REPORT: Michigan State Football's Most Important Game Next Season
Michigan State coach Jonathan Smith and the Spartans are entering a new era not only for Spartans football but also Big Ten football. Four new teams (Oregon, Washington, USC, UCLA) have moved over from the Pac-12 and are now members of the Big Ten.
Jesse Simonton of On3 recently went through all of the Big Ten teams' most important games for next season. For Michigan State, Simonton has its most important game as its Week 9 matchup with Indiana.
“The Spartans are facing a reset as they transition away from the Mel Tucker regime and into the Jonathan Smith era," Simonton said. "Games against Michigan and Ohio State carry more weight for MSU fans, but if the team has any hopes of a turnaround season, the Spartans need to handle business against another Big Ten rival.
“Michigan State has one of the worst four-week slates of any team in the country this fall — Ohio State, at Oregon, Iowa and at Michigan — but then Indiana comes to East Lansing. They finish the year with Purdue, Illinois and Rutgers. So regardless of how badly the midseason gauntlet goes for Smith’s team, the first-year head coach has the opportunity too capture some momentum heading into Year 2 with a November run.”
Michigan State's football season starts with four games against Florida Atlantic, Maryland, Prairie View A&M, and Boston College. With a relatively easy first four games, its crucial that the Spartans get off to a good start and not fall behind if it doesn't want to finish around the bottom in the conference.
Going up against four straight top-25 teams is going to be challenging. If the Spartans manage to go 0-4 in that span, it would be a nightmare if they don't perform well in the first four weeks. That's why the game against Indiana is so crucial for their success next season.
Hypothetically, if Michigan State goes 3-5 by the Indiana game and manages to win that game, then it would tie last year's team in wins with three more games left in the season. If Michigan State finishes the season 5-7, that should be a positive for the Spartans, as they showed growth compared to last year and would be a good starting point for Jonathan Smith and his staff to learn and improve for the future of Michigan State football.
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LUKE JOSEPH