Notre Dame Prepares For Physical Michigan State

Brian Kelly and the Notre Dame football team know Michigan State’s identity.

That fact was obvious during the head coach’s Tuesday press conference, when he was asked multiple times about the Spartans’ physical nature, a characteristic Michigan State has held during Mark Dantonio’s tenure in East Lansing.

“They’re a physical team. They’ve got a mindset of the way they want to play,” Kelly said. “They’re going to run the football. They’re going to be physical on defense. So you have to be tough minded as a group, you know, on all three phases.”

Many of Notre Dame’s players mentioned similar things after the 39-10 win over Nevada last week. Looking ahead to Michigan State — a team that reached the College Football Playoff in 2015 — the Irish are ready for what will be a physical contest on Saturday.

“I just think they clearly recognize it’s a team that is a top-10 team, one that has played in the playoffs,” Kelly said of his team’s mentality entering Saturday’s game. “They like the competition because it’s always talked about in terms of a physical contest.

“When you tell a football player we’re going to test you mentally and physically, and this is going to be a physical contest, they bow up, you know, because they’re football players.

“So I think the natural reaction is anytime they’re tested about a physical contest, they want to — come on, let’s bring it on. And I think Michigan State has proven to be a winning football program, and they do it by being physical. Our guys are going to have to back that up.”

The No. 18 Irish are 7.5-point favorites against the No. 12 Spartans for the 7:30 p.m. primetime matchup at Notre Dame Stadium. It will be broadcast on NBC and Notre Dame is expected to host many of its top-ranked recruiting prospects for the marquee game.

The teams last played in 2013, a 17-13 Notre Dame win. It’s a game that Dantonio said he’s talked to his team about.

“Yeah, we’ve talked about that a little bit, and we’ll talk about that more this week with our upperclassmen and seniors that were there,” Dantonio said at his weekly press conference. “They’ll give them a feeling of what the place is about, and our coaching staff has pretty much stayed intact, so we understand that as well.

“At the end of the day, you get on the field and everything sort of I think dissipates and goes away and you start playing football. And that’s the way it’s always been. That’s the way it will be again I’m sure.

“Good football team down there to play, great challenge for us, and we've got to live up and measure up to that challenge.”

Michigan State was terrific in close games in 2015, a fact that Kelly pointed out to reporters. The Spartans went 6-1 in games decided by a touchdown or less, including wins over Ohio State, Oregon, Michigan and Iowa.

“So it says that you obviously have that winning attitude that you can close out games,” Kelly said. “But I think more than anything else is Michigan State is going to play the game with that mental and physical toughness and you have to match it.”

Kelly, though, warned that the Spartans are more than their physical brand. Dantonio has solid athletes and very good schemes, he said.

It’s not just a “neanderthal” team that simply hits you in the mouth.

“This is a team that went to the playoffs, and, you know, beat Oregon and beat good football teams that do other things,” Kelly said. “I think you’re underselling them to say it’s a physical football team. We have to do other things well.”

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