“Oh yeah, (Knowshon Moreno) is such a good running back, you can see why he was (a Doak Walker Award finalist),” Gordon said of the team the Spartans will play in the Capital One Bowl on Jan. 1 in Orlando, Fla. “His offensive line is just great, they’re aggressive and fast, (Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford), their receivers are fast and can catch, they have all these good players.”

Moreno, a preseason favorite for the Heisman Trophy, and Stafford, a junior projected by many as the No. 1 prospect for the 2009 NFL Draft, get most of the national publicity when it comes to Georgia football. But, while Stafford’s arm strength, decision-making and pocket
presence have been revered by scouts, it doesn’t hurt that the junior quarterback has wide receivers A.J. Green and Mohamed Massaquoi to throw to.

Green, a 6-foot-4 freshman, and Massaquoi, a 6-foot-2 senior, each have eight touchdown receptions and more than 900 receiving yards this season, making them a duo unlike any the Spartans have seen so far.

“I would say overall we’ve faced receivers as fast as them, but not on the same team,” MSU defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi said. “Penn State has fast receivers, there’s no question … so we’ve faced fast receivers, but these guys are tall (and between) the combination of speed, height and ability to catch the ball wherever it is, they’ve got it all.”

No respect?
Last season, the Spartans went into the 2007 Champs Sports Bowl as heavy underdogs against Boston College. This year, the national perception is similar, as more than 80 percent of people playing ESPN’s College Bowl Mania have picked Georgia to beat MSU.

MSU head coach Mark Dantonio pointed out that although everyone is picking against his team, “everybody loves an underdog, so they may be picking them, but they’ll be rooting for us.”

Along with Dantonio, Jones said the lack of respect for the Spartans is more motivation.

“I don’t really care, to be frank,” Jones said of MSU’s underdog status. “(I think about it) for a quick second and go back to work. Eventually things will happen and they’ll have to give us respect and no matter what any critic or magazine or show on ESPN thinks, eventually they’ll have to respect us, so it really doesn’t matter.”

Hopefully A-OK
Dantonio said the team is still waiting on some grades from the 2008 fall semester, but said the players “should be in good shape” academically for the bowl game.

Four players, including former defensive end Jonal Saint-Dic, were ruled academically ineligible for last season’s Champs Sports Bowl.