V-Cast: can Michigan State hang with Ohio State at home on Saturday night?
East Lansing, Mich. – Coming off a difficult road loss in a winnable game at Boston College, Michigan State faces its toughest test to date at home on Saturday night against Ohio State. The Spartans have played well during the first month of Jonathan Smith’s inaugural season as head coach at Michigan State, but they have yet to face a team with the talent level of Ohio State.
After practice on Wednesday, SpartanMag.com staffers Jim Comparoni and Paul Konyndyk checked in with the latest on Michigan State’s preparation for the Buckeyes in the latest V-Cast.
V-CAST TOPICS
Will Michigan State defense be up to the task?
The Spartans have been better on defense that many expected going into the season given the massive roster attrition following spring football. The guys that stayed at Michigan State are playing well, and the first-year players acquired through the NCAA transfer portal late in the recruiting calendar have exceeded expectations. Defensively, Michigan State has proven itself up to the task against two quality major conference programs in Maryland and Boston College. Facing Ohio State, however, is a much different challenge given wealth of talent the Buckeyes have on both sides of the football. On offense, Ohio State has an experienced quarterback in Kansas State transfer Will Howard, and a dynamic trio of receivers in Jeremiah Smith, Emeka Egbuka, and Carnell Tate. The Buckeyes also have explosive tailbacks with Quinshon Judkins, TreVeyon Henderson, and James Peoples. While the Spartans have enough good players in their front seven to challenge the Buckeyes defensively, it remains to be seen whether Michigan State will be healthy enough in its secondary to compete with Ohio State.
Can the Spartan offense limit self-inflicted wounds?
Sophomore quarterback Aidan Chiles is a talented young quarterback with the physical tools to match up with anyone in the country at his position. He is also, however, just getting his feet wet as a starting quarterback for a major conference program. The challenge for Chiles in this game will be to avoid making the type of drive-killing mistakes that have been a problem for him to this point in the season. Even if Michigan State were to play its best game against Ohio State, this is going to be an uphill battle. Although the Spartan defense has shown itself capable of rising to the challenge in sudden change scenarios this season, it will be far tougher to do so against the Buckeyes given their level of talent at skill positions. Avoiding costly errors is not simply on the shoulders of Chiles alone. Michigan State needs to help its young quarterback out with a credible run game. Consistency in the run game will require the Spartans to avoid the negative run plays that have been an issue throughout the season.
