No Rest for the Weary: Difficulty Predicted for MSU

Coming off a road loss to its biggest rival, Michigan State will face the red-hot Indiana Hoosiers on Saturday. It is expected to be another difficult game for the Spartans.

Starr Portice, Michigan State Spartans on SI

Michigan State has lost four of its last five games and now has two upcoming games against formidable opponents.

Before their bye week, the Spartans faced two of the best teams in the country in consecutive weeks. They will do so again over the next few weeks when they face undefeated Iowa and Illinois. Both teams are ranked in the top 25. Michigan State will have to successfully navigate another challenging stretch of games.

Coach Jonathan Smith and the Spartans have four games left and need to win two of those to become bowl-eligible. After losing to Michigan on the road this past weekend, Michigan State returns home to kick off an interesting slate of games. The four-game stint starts with a home matchup with Indiana.

While Michigan State played well against Michigan, it will face a much stiffer challenge against Indiana.

Bill Connelly of ESPN recently released his predictions from SP+. This is an algorithm that is based on statistics. It is often used to rank teams and predict the outcome of games. After the most recent weekend of games, SP+ is favoring Indiana to beat Michigan State by multiple scores. Indiana is predicted to beat Michigan State by a score of 32-15, which is not an unfair prediction, all things considered.

While SP+ often does a solid job of predicting outcomes and scores, it has been wrong on Michigan State before, when it predicted Maryland to beat the Spartans. While SP+ and other college football experts may not believe in the Spartans, they are not unfamiliar with being doubted. Michigan State's two most significant wins on the season were against teams they were predicted to lose against. Their matchup against Indiana gives them a chance to make it happen again.

Michigan State has had a mixed bag of success this season, as can be seen by their 4-4 record. However, that mixed bag of results is much better than how they did last season. Coach Jonathan Smith has his eye on bettering the long-term future of Michigan State's football program. That means he and the team will have to take some difficult losses, like they already have this season. However, the difficult losses this season will only help move the program forward.

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