Victory 4 MSU

Is it Saturday yet? This is one of those games that defines college football. It will be the 72nd meeting between Michigan State and Notre Dame, and the Irish have the lead in the series 44 - 26 - 1. The Spartans first played the Fighting Irish in 1897 in South Bend and lost that game 34-6. In fact, the Spartans lost the first eight games of the series before getting their first win in 1910 in East Lansing. (The first eight were all played at Notre Dame) However, Michigan State fans should not be upset by this because it was this rivalry that put MSU on the map in the national college football scene. This rivalry also aided the entrance of Michigan State into the Big 10 conference. So, thank you Notre Dame; and as a sign of our appreciation, please visit us in East Lansing Saturday for a good, old-fashioned beat down.

MSU has owned the Irish this decade, going 8-3 in the last 11 matchups; and the visiting team has won each of the last six years. 2005 in South Bend was the thrilling 44-41 Spartan victory in overtime and 2006 was the colossal 40-37 meltdown in East Lansing which single-handedly got John L. Smith fired. In 2007 the Spartans defeated the Fighting Irish 31 - 14 in South Bend under the watch of new head coach Mark Dantonio, giving the Irish their first ever 0 - 4 start in school history. They went on to a horrific 3 - 9 record; also the worst in school history. Have they improved enough this year to make a game of it?

Notre Dame is 2-0 in 2008 after struggling with San Diego State and having Michigan gift-wrap a victory for them last week. In the first game of the year for the Irish, San Diego State (which lost to Cal Poly in week 1) led by a touchdown at the start of the 4th quarter and were about to go up two scores when their running back fumbled on a 4 yard run to the endzone. The Irish converted the turnover into seven points and never looked back. San Diego State actually outgained Notre Dame on offense in that game.

In their second game of the season Michigan turned the ball over six times to give the Irish 28 points and a feel-good victory. The Wolverines outgained the Irish on offense by a 128 yard margin; pretty good for an offense that has looked inept in its first two games. After playing two horrible teams I think the Golden Domers are going to get a shocking dose of reality this week.

The Spartans are 2-1 in 2008 after shutting out Florida Atlantic 17-0 last week in a torrential downpour in East Lansing. That was the first shutout for the Spartans since 1999 in Evanston, Illinois when MSU defeated Northwestern 35-0. And before you say “The weather got the shutout, not MSU” just remember: BOTH teams had to play in those elements, and the Spartans took care of business. The offense also did well for the conditions with Javon having a career day going 282 yards on 43 carries behind an improving offensive line.

The Matchups

MSU Offensive Line vs ND Defensive Line

The Spartans’ Oline is inexperienced in the middle and left side, but it has improved considerably week to week. Perhaps the biggest improvement has come from left guard Joel Foreman. Joel had several monster blocks against FAU which allowed Javon to rack up some yardage. For Javon to have 498 yards in only three games, he must have had some help; and the Spartan Oline provided it.

The Irish Dline allowed 78 rushing yards on only 12 carries for a 6.5 yard average against San Diego State. The following week they allowed Michigan true freshman running back Sam McGuffie to get 131 yards on 25 carries. I bet they can’t wait to see what Javon Ringer can do. They also have only one sack on the year. I expect the Irish to be weak against the run and have a weak pass rush. Javon goes for over 150 and Hoyer has all day.

Advantage: MSU

MSU Wide Receivers vs ND Defensive Backs

We all know what the Spartans bring to the table. Mark Dell is the latest star at WR U and B.J. Cunningham is right there with him. Both are big, physical receivers who aren’t afraid of contact and can be explosive after the catch. Also of note this week: Deon Curry is back on the depth chart behind B.J. so hopefully he can make a contribution.

I have heard the Notre Dame secondary is great this year and that they will “shut down the passing game” against MSU, but I have a hard time believing this. San Diego State racked up 274 yards through the air and Michigan was able to come up with 229. These are not potent offenses we are talking about here and they did just fine against the Irish secondary. I think the Spartans can control this game with the run and open up the play-action pass. If Hoyer is protected well, he is a very good quarterback.

Advantage: MSU

MSU Running Backs vs ND Linebackers

The Spartans have Javon Ringer.

The ground game statistics mentioned for the Notre Dame defensive line are relevant here as well. The Irish allowed two mediocre to bad offenses gain significant yardage on them. Their linebackers are big, but they may not be quick enough to catch Ringer.

Advantage: MSU

ND Offensive Line vs MSU Defensive Line

This is one area where the Irish are vastly improved over last season. They gave up 58 sacks in 2007, but so far in 2008 they’ve given up zero. They have also been able to run behind the line reasonably well, getting 105 yards on the ground against SDSU and 113 versus Michigan. The average weight on the Irish Oline is a respectable 315 pounds.

The Spartans on the other hand haven’t proven a whole lot with their Dline. The pressure has been adequate, but nothing to get very excited over. They have only three sacks on the season so far. Will this be the week that Trevor Anderson finally breaks out?

Advantage: ND

ND Wide Receivers vs MSU Defensive Backs

Notre Dame has been fairly prolific through the air in 2008. Jimmy Clausen has a good arm and Golden Tate (is that a real name?) is their main big play target. He’s got speed, so Chris L Rucker will need to have another shutdown performance. In the Florida Atlantic game Rucker kept the Owls’ main receiver Cortez Gent receptionless. The other big time performer for the Spartan secondary is senior Otis Wiley. He is having a career season at strong safety. The other two spots are the question marks for MSU. If Kendell Davis-Clark can return, he would provide a needed shot in the arm for the secondary. Weaver and Fortener have shown improvement, however.

Advantage: Even

ND Running Backs vs MSU Linebackers

Notre Dame has some big pound-it-out type running backs in James Aldridge and Robert Hughes who both have looked good this year. Armando Allen is their smaller, quicker back. This group put up 113 yards on a good Michigan defense but only 105 against a mediocre SDSU defense.

For MSU, Greg Jones has been stellar and Eric Gordon has been great, though he has made some wrong moves. The third spot, filled by either Adam Decker in the middle or Brandon Denson on the outside, has been solid, not great but not bad either. Decker and Denson have missed a couple of assignments here and there but usually make up for it.

Advantage: Even

Keys to the Game

Michigan State

1. Don’t rely solely on Javon Ringer to pound the rock all day. Open up the game and keep the Irish honest by calling some pass plays for Hoyer. Brian should have a much better day than last week with better weather and hopefully a lot of time in the pocket to find Dell or Cunningham.
2. I still think our best pass defense will be a consistent pass rush this year. Our secondary hasn’t shown it can stop the big play, but the D-line has shown flashes of something better. Hopefully Trevor Anderson finally breaks through after all the hype he received.

Notre Dame

1. Control the line on offense and allow Clausen to find an open receiver. This may be a case of the pass opening up the run game. Tate has shown he can make the big play.
2. This may sound like a broken record this year, but; contain Javon Ringer. If McGuffie can get 131 yards on your defense, I would be worried what Ringer is going to do. If they hold Ringer under 150 yards it would be an accomplishment.

Final Thoughts

This game has the potential to become a shootout, and if it does that does not bode well for the Spartans. The Irish have loads of talent and are coming together at just the right time. However, the Spartans may be their second-toughest opponent this year behind USC and the Irish might not be up to the task just yet. I think the Spartans bring them back down to earth a little bit this weekend.

Prediction: Michigan State 38, Notre Dame 24

P.S. If you are going to the game… Please wear white! It’s a white out!

P.P.S. If you are watching the game from home, log onto victory4msu.com for in-game live chat in the sidebar. The “Game Chat” wall refreshes automatically, so no need to hit refresh all the time, just post when you want to. Also, you do not need to be logged in to post, just enter your name and message and click “submit”! Hopefully we can get some good in-game dialogue going. (I’ll be at the game however)

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Tags: Notre Dame Fighting Irish

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 at 8:39 pm and is filed under Gameday Previews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.