Notre Dame vs Michigan State Preview

            The first true road test for #20 Notre Dame comes this Saturday night. The Fighting Irish travel up the road to East Lansing, Michigan to battle the #10 Michigan State Spartans. Both teams enter the game at 2-0 and have not played anybody as talented as each other. They both have defeated one below-average opponent and one average opponent. Notre Dame has wins over Navy and Purdue. Michigan State has wins over Central Michigan and Boise State.  The similarities between the two teams do not end there though. The defenses for each team are two of the best in the country. Notre Dame held Navy to 150 rushing yards and only allowed Purdue to gain 288 total yards on offense. Michigan State has not given up an offensive touchdown so far this season. The two teams are also led on offense by first-time starting quarterbacks. The Spartans’ Andrew Maxwell is a junior that has thrown two touchdowns and three interceptions. For the Irish, it’s sophomore Everett Golson who has thrown two touchdowns and one interception. Both have shown flashes of greatness but neither have been tested the way they will be Saturday night. It’s likely both teams will rely on their running game to keep the pressure off their young quarterbacks.

Keys to an Irish Victory

1) Slow down Le’Veon Bell- Bell is Michigan State’s starting running back and one of the best backs in America. It’s likely the junior will be a first-round NFL Draft pick after this season or next. He rushed for 948 yards and 13 touchdowns last year and is on pace to top that this year. Even though he had a great 2011, he was only able to garner 27 yards on 7 carries in the game against Notre Dame. Probably the most intriguing one-on-one matchup in this game will be Le’Veon Bell versus Notre Dame’s senior linebacker Manti Te’o. There are two future NFL players that scouts will be watching closely.

2) Establish a Running Game- Notre Dame running backs accumulated just 52 yards against Purdue. That forced the team to rely on Everett Golson and his receivers to move the ball. They did move the ball, but even Brian Kelly admitted he wished he would have run the ball more. The offense should get a spark from returning running back Cierre Wood. Wood was the starting running back last season and ran for over 1,000 yards. With Wood, Theo Riddick, and George Atkinson III in the backfield, somebody should have a good game and keep the offensive attack balanced.

3) Keep a Cool Head- Late in the 4^th quarter, team captain, Manti Te’o, was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.  Before that, five false starts had been called on various Irish players. It is imperative to limit the amount of silly penalties, especially when you go on the road against a ranked opponent. Notre Dame has done a great job of reducing the amount of turnovers while raising the number of turnovers it gets on defense. This trend needs to continue against Michigan State.

Outside of the Blue and Gold faithful, nobody thinks Notre Dame is going to win this game. I’m not sure where all the doubt is coming from. The Irish dominated the Spartans last season, 31-13. That was when Notre Dame was even more unsure on their quarterback than they are this year and Michigan State had Kirk Cousins and B.J. Cunningham as the centerpiece of their offense. This season, Notre Dame has about the same offense and an even better defense. Michigan State has a little better defense and a worse offense.

My prediction: Notre Dame-20. Michigan State-10

  

National Preview

This is the final week before conference play begins and most teams are preparing by cupcake teams. Because of that, there are hardly any quality matchups on Saturday. The three Top 25 matchups should be great games though. #18 Florida visits #23 Tennessee, Notre Dame is in East Lansing, and #2 USC heads south to #21 Stanford. The Florida and Tennessee matchup is easily the most intriguing outside of the Notre Dame game. Both teams are trying to return to the upper echelon of the SEC where they were in the 90’s. Both teams are 2-0 and can use this game as a springboard to possibly win the SEC East Division.

Games are in order of when they are played. Winners in bold.

 Eastern Michigan (0-2) at Purdue (1-1)

North Carolina (1-1) at #19 Louisville (2-0)

Virginia (2-0) at Georgia Tech (1-1)

Navy (0-1) at Penn State (0-2)

#18 Florida (2-0) at #23 Tennessee (2-0)

Arizona State (2-0) at Missouri (1-1)

#2 USC (2-0) at #21 Stanford (2-0)

#20 Notre Dame (2-0) at #10 Michigan State (2-0)

Ball State (1-1) at Indiana (2-0)

#14 Texas (2-0) at Ole Miss (2-0)

I went 6-3 in picks last week. I’m 19-3 so far this season. I am going to try to limit the picks to 10 games a week as I did this week. I picked 13 the first week and 9 last week and that’s kind of confusing.