I originally posted this in the
Bowl Games SoC but it quickly got lost in other things. It really belongs here:
As great as Dantonio has been for MSU overall, the AD should tell him to clean out his office immediately or get rid of Bolman.
Bolman was completely incompetent at OC AND OL under Tressel at tOSU but it wasn't quite this bad because he had 5* talent at most positions. In East Lansing without that talent it is so bad that it is comical. 31 points in five games?
https://amp.lansingstatejournal.com/amp/2454826002
https://amp.lansingstatejournal.com/amp/2452841002
Bolman's OL's at Ohio State were horribly coached but they had lots of 5* guys so they weren't THAT bad. Now that he is at MSU where 5* recruits don't grow on trees we see an offense that is comically incompetent. MSU's D was Championship caliber and I don't mean just B1G Championship, I mean that the Spartans had a NC Caliber D. In spite of that they only managed to finish barely over .500 because their Offensive staff isn't good enough for a decent HS team.
MSU scored 6 against Oregon in a 7-6 loss. That was the fewest points scored on the Ducks all year. Bowling Green (24), Portland State (14), SJSU (22), Stanford (31), Cal (24), Washington (27), WSU (34), Zona (44), UCLA (21), Utah (32), ASU (29), and OrSU (15) all scored more points against Oregon.
MSU scored 6 against Nebraska in a 9-6 loss. That was the fewest points scored on the Cornhuskers all year. Colorado (33), Troy (24), Michigan (56), Purdue (42), Wisconsin (41), Northwestern (34), Minnesota (28), Bethuen-Cookman (9), Ohio State (36), Illinois (35), and Iowa (31) all scored more points against Nebraska.
MSU scored 6 against Ohio State in a 26-6 loss. Holding the Buckeyes to 26 was an accomplishment as only Purdue (20) did better but only scoring 6 was pathetic. It ties Tulane as the second worst output against the Buckeyes, better only than Rutgers (3). Ohio State's 11 other opponents all did better.
MSU scored 13 against Arizona State in a 16-13 loss. Only the University of Texas at San Antonio scored less (7) against ASU. Fresno (31), SDSU (28), Washington (27), OrSU (24), Colorado (28), Stanford (20), USC (35), Utah (20), UCLA (28), Oregon (29), and Zona (40) all scored more points against the Sun Devils.
The weak offensive outputs against Michigan and Northwestern are more excusable but still troubling.
A number of posters have pointed out that even a middling offense would probably have gotten the Spartans to at least 10 wins. I don't know that it would even take that. A barely competent offense would easily have been enough for a team with MSU's D to win at least the ASU and Nebraska games. That would have improved the Spartans' regular season record to 9-3.
A middling offense would have been enough to win the ASU, UNL, and NU games and probably either the M (lost by 14) or tOSU (lost by 20) games as well. That would have given the Spartans an 11-1/8-1. Even without a CG appearance they'd have been a lock for a NY6 bowl. All of this would only have required at most a middling offense.
