Couch: Having Jay Johnson at the wheel brings curiosity and competence to MSU football's offense

EAST LANSING – I’m old enough to remember the years when Michigan State’s offensive coordinator wasn’t viewed as much of a mastermind. When whatever that person said was met with skepticism. When the jet sweep seemed to rule MSU’s playbook.

It’s difficult to entirely explain how different the vibe is surrounding Jay Johnson, MSU’s third-year offensive coordinator.

It’s partly how he presents himself. There’s an air of competence about him. A sense that the wheels are always turning. An understanding that he’s been given the latitude to run his offense.

It’s also largely the results. MSU averaged 429 yards of offense and nearly 32 points per game last season — eclipsing all but one year under the previous regime.

When presentation meets results, it leads to respect. Johnson, I sense, has the respect of Spartan football fans. Where they once saw the jet sweep as the signature play of a meager attack, they now see the flea flicker — a trick play for every other team, made common at MSU last season, resulting directly in four passing touchdowns.

In hindsight, it was a sensible play choice with Kenneth Walker in the backfield, dominating the attention of defenses.

Yet it created a perception that Johnson will maximize the players on MSU’s roster, that creativity will be part of the weekly game plan. And that he’s a willing risk-taker.

“I’m not afraid of risk at all,” Johnson said Wednesday. “But I also want it to be a calculated risk.”

I think MSU fans trust Johnson’s calculations. I know head coach Mel Tucker does.

The question becomes what’s next for Johnson’s offense at MSU. The base of it won’t change. Nor will the attempt at balance. But this is a different roster, with different strengths. Maybe more strengths and depth and options.

“That's always a challenging part for me, certainly,” Johnson said Thursday. “The biggest thing and the most important thing is we need to see who we have and then how we can maybe look at that creativity piece, how we can use the guys. … There are some changes and there are different people in different places. And it's our goal as a staff to obviously put those guys in the right spot and have that creativity piece to maybe do a little bit more. Because I think the base is very solid. Now we need to begin expand and expand for what's good for this team.”

Johnson no longer has Walker. But he’ll for the first time at MSU have a second-year starting quarterback, one who he says is playing at a “pretty high level right now.” He still has plenty of talent and depth at receiver, all of them trying to prove themselves to different degrees — Jayden Reed that he’s a high NFL draft pick, Tre Mosley that he’s a go-to guy, Keon Coleman that he’s as dangerous as he says he is. Johnson has what should be a capable group of running backs. And, notably, he has a stable of tight ends — from senior Tyler Hunt, whose practice performances Johnson described Thursday as “phenomenal” and at a “very, very high level,” to redshirt sophomore Maliq Carr, who showed flashes of big-time ability last year, and Illinois graduate transfer Daniel Barker, a somewhat proven commodity at the Big Ten level, with a prototypical frame and skill set.

“It opens up a lot for them to do a lot of things,” junior safety Angelo Grose said Thursday.

I think the tight end component creates opportunities we didn’t see from MSU last year — with two-tight end sets in the passing and running game and perhaps the ability to use them in less-conventional ways. It ought to help mitigate the absence of Walker.

“I feel good about that spot,” Johnson said.

I’m curious to see what Johnson does with it.

Johnson could have a more complete arsenal to work with, even if no individual player is the force that Walker was.

A lot of it begins with Thorne, whose chemistry with Johnson, they’ll both tell you, has been tremendous. If Johnson can trust Thorne to make certain plays, to read defenses correctly, to get MSU out of the wrong play based on the defense and into the right one, and to hold even his veteran teammates accountable, it’ll change Johnson’s risk calculation.

“That’s what I’m challenging him with every day,” Johnson said. “And right now he’s been meeting the challenge.

“At the end of the day, it comes back to me. What do we need to do to be successful to win the game? Each game kind of takes a dimension of itself.”

For the first time in a long time, there’s a sense that MSU’s offensive coordinator is finally playing chess.

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

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: MSU football: Jay Johnson brings curiosity, competence to MSU in 2022