Broncos hope to play Big Ten spoiler role again
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For a nonconference game in early November, a lot is riding on Saturday’s game between MSU and Western Michigan.
Both teams come into Spartan Stadium with a 4-5 record with three games to play. Six wins make a team bowl eligible, but it’s win No. 7 that seals it, meaning the loser of this game could be on the outside looking in come December.
The Broncos have a recent history of knocking off Big Ten teams fighting for their bowl lives late in the season. In 2007, Iowa was 6-5 when it played Western Michigan at home in the final game of the season and was shocked 28-19 by the Broncos. At 6-6, the Hawkeyes didn’t make a bowl game. In 2008, Illinois was 5-4 when it met Western Michigan at Ford Field in Detroit. The Fighting Illini lost that game 23-17 and its next two to finish 5-7.
“They are very, very capable and will be very confident coming into Spartan Stadium,” MSU head coach Mark Dantonio said. “We need to get ourselves ready emotionally.”
Western Michigan is coming off a 26-14 loss at Kent State, a game in which Broncos head coach Bill Cubit said his team “didn’t play very well.” Like MSU, Western Michigan also is struggling with injuries coming off last week.
“We have to get some kids back and be ready to go in there and be competitive,” Cubit said.
The Broncos allowed 477 yards of total offense to Kent State, while the Spartans allowed more than 500 yards of offense to Minnesota. But Cubit said his defense is going to have to stop MSU on the ground, an area MSU has struggled in recent weeks.
“(They want to) run first,” Cubit said. “I do think they throw the ball pretty well. I’m impressed with Cousins and they have some wideouts that can run and are dangerous, and they have a nice tight end, a couple tight ends that really get open, but they’re going to try to run the football and establish that first. So that’s one thing we’re going to have to stop and hopefully the matchups outside we can just neutralize them there. We’re going to have to take something away and the run’s going to have to be the one.”
This will be the first time MSU has played a regular season nonconference game after starting Big Ten play since 2004, when the team went to Hawaii and came back with a 41-38 loss in the final game of the season.
But MSU is aware of the perils of playing a Mid-American Conference team, as evident by the Spartans’ 29-27 loss to Central Michigan in September.
“We definitely don’t want that to happen again,” junior linebacker Greg Jones said. “We’re definitely striving to win and show what Big Ten football is all about and obviously we didn’t get that done last time and we’ll try to do better to get that done.”
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Tim
(11/07/09 9:13am)Report
The fact that the MSU players and coaches would even entertain the idea of an upset possibility against WMU is disturbing and sends a strong message. This is, once again, an MSU football team in disarray. What MSU has demonstrated, Mr. Jones, week after week is certainly NOT Big Ten football.
WMU has the game film and will study it. MSU’s weaknesses in the secondary, the O line, and at the RB positions will be thoroughly exploited. The very obvious weaknesses in the MSU coaching staff will also be exploited. MSU will be outcoached, that’s for sure. Why disrupt a trend! The MSU coaching staff will demonstrate once again how woefully inadequate they are for any league and at any level. MD must go and when this game is over more of you will start to see the light, put down the koolaid cups, and step off the “MD is my football hero” bandwagon.
Look for a WMU smackdown of a pitiful display of Big Ten football today in E. Lansing.
They came..they saw..and they will conquer. Not because they are that good, but because MSU IS that bad!
Mr. Jones, a good kid and a quality player, needs to be reminded of the following quote:
“It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog that matters.”
The MSU dog is a wimp; a beaten puppy.
WMU 35
MSU 21
The carnage continues.
MD must Go!