Michigan State center Matt Gulbin reflects on loss to Nebraska and previews UCLA

After the tough 38-27 loss to Nebraska on the road in a game where Michigan State had opportunities to win, the Spartans are looking to learn from their mistakes and find where improvements can be made for this weekend’s homecoming game versus UCLA (noon Eastern Time on Big Ten Network).

Starting center Matt Gulbin, who transferred in from Wake Forest during the offseason, knows the consistency in the little details must be addressed if MSU's offensive line wants to find success in the pass protection and run game.

MSU gave up four sacks and a total of 12 tackles for loss against Nebraska. Gulbin said the offense is frustrated but puts a lot of that frustration on themselves.

“We want to be better and we know that we are better than what we showed on Saturday,” Gulbin said. “But, like I said, you can’t get over frustrated and get in your own head, because then it’ll just keep going.” 

Through the first two conference games of the season, MSU has shown it can be a highly effective offensive team and put up points, but finishing the game in the fourth quarter, Gulbin said, is an area that needs to be improved upon. 

From the end of the third quarter and during majority of the fourth quarter, Nebraska scored 24 unanswered points, putting MSU down by 17 points in the final quarter. While specials teams errors throughout the game played a large role in the Spartans' defeat to the Cornhuskers, the breakdowns on defense and the offense's inability to answer Nebraska's scores during that crucial stretch late in the game ultimately sealed the loss for Michigan State.

“One of the things (head) Coach (Jonathan) Smith always talks about is finish everything,” Gulbin said. “We haven’t been doing that in the fourth quarter. When you’re playing a tough game, you have to pull through, you have to win the fourth quarter.” 

The next steps for MSU in fixing that issue is finding consistency and striving for perfection, even knowing that perfection can't be reached.

“I think we showed flashes of being a really good offense,” Gulbin said. “But it's consistency. If you want to be a good offense, you've got to be consistent. I mean you can’t play perfect, but being consistent most of the time is what’s really important.”