Ohio State Buckeyes opponent breakdowns: Michigan State

Opponents: Florida Atlantic | Cincinnati | Indiana | Miami (OH) | Nebraska |

The college football season is still weeks away but anticipation is starting to build as the calendar turns from June to July and we are closing in on less than two months from the first kickoffs of the season.

Much has been made of Ohio State’s schedule this season with its lack of a Power Five non-conference opponent on it, but don’t let anyone convince you that this schedule does not pose more than its fair share of problems for a team that will be breaking in not only a new quarterback but essentially a new head coach as Ryan Day takes over for Urban Meyer as the Buckeyes look to defend their back-to-back Big Ten championships.

The lack of a P5 non-conference opponent may overshadow the fact that Ohio State has about as difficult of a crossover schedule as a Big Ten East team can have with games against Nebraska, Wisconsin and Northwestern and the schedule maker did this team no favors with a final two of Penn State and Michigan to wrap up the regular season in November.

Few teams had success against Ohio State during the Meyer-era and the Spartans were in a very select club of teams that could claim two wins over Meyer-led teams. Well, now it is Day’s team to lead and the counter goes back to zero but that does not mean that Michigan State won’t come into this one feeling that they can win.

Last year’s game in East Lansing (Mich.) was under miserable conditions and if not for Ohio State’s special teams, it could have really gone either way with the first team to break serve taking the advantage. Ohio State came out of it with a 26-6 win however and the Buckeyes are now on a three-game winning streak against Sparty.

The scene shifts back to Columbus (Ohio) for this season and for the Buckeyes, it comes right after what promises to be a tough game at Nebraska while Michigan State comes off of a home game against Indiana.

It was hard to figure out Michigan State last season with a far from consistent product. Sure, the loss of LJ Scott did not help things with Michigan State’s top running back only playing in five games but worse than that, only seeing 79 carries for the entire season. Felton Davis playing in only seven games did not help the cause either on an offense that moved between inconsistent to anemic by the end of the year.

Michigan State’s offense was downright difficult to watch come November and into the bowl season. In three of the last four games of the season the Spartans were able to score six points in each of those games, all losses. The only win was against Rutgers where the Spartans put up 14 total points in the game, but even in that game the Spartans were only able to muster 310 yards of total offense.

For as bad as Michigan State finished, most people forget that it was a bowl team and played against Oregon in the Redbox Bowl in one of the worst bowl games in recent memory, a 7-6 loss to the Ducks.

There were some early indicators that things were not right as the Spartans had to come from behind to beat Utah State in the opener and then fell to Arizona State in Tempe (Ariz.) the following week.

Just when everyone was ready to sell on the Spartans, they went to State College (Pa.) and beat Penn State on their home field.

If Michigan State’s defense was not as good as it was, this could have been a complete disaster of a season. The defense kept them in games that they had no business being in. So, instead of a complete disaster, it was only a moderate disaster.