move was warranted. I understand MSU’s coaches not wanting to cause any more turbulence on a team that’s already questioning itself. But you’ve got to get more out of your quarterback.

Kim’s performance Saturday, within the context of the rest of the game, wasn’t MSU’s problem. He had a few really good moments, when he had time or MSU’s offense was using tempo. He had racked up more yards than Maryland’s Taulia Tagovailoa at the time Houser replaced him and grew into the game. A couple of Kim’s passes that would’ve been big plays were dropped by his receivers. But Kim also threw two interceptions and nearly threw another.

Playing quarterback for a team without clear advantages requires taking risks. But there has to be more payoff for some of that risk.

I don’t fault MSU’s coaches for sticking with Kim on Saturday as long as they did, given how the game unfolded — MSU stayed in the fight and Kim was still often under siege. As was Houser. To Kim’s credit, he didn’t wither.

He’s probably still MSU’s best option. But that doesn’t seem all that promising, either. And if Leavitt is the most talented quarterback on the roster, maybe he’s the other quarterback worth a look.

But once you go to Leavitt beyond a couple games — to be fair to him and his redshirt year — there’s no going back.

3. MSU’s defense shows some resolve, a little teeth

If there’s anything to come from this game to make you believe MSU can keep this season from getting ugly, it was a defensive effort that was markedly improved from a week earlier, albeit against a Maryland offense that is nowhere as potent as Washington’s.

The Spartans’ stand to begin the third quarter was the most important stand of this season to date — a moment in which MSU’s defense said both that it was capable of being disruptive and wanted to prove it.

A week after giving up a program-record 713 yards, MSU’s defense allowed about half of that, forced a turnover and won 9 of 15 third downs. This looked like a unit that has a chance to be competitive. Problem is, it’s not a unit that can alone carry a team. It might have to be that.

Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.