When the 2010 Spartan football team takes the field Saturday at Spartan Stadium against the Broncos of Western Michigan, they will feel a strong undercurrent of confidence beginning to bubble in East Lansing. Coach Dantonio has brought needed consistency to this program (sad to say that 3 bowls in a row qualifies as special around here… but hey, you’ve got to start somewhere). The program is in a good position – read about that here. Of course, the Spartans will face some challenges this year – you can read about the defense here, the offense here and the special teams here.
Kirk Cousins, Greg Jones, and Eric Gordon return to lead this year’s team in an effort to overcome the losses of Blair White, Rocco Cironi, Trevor Anderson and Brett Swenson from last year‘s underachieving team. The Spartans need to get back to winning the close games, unlike what they did last year. The Green and White lost 4 games that they led after 3 quarters (most in the nation) last year. In fact, its been a trend since Dantonio took over in 2007: 12 losses by 8 points or fewer (3rd most in the nation in that time).
Dantonio
This year, the schedule lays out favorably to have a breakout year: 3 of the first 4 games are at home with the 2nd of the 4 a “road game” in Detroit vs Florida Atlantic. In fact, Michigan State doesn’t leave the State of Michigan until October 23. Ohio State isn‘t on the schedule this year, either. Unlike last year, we need to get off to a fast start. So let’s take a look at the schedule, break it down and make some predictions.
09/04/10 vs. Western Michigan East Lansing, Mich. 12:00 p.m. ET
09/11/10 vs. Florida Atlantic Detroit, Mich. 12:00 p.m. ET
09/18/10 vs. Notre Dame East Lansing, Mich. 8:00 p.m. ET
09/25/10 vs. Northern Colorado East Lansing, Mich. TBA
10/02/10 vs. Wisconsin East Lansing, Mich. TBA
10/09/10 at Michigan Ann Arbor, Mich. TBA
10/16/10 vs. Illinois East Lansing, Mich. 12:00 p.m. ET
10/23/10 at Northwestern Evanston, Ill. 12:00 p.m. ET
10/30/10 at Iowa Iowa City, Iowa TBA
11/06/10 vs. Minnesota East Lansing, Mich. TBA
During MSU’s football team’s BYE WEEK on 11/13/10, the MSU basketball team plays 3 games in the Breslin Center (get your tickets now):
11/08/10 vs. Nebraska-Omaha 7:00pm ET
11/12/10 vs. Eastern Michigan 8:30pm ET
11/16/10 vs. South Carolina 10:00pm ET
Then the football schedule finishes up:
11/20/10 vs. Purdue East Lansing, Mich. TBA
11/27/10 at Penn State State College, Pa. TBA
Some initial thoughts:
- The two road games at Iowa and at Penn State are our toughest games.
- The next pair of tough games are at home vs. Wisconsin and at home vs. Notre Dame.
- The other 8 games should all be winnable: home vs. Western Michigan, in Detroit vs. Florida Atlantic, home vs. Northern Colorado, at Michigan, at home vs. Illinois, at Northwestern, at home vs. Minnesota and at home vs. Purdue.
- The schedule has only 4 true road games (at Michigan, Iowa, Penn State and Northwestern).
Here is the schedule, ranked in order of difficulty, from easiest to hardest:
1. Home vs. Northern Colorado.
2. In Detroit vs. Florida Atlantic.
3. Home vs. Western Michigan.
4. At Northwestern.
5. Home vs. Illinois.
6. Home vs. Purdue.
7. Home vs. Minnesota.
8. At Michigan.
9. Home vs. Notre Dame.
10. Home vs. Wisconsin.
11. At Iowa.
12. At Penn State.
If I could generalize my predictions, it would be a 9-3 record and would look like this:
- Win games 1-7.
- Win 2 of the 3 games 8-10.
- Lose games 11-12.
Since that is a wimpy way out, here is my actual predictions (and I welcome yours in the comments section):
09/04 VICTORY vs Western Michigan (1-0)
09/11 VICTORY vs Florida Atlantic (2-0)
09/18 VICTORY vs Notre Dame (3-0)
09/25 VICTORY vs Northern Colorado (4-0)
10/02 DEFEAT vs Wisconsin (4-1)
10/09 VICTORY at Michigan (5-1)
10/16 VICTORY vs Illinois (6-1)
10/23 VICTORY at Northwestern (7-1)
10/30 DEFEAT at Iowa (7-2)
11/06 VICTORY vs Minnesota (8-2)
11/20 VICTORY vs Purdue (9-2)
11/27 DEFEAT at Penn State (9-3)
It’s very possible that we could end up 8-4 by losing to either Notre Dame or Michigan but it’s also possible that we could stretch it out to 10-2 with a stolen victory against Wisconsin or at Iowa.
