A quick look at MSU’s games vs. Florida Atlantic, @ Maryland, and vs. Prairie View
Guys! Guys! Just 7 more days until Spartan Football!
That’s right, everybody. In one week, the 2024 season will begin. We hope you enjoyed our Position Group Series. We are going to be cramming a lot of articles into this final bit of the offseason to get you ready. Starting with this article, we are going to give you a quick look at the twelve opponents on our schedule. This will just be a couple of notes on them so you have some familiarity ahead of time; we will do more in-depth previews of each team during their respective game week. We will also get you our season predictions, and there is one more bit of good news coming from TOC Headquarters that I will share with you all soon.
For these schedule primers, we are breaking the schedule into quarters and talking about three opponents in each column. The first three games for new Head Coach Jonathan Smith and the Spartan football team are:
August 30 – Florida Atlantic University (home)
September 7 – Maryland (away)
September 14 – Prairie View (home)
FLORIDA ATLANTIC
MSU begins their season by taking on the FAU Owls of the American Athletic Conference. This school from Boca Raton, FL, was not a good team in 2023. While they accomplished the same 4-8 record as the 2023 Spartans, they did that against a much easier schedule. The Owls only had two games against teams from the Power 5 (Power 4 from now on) conferences, road tilts at Clemson and Illinois. Clemson blew out FAU, 48-14, while Illinois won by less than a touchdown, 23-17. The rest of their schedule was against Group of 5 and FCS teams. In 2024, the Spartans will be the only Power 4 team the Owls face.
The Owls are entering their second year under Coach Tom Herman, who previously coached at Texas and Houston. Like our Spartans, the Owls are bringing in a lot of new names this year via the portal. This includes their new starting quarterback, as former Marshall two-year starter, Cam Fancher takes over. Fancher has a little over 3,600 yards and 19 TDs to show for his time with the Thundering Herd. There are a lot of transfers at the skilled positions, as well.
Defensively, the Owls were much better last year, and it is here that they bring in perhaps their best transfer player. Phillip Dunnam is a safety who began his career at Indiana. Last year, he had 53 tackles, six passes broken up, and three interceptions. This side of the ball also has more returning starters than the offense does and is definitely the side with more talent. The linebacker duo of Desmond Tisdol and Jackson Ambush (how great is that name?) are really good at getting to the ball carrier and making tackles.
MARYLAND
In week 2, the Spartans go on the road for an earlier-than-usual Big Ten matchup. The Terrapins have defeated MSU in each of the past two seasons including a 31-9 game last year in East Lansing. The good news for MSU is that Maryland no longer has Taulia Tagovailoa, the Big Ten’s all-time passing leader, playing QB. The bad news for MSU is that whoever ultimately wins Maryland’s QB competition will have a very good receiving corps to pass to. A pair of seniors, Tai Felton and Kaden Prather, could be among the best WR duos in the Big Ten, if not the country. They had 723 and 666 yards receiving last year, respectively, and that was with someone else as WR1. This year, they should each get a bump as they become 1A and 1B.
Another concern facing Maryland is the lack of familiar names on the offensive line. Like every program in America with the exception of the Alabamas of the world, there is an abundance of new players in College Park, and that is especially true for their offensive line, where as many as four of the starters may have been on other teams a year ago.
On defense, Maryland was a middle of the pack team in 2023, but arguably their two best defensive players from last year are now in the NFL. They play a nickel defense as their base formation, and that may be because their secondary will be a weakness this year. Certainly, their linebacker room will be the strongest part of that side of the ball, with a trio of upperclassmen – Ruben Hyppolite II, Caleb Wheatland, and Jalen Huskey – ready to build on last year’s performances. This could be a team that will be easier to attack by air than by ground.
PRAIRIE VIEW
Michigan State comes home for their week three game to take on the Prairie View A&M Panthers from Prairie View, TX. A member of the Southwest Athletic Conference, the Panthers won their division last year before falling in the SWAC Championship Game. I know I made it sound like Florida Atlantic plays an easy schedule, but it would be a gauntlet compared to Prairie View’s.
Let’s be very clear. This game is being played so Prairie View can collect a check. Since 1980, there has been one player from P.V. taken in the NFL Draft – LB Quinton Bell was selected by the Oakland Raiders in the 7th round of the 2019 Draft. This game could look a lot like the MSU/um game in 2013.