As the Spartans prepare to win their second Big Ten title in three years, and maybe more, I will breakdown Michigan State’s schedule into four parts, and cover what you need to know for each game. This first segment will cover the non-conference schedule, which features two night games and two other contests against in-state foes.
1. Boise State @ Michigan State, Aug. 31, 8:00 p.m.
There is more build-up for this game than any other home opener that I can remember for the Spartans; it’s on a Friday night, it’s the first game with the new scoreboards, and it’s against a team that has finished in the top 10 the past three years. The Broncos opened up each of those seasons with a victory over a ranked major-conference opponent (#16 Oregon, #10 Virginia Tech, #19 Georgia). All of those victories, however, were with the all-time winningest quarterback in NCAA Division I FBS history, Kellen Moore. With Moore gone, and pretty much everyone else from last year’s 12-win team, the Broncos return only seven starters (5 offense, 2 defense). Four different quarterbacks are expected to compete for the starting job at Boise State this fall. Two of them, Joe Southwick (Jr.) and Grant Hedrick (So.), have more game experience than Michigan State’s first-year junior quarterback Andrew Maxwell. It will be interesting to watch these new quarterbacks on Aug. 31, but the Spartans definitely have the upper-hand in terms of overall team experience.
2. Michigan State @ Central Michigan, Sept. 8, 3:30 p.m.
The Spartans travel to Mount Pleasant in week 2, somewhere they haven’t been in over 100 years, looking to stomp on the Chippewas for the second straight season. Central Michigan returns 16 starters (8 offense, 8 defense) from last year’s 3-win team that led at some point in their games against Kentucky and North Carolina State. The Chippewas are led by senior quarterback Ryan Radcliff, who has thrown for over 3,000 yards in each of the past two seasons. The Spartans gained 197 yards on the ground in last year’s match-up and should be able to put up more with the experience at running back and on the offensive line. Michigan State’s defense intercepted four passes on that day (Radcliff 2), forced a fumble, recorded five tackles for loss, and held the Chippewas to 112 total yards. Eight starters are back on Michigan State’s defense and they are only going to create more havoc this year.
Charlie Gantt’s touchdown in overtime to beat Notre Dame in 2010
3. Notre Dame @ Michigan State, Sept. 15, 8:00 p.m.
Here’s another game in the 2012 college football season that is surrounded by so much anticipation. The home team has won the last four contests in this annual rivalry for the Megaphone trophy. Michigan State’s terrible performance last year in South Bend left Spartan fans worrying about where that 2011 season was headed. The Irish held the Spartans to 29 rushing yards, Michigan State’s defense was not nearly as good as they were later in the year, and Kirk Cousins threw an interception late in the game to end any sort of comeback. This year, Notre Dame returns 14 starters (8 offense, 6 defense) and will play the toughest schedule in the country. With three starters returning on a top 15 offensive line, and perhaps the best players in the country at the linebacker position, senior Manti Te’o, and tight end, junior Tyler Eifert, the Irish will put up a fight at Spartan Stadium. Again, on paper, the Spartans have the better team. It just comes down to making plays in this rivalry game that seems to go to the wire more than often.
4. Eastern Michigan @ Michigan State, Sept. 22, TBA
The last time these two teams met was in 2008, with the Spartans coming out on top 42-10. Last year, the Eagles led Michigan 3-0 in the second quarter, they beat Western Michigan, and they only lost by six in the season finale to eventual MAC champion Northern Illinois. The Eagles return 14 starters (9 offense, 5 defense) from last year’s 6-6 team, and is a program that hasn’t made a bowl game since 1987. Dual-threat senior quarterback Alex Gillett leads the way behind five returning starters on the offensive line. Still, it’s likely that we will see a repeat of the last outcome between the two, especially when the Spartans know that former Michigan Wolverine Mike Hart is on the Eagles’ sideline. Hart, Eastern Michigan’s running backs coach, is not forgotten by the Spartans for making his “little brother” comment after the Wolverines beat Michigan State in 2007.
It’s fair to say that the Spartans are expected to start the season off with a perfect record; and not having to leave the state of michigan makes it a bit easier. Stay tuned for Part II of this preseason segment, which will contain previews for Ohio State, Indiana, and Iowa.
Other Preseason Michigan State Football Articles:
Ten questions going into August
Five incoming freshmen to watch this August
About Andrew Henk
Even Money
Joe Southwick isn’t the guy,at least not alone. Another fact that needs to be considered here is this is Coach Pete’s record with QB’s other then Kellen Moore, granted Kelen Moore was a special player but unknown to most out side of Bronco Nation Boise State has a track recorded of being strong at QB and much of this is lent to Coach Pete’s ability to coach them up. The year Kellen was made Starter he replaced Taylor Tharp who only went 10-3 a 1 point bowl loss and a 10-24 slug fest with a Strong Washington team, he threw fro 3300 yards and had a QB rating of 152 as a 4th year Junior that year if you go back even further you find Z, Ryan Dinwiddy who only suffered 2 losses during his 2 years at the helm with Bowl wins over TCU and Iowa State What I’m getting at is Coach Pete isn’t afraid to pull the trigger and start a Freshmen over a 4 year guy, he’s done it before he will do it again and while Southwick got most of the reps at the spring game many believed he was out shinned by Nick Patti the Florida star that commuted to Boise State before everyone learned this kid was the best QB in the state leading his team to 2 state title games and name Florida’s top high school QB two years in a row. Me I like mensurable and Johnny Laughrea is my dark horse in the Boise State QB race Tall, big, rocket arm true 4.5 speed last years scout team player of the year and comes from a father coach back ground much like Kellen did ad in he played at a high level in California’s top high school level. The fact is if Coach Pete hasn’t declared at started by now. knowing Boise State and the way they are he probably won’t until at least the last presser before they board the plan for Lansing. And if that’s the case it wont be Joe.
The hype for the opener is at high level because a dominating victory can set a positive tone to the season, while a loss could be devastating.
Very true, especially when the Spartans are expecting nothing less than a Big Ten title this year.
Very true, especially when the Spartans are expecting nothing less than a Big Ten title this year.
I don’t think a loss would be as devastating as you might think. Lets be honest here been a long time since MSU has scheduled at ranked team to start the season, in fact they haven’t in the last 10 years nor has MSU had much luck playing Bigger Programs to start the season with losses @ Cal and @ Rutgers a near catastrophic loss in 06 against dUI.at home and I wont bring up cmu. For dUI to have the score 17-24 into the 4th however in 08 should be disconcerting. MSU recovered after it’s loss to Cal even with 2 more losses found them selves with a nice Jan 1st bowl game against Georgia. I think the hype is well deserved and will only go up as we near the game. As most know both these teams are loaded with talent yet have so many unanswered question at key positions that can only be answered on the field of battle. I don’t know about you all but I can not wait. Tickets purchased plans have been made the sooner we get to this game the quicker we can get on with 2012,
The hype for the opener is at high level because a dominating victory can set a positive tone to the season, while a loss could be devastating.