When playing these mid teams (e.g., Purdue), I'm ok if we use the games to work on scheme/devt./etc

Which, if that's what Denbrock is doing, ok, but I am not convinced that's what he is doing. For example, if MSU was an intentional exercise in improving run blocking, developing James, and getting the ball to a receiver other than Faison, then cool beans. But, it's not clear to me that we entered the game with that intent so much as that's what we ended up doing against a middle to bottom tier Big 10 team that we can out-talent.