Michigan State QB update: Spartans rolling with Katin Houser as Sam Leavitt intends to redshirt
East Lansing, Mich. – By not playing in Michigan State’s 38-3 loss to No. 1 Ohio State Saturday night, true freshman quarterback Sam Leavitt all but confirmed his redshirt plans for this season.
After the game, Spartan interim head coach Harlon Barnett made it official.
“Right now, we’re looking to go with Katin (Houser) all the way,” Barnett said. “Sam is trying to preserve the redshirt unless something major happens. But that’s what we’re trying to do.”
Leavitt played in his fourth game of the season last week against Nebraska, which means he’d burn his redshirt if he made another appearance this season. Leavitt traveled with the team to Columbus and took pre-game snaps from third-string center J.D. Duplain, but did not warm up with Houser and walk-on Andrew Schorfhaar.
Barnett confirmed after the Ohio State game that Schorfhaar – a native of Dewitt, Mich. – will back up Houser for the remainder of the season, with Leavitt inactive and former starter Noah Kim still dealing with an undisclosed injury.
Schorfhaar received the first snaps of his four-year career on Saturday when Barnett inserted him into the game with 4:16 left and Michigan State down 38-3. The redshirt junior handed the ball off twice and completed one pass to receiver Tyrell Henry, who was dropped for a loss of four yards.
“That was awesome to see him get in the game and throw a ball and get some snaps,” Barnett said. “Andrew works extremely hard in practice. He does whatever we ask him to do. I’m glad that we were able to get him some snaps.”
Barnett was asked after the game if there’s a chance Kim could get healthy enough to see some action before the season ends.
“We’ll see,” Barnett said. “I can’t say yes or no right now. We’ll see on him.”
Kim hasn’t played since Michigan State’s week five loss to Iowa on Sept. 30. Houser replaced him as the starter the following week and made his first-career start against Rutgers on Oct. 14.
Michigan State offense shows early promise, but ultimately stalls
Houser, a redshirt freshman, finished 12-of-24 for 92 yards against the Buckeyes on Saturday. He also gained 12 yards on the ground.
Unlike its previous performances against top 10 teams, Michigan State occasionally moved the ball against Ohio State and its No. 5-ranked defense.
The Spartans drove 30-plus yards to enter Ohio State territory on each of their first three drives. On the first play of the game, Houser connected with receiver Montorie Foster on a long 11-yard hitch. Two plays later, on second-and-10, Houser threw a strong pass to open receiver Alante Brown on a slant, which Brown polished off for a 20-yard gain.
However, the drive stalled when Houser chose to run on a third-and-three option play from Ohio State’s 37-yard line instead of finding running back Jaren Mangham. Michigan State went scoreless on that drive after Jonathan Kim missed a 56-yard field goal.
Michigan State also failed to score on its next two possessions. Later on, the Spartans put together three straight drives of five yards or less beginning with 3:30 to go in the second quarter.
Ultimately, eight of Michigan State’s 11 drives ended in punts, thanks to a 14 percent third-down conversion rate. The Spartans managed just 182 yards to Ohio State’s 530, and 11 first downs to the Buckeyes’ 25.
The offense was simply not consistent enough to get anything going against the Buckeyes.
“I just saw us stalling out,” Barnett said. “We would get some nice runs and we do some nice plays, and then all of a sudden, we take two steps forward and three steps backwards. It felt like that a little bit, you know what I mean? But we were running the ball fairly effectively, I thought, we just couldn’t sustain drives. Ultimately you want to get in the endzone and score touchdowns and we weren’t able to do that. That’s disappointing, but our guys just kept working and still tried to make it happen.”
Barnett has seen this film before. Michigan State’s offense looked equally as stagnant against Michigan on Oct. 21, and against Minnesota on Oct. 28. That’s why Barnett went to Leavitt over Houser in the fourth quarter of each of those games, and why Leavitt played the third series of each half against Nebraska.
Michigan State has often needed a spark on offense this season, and Leavitt provided that in his limited minutes. But he was not available on Saturday, and likely will not be for the remainder of the season.
So Michigan State will continue to rely on Houser as its starter. The second-year quarterback effectively managed last week’s Nebraska game, but was less consistent against Ohio State.
One of Houser’s better throws against Ohio State came on first-and-10 from the Michigan State 35-yard line, with 11:56 to play in the third. Hosuer made a few reads before finding receiver Christian Fitzpatrick open down the middle of the field. Houser delievered a clean 13-yard strike to Fitzpatrick to keep the drive going, albeit for just three more plays.
Houser did struggle with inaccuracy at points against the Buckeyes. He nearly got picked off twice on a couple of long throws toward the sideline.
Houser was not perfect on this night, but Barnett remains confident in the second-year signal-caller moving forward.
As always, Barnett and his staff plan to evaluate Houser’s film to see where he can improve. Barnett has stated throughout this season that Michigan State’s offensive issues have not always been a result of poor quarterback play. Sometimes, according to Barnett, the problems stem from just one or two other players who are out of position or get beat on a given play.
“When you watch the film and you watch the details of it, there’s a lot of ‘Man, that one guy,’” Barnett said. “There’s really, like, one guy, sometimes two guys not doing just what they’re supposed to do. So then you ask yourself, ‘Why is it always one guy?’ And that’s what you try to coach up and get better at, where all 11 are executing. I always say, if all 11 execute, you have a chance to win that play, that series, that half, that quarter and all that. But it only takes one guy to mess up.
“You have to coach those guys almost to perfection. You’re trying to coach them to perfection. We know nobody’s perfect, but as a coach, you’re trying to coach them to perfection so that when that one guy messes up or doesn’t mess up or whatever it may be, as a coach, you should take pride in, ‘It’s not going to be my one guy. My guy’s not going to be the guy that messes up and doesn’t execute his assignment.’ You have to stay on them about that, or get a guy in that can get the job done.”
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