Game Preview: Michigan State

It’s certainly not ideal, but Michigan State is going to try and make it work. The Spartans, after a Sept. 2 opener against Football Championship Subdivision opponent Furman, have 14 days between their opener and a Week 3 date against Notre Dame.

Because of several non-conference series dropped from the schedule — including a home-and-home with Alabama — the Spartans are left with a bye in Week 2 this year and open the 2017 season with a bye.

It’s a scheduling quirk that MSU coach Mark Dantonio has not criticized publicly, though it’s not conducive for a 12-game slate that will toughen as the Spartans enter Big Ten play.

"It's been a question throughout the process, you know," Dantonio said. "I think we're the only team in America that plays as a bye the second week of the season, and then plays a Power 5 team that next week."

Kyle Austin, who covers the Spartans for MLive.com, gave his take on the unusual bye week.

“Mark Dantonio, if you gave him some truth serum he’d say he’s not happy about it, but he’s not a guy that’s going to publicly question or undercut his AD,” Austin said. “All he’ll say is that they’re going to try and make the best of it. They have a couple guys that have minor injuries. In the long term (the bye) will be something that’s an issue, but for the Notre Dame game it’s somewhat of an advantage.”

Coming off an unimpressive 28-13 victory over Furman, a game in which Michigan State was limited to just 361 yards of offense and ran just 58 plays, some may have concern about the opening week performance.

But Austin said the Spartans treated the Furman game much like recent years, when MSU opened with a lesser opponent before playing Oregon.

“You look at how they were playing, I don’t think they opened things up,” Austin said. “You’re going to see more different packages out of them. They’ve got a guy like Donnie Corley, he’s a freshman wide receiver and their No. 1 recruit. He’s kind of one of these jack-of-all-trades guy and they kept him very under wraps. They’ll have some tricks up their sleeve.

“They kept it very vanilla in Week 1 and we saw very different stuff against Oregon. That’s probably the game plan again this year. They could’ve opened things up a little bit more against Furman and put up 45 points, but they saw more value in keeping it vanilla and having the score a bit closer. Frankly they feel pretty fortunate that Notre Dame had to go play Texas and they couldn’t keep as much under wraps as Michigan State did.”

The Spartans will likely take their cue from the Longhorns, who rushed for 237 yards on 59 carries against the Fighting Irish.

Michigan State boasts a deep running back corps, which includes sophomore L.J. Scott. Though the thought entering the season was that the Spartans would split their carries equally this season, that was not the case against Furman. Scott ran 20 times for 105 yards and a touchdown, while backup Madre London had five rushes for 14 yards.

“Michigan State’s running back situation has kind of been a bit of a mystery,” Austin said. “They had three guys last year who they rotated fairly equally, they all ended up with similar carry numbers and they finished with very similar yards. Mark Dantonio kind of said going into this year they liked all three of them, but then it turns out they came out and they did really pick a lead guy.

“That was L.J. Scott, a sophomore and former four-star recruit from Ohio. ...I didn’t really think that they would anoint a No. 1 back, but they did. They’ll work in at least one, maybe two depending on who you ask, but that did surprise me a bit that they picked one guy.”

With a new quarterback leading the Spartans’ ground-and-pound attack, the expectation is that they’ll test out Notre Dame on the ground. Despite losing many of its playmakers and stalwarts from last year’s team that won the Big Ten and made the College Football Playoff, the strength of the team is still the running game.

“That’s kind of where Mark Dantonio always starts,” Austin said. “They certainly don’t have anybody at the quarterback position that’s as dynamic as Connor Cook, but they still like their offensive line and L.J. Scott is the best offensive weapon they have as far as a guy that has the power and kind of can break through tackles but also has increased his speed.

“He’s a guy around here that’s compared to (former Michigan State and current Pittsburgh Steelers running back) Le’Veon Bell a lot, and a lot of that is warranted. They’ve got a lot of new receivers too. There are more questions in the passing game, which is going to lead them to run more. Their run-pass ratio, which they try to get 50-50, was way out wack in Week 1. That’s what they’re going to lean on and that’s what they feel stronger about. You look at Notre Dame-Texas, they probably do see some opportunities there.”

One uncharacteristic statistic in Michigan State’s game against Furman was the team’s penalty issues. The Spartans committed 10 fouls for 120 yards, setbacks that kept the Paladins in the game.

“There were three personal fouls, a couple late hits, and that was partially them playing some younger guys and partially just that it was opening night,” Austin said. “Everyone was amped up to play, guys kind of played through the whistle a bit. They’re trying to get them to learn from that. They’re pretty confident that they’ll be able to work through that, especially with a bye and get that out of there.”

New Michigan State quarterback Tyler O’Connor — a senior who waited behind last year’s starter Connor Cook, who went 34-4 at Michigan State and went 2-0 in Big Ten championship games — went 18-for-18 for 190 yards and three touchdowns against Furman. Still, he’s not the NFL prospect that Cook was, though the Spartans aren’t expecting him to be.

“He’s certainly not Connor Cook. They didn’t ask him to be,” Austin said of O’Connor. “He made some shorter throws, he’s very accurate and a couple bad decisions and he had one bad pick where he stared down the guy and threw into coverage. Overall was OK, they kept things easy for him. He’s not out there threading the needle like we saw Connor Cook do for the last three years. He was serviceable.”

Defensively, Michigan State allowed 87 yards on the ground against Furman, but the Paladins exposed some holes on the MSU defensive line.

Outside of 6-foot-6, 276-pound junior defensive lineman Malik McDowell — who is projected to be a first-round NFL pick next year — Michigan State was unspectacular on the defensive line.

“The guys around (McDowell) struggled,” Austin said. “Furman really just ran the ball up the gut on them several times for a decent amount of yards, which was surprising because we thought they’d be pretty decent in the interior there.”

Michigan State returns just nine starters from last year’s team that went 12-2. Austin sees those departures as the main reason the Spartans will lose to the Irish.

“Frankly it can be a process to get back to that level where they were, and they’re breaking in too many guys and trying to ask them to go on the road and get it all together,” Austin said. “It seems like Notre Dame has a lot more coming back, a lot more experience. (Michigan State) could be at that level at the end of the year, but I don’t see them getting it together this quick that early.”

Date: Sept. 17, 2016.

Site: Notre Dame Stadium (80,795).

Kickoff: 7:30 p.m.

Television: NBC.

Radio: This broadcast can be heard live on SIRIUS Satellite Radio (channel 129).

Series Facts: This is the 78th meeting between Michigan State and Notre Dame. Notre Dame is 44-28-1 all-time against the Spartans. The two teams last played in 2013, a 17-13 Irish win.

Coaches: Michigan State — Mark Dantonio (88-33, 10th year); Notre Dame — Brian Kelly (55-24, seventh season).

Noting Michigan State: Dantonio, who played defensive back at South Carolina from 1976-78, took the Spartans to the 2015 College Football Playoff. Michigan State lost to Alabama in the semifinals … In his previous nine seasons in East Lansing, Dantonio has taken Michigan State to a bowl game each year, going 4-5 in those games … As Notre Dame coach, Brian Kelly holds a 4-3 record against Dantonio … The Spartans finished +14 in turnover margin in 2015, the fifth-highest mark in the country.