The alarm went off at 3:40 a.m. today for a 4:10 cab to East Lansing for a 4:30 bus to the airport for an 8:30 flight to Los Angeles, and my reaction to the news of Max Bullough’s suspension – released at 12:19 a.m. by Michigan State – was probably quite unoriginal.
“What the ….?!”
The answer of why will come out, and until then, I won’t speculate. I will say Mark Dantonio probably isn’t suspending Bullough for the final game of a dream career, for the biggest game of his life, after all he has done for Michigan State, for something like a curfew violation.
There’s a press conference at Disneyland later today. My, how the tone of that thing has changed. Let’s face it, the tone of the entire week has changed. One person doesn’t make a team or a program, but this isn’t just a huge loss for MSU’s defense. This isn’t just the loss of MSU’s primary vocal leader. This is a crushing disappointment for everyone involved with MSU and for its first family, and it will suck a chunk of the attention from the feel-good story of MSU and its fans returning to Pasadena after a quarter century.
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Related:
MSU suspends Max Bullough for Rose Bowl
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Related:
Rose Bowl: Michigan State, Stanford should resemble old school, smashmouth football
It’ll also make it very difficult for the Spartans to beat Stanford. This defense relies heavily on Bullough, as a playmaker but more than that as a pre-snap quarterback. We’ve already discussed how MSU’s biggest offseason storyline will be life without Bullough on defense. We’re about to get a glimpse of it on Wednesday – but without much time for his replacement to get ready.
I’m assuming senior Kyler Elsworth will start in Bullough’s place, with Darien Harris the other main possibility. Interestingly, Elsworth is one of five MSU players scheduled to be at the Disneyland presser today – and to be clear, that schedule was made before this happened. Bullough is on the schedule for multiple media events in the next few days.
I would not expect sophomore Ed Davis to play middle linebacker in the bowl game. He has been mentioned as a possible candidate for the job next season but had received zero work there as of last Thursday. Obviously, freshmen Jon Reschke and Shane Jones will not have their redshirts burned for this game.
And then there’s Riley Bullough, who is switching back to defense and will contend for the spot. Dantonio actually said he’d like to get Bullough some snaps on defense in this game. How surreal would it be to see a different Bullough in the middle of this defense in the Rose Bowl? Not quite as surreal as the events of this morning, I guess.
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