It's no secret in college football that in order for teams to have success, being efficient on third down is crucial. Offenses must convert on third down to sustain drives and control the clock, while defenses must get off of the field on third down to get the ball back to the team's offense. Thank you, Captain Obvious.
But for Michigan State, the lack of third-down success can be directly attributed to some of the Spartans' recent struggles.
In MSUs 38-27 loss to Nebraska this past weekend, the Spartans went just 2-for-14 (14.2%), while the Cornhuskers converted five times in 13 tries (38.4%). To Michigan State's credit, the Spartans did go 4-for-5 (80%) on fourth down, but the team would rather not put itself in that situation.
Through five games in the 2025 season thus far, Michigan State has converted just 22 times on 60 third-down attempts (36.7%), which ranks 17th out of 18 Big Ten teams. Meanwhile the MSU defense has allowed opposing offenses to convert at a 43.8% clip (28-out-of-64), which also ranks second to last in the conference.
Michigan State head coach Jonathan Smith spoke after the Nebraska game about how the lack of success on third down is hurting the team.
"I think the big thing offensively, you look at it, it's two of 14 on third-down — you ain't gonna have much success doing that," Smith said on Saturday after the loss on Saturday. "We've gotta give them a better plan, we've gotta execute it better, we're back to the (lack of) balance. I didn't love some of the run game to start the third quarter, that's why some of the fourth-downs came up so huge. We've gotta find a way to keep pushing, staying together. This is what I told them – if we wanna finish better, we've gotta stay together, we've gotta play better."
On Monday, Smith followed up his comments from the postgame on Saturday, reiterating the need for the offense to be able to convert on third down.
While he knows the players have to execute, Smith noted that in order to fix the issues MSU is currently experiencing offensively, it starts with the coaching.
"Offensively, I think I mentioned it after the game, too, you start with this two of 14 on third down," Smith said on Monday when reflecting on what went wrong in the loss to Cornhuskers. "So, one, that's a terrible percentage, (and two), that's too many third downs (to face) in general. Well, what's leading into that? Your first- and second-down efficiencies, lack of the run game efficiency throughout (the game). We've got to do it better.
"We've got to think about doing other things, too. We sit here and (say), 'Players gotta execute (in) the run game better.' Well, we've gotta start making sure, too, on us, on (the) coaching side (and) schematics, (we're doing) those things (better). That was some deep conversations yesterday as (we) looked into it."
Smith is focusing on the offense's efficiency on third down, as he should. However, the defense also has to be more efficient when it comes to getting off of the field on third down. The Spartan defense was better in this aspect against Nebraska, but still ranks near the very bottom of the Big Ten in third-down percentage allowed.
Next up, a 1-4 UCLA team comes to East Lansing for Michigan State's homecoming game this coming Saturday at noon Eastern Time (Big Ten Network). The Bruins are coming off of a huge upset win, 42-37, over No. 7 Penn State this past weekend.
UCLA is the one Big Ten team that is worse than Michigan State when it comes to defending third down. The Bruins allow teams to convert on third down an astounding 55.9% of the time. Not only is that the worst mark in the Big Ten, but it also ranks dead last in the entire country. MSU will have a big opportunity to remedy its third-down woes against the Bruins.
Offensively, UCLA has converted on 38.5% of its third-down attempts, which ranks slightly higher than Michigan State, and ranks 15th in the Big Ten.