Couch: After a decade of offensive line struggles, perhaps Jim Michalczik is the hero MSU needs

It’s been close to a decade since Michigan State’s offensive line last pushed around a quality opponent. Nine years since Jack Allen and Jack Conklin and Co. mauled the Buckeyes in Columbus. Ten seasons since the Spartans had a 1,000-yard rusher not named Kenneth Walker. Seven years since a Walker-less MSU team averaged at least 4 yards per carry.

MSU’s record — minus Walker — since the last time the Spartans hit that crest of mediocrity: 25-32 overall and 16-27 in Big Ten play.

There have been a lot of reasons for MSU’s slide from college football relevance since the middle of the last decade. None more obvious and frustrating than a decline in offensive line play. Somehow the Spartans haven’t been able to get that fixed.

Next up with the assignment: New MSU head coach Jonathan Smith, offensive coordinator Brian Lindgren and offensive line coach and run game coordinator Jim Michalczik, who, together, haven’t coached a ground game that’s averaged less than 4.6 yards per carry, let alone 4 yards per carry, since their first year at Oregon State in 2018.

“I feel like our offense goes as our offensive line goes,” Lindgren said.

He obviously sees the correlation.

The question is, where can this MSU offensive line go? Can it be adequate? Grow into being a bully? Make the tough yards not seem as impossible as they’ve been too often?

“We're gonna find out pretty soon,” Michalczik said Thursday, 15 days before the Spartans’ opener against Florida Atlantic.

If Michalczik turns this offensive line into something and develops that unit into a strength of the program in the years to come, he may not know it now, but fans will build a 40-foot statue of him outside Spartan Stadium. He’ll never pay for a beer in East Lansing again. He will have done what for so long has felt out of reach for MSU's program.

Michalczik strikes the right tone for the job at hand: Unassuming, no bravado, zero promises. No shtick. No hard and fast statistical barometers, either. His linemen will be graded internally, of course. Mostly, though, if it’s working, if they’re good enough …

“We know,” he said.

We will, too. You can see trouble. Often right away.

“There’s no baseline (level we need to be at),” said Michalczik, 58, who spent his life and career out west but whose mother attended MSU. “We’re just going to get as good as we can get.”

The hope that they’re better than we’ve seen in recent years begins with another Oregon State transplant — center Tanner Miller, who spent the past five years with the Beavers, where he was a second-team All-American a year ago.

Players are often the last to realize they or their team aren’t up to the task. But Miller has been part of good lines at Oregon State as that program became formidable.

His take: “I think the camaraderie, like togetherness of a (line) is what separates them, because at this level, everybody's talented. We've got talent just like the next team, but a team that can truly play together and you can call each other out and say, ‘Hey, you were wrong on this play because of this, this and this,' when you do that and you can respond the next play, that's when I think a team can truly be special.

“I think we’re there.”

We’ll see. Miller also said this line compared well to the one he left at Oregon State. Again, we’ll see. At MSU, after the last decade, seeing is believing. No offense to Tanner.

MSU has had years when they've held up well in pass protection, but couldn't run it consistently. And MSU's 2021 ground game wasn't entirely Walker. There is also chance some of MSU's younger linemen — recruits of the previous regime — become part of the solution, evidence that progress was being made up front. We just hadn't seen it yet.

At offensive tackle, three players have separated themselves, Michalczik said — fifth-year senior Brandon Baldwin, third-year sophomore Ashton Lepo and redshirt freshman Stanton Ramil. Holy Cross graduate transfer Luke Newman is a likely option at left guard. Third-year sophomore Kristian Phillips is among those also competing for one of the guard spots.

Michalczik said he’s still trying to figure out his best five and the next five and if there are a No. 6 and 7 who are close enough to the top group to deserve snaps.

“I don’t want to make decisions until I have to,” he said.

At this point, all there is to do is trust in Michalczik and hope he’s the hero MSU fans have been waiting for.

RELATED: Couch: MSU football doesn't need greatness yet from Aidan Chiles, Nick Marsh and the offense. Just signs of it.

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

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Couch: After a decade of offensive line struggles, perhaps Jim Michalczik is the hero MSU needs