Pretty cool thing, Rutgers joining the B1G so Johnny can see his Spartans somewhat locally again. Funny thing, Johnny moves to Jersey City and his beloved Red Wings are in the Eastern Conference of the NHL and make those regular trips to MSG, The Rock and Now the Barclay's Center. Johnny comes east and Rutgers joins the great midwestern bastion of football. Pretty cool deal.
OK, gameday. It's all going to boil down to RU's offensive line vs MSU's front seven. The Scarlet Knights do have a stable of talented running backs but that line is going to have to pave the way for those runners, something hard to do against Athalon's #2 defensive line in America. Lawrence Thomas and Malik McDowell are utter men against boys in a lot of cases. Bounce your run outside and there's All-American DE Shilique Calhoun. The RU line is young. The MSU line is awesome. How will the Knights line hold up? There's your key. Passing may be a better way for Rutgers to move the ball today but it's not a strength.
One advantage RU will have vs the #4 team in the land is special teams. Michigan State is normally has one of the better special team squads but that has not been the case this year. They have given up a kickoff return for a TD vs Western Michigan and a punt return vs Oregon. Rutgers gets a big edge here today.
We can look at this a million different ways and it all comes up the same on paper. Michigan State should win handily behind LJ Scott and the ground game and Connor Cook's arm. The MSU defense should stifle the RU running attack. Should, but that's why games are played.
Still with no Kyle Flood as head coach and MSU looking to lock in before visiting Khaki University next weekend this one seems to be telling Johnny something:
Fearless Forecast:
Michigan State 31
Rutgers 17
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