The Tailgate: Michigan State

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. -- Saturday's game between Boston College and Michigan State stuck out of the off-season schedule release period long before this week ever began. Expectations for their respective first games centered more on the excitement of a new season, so the days at the start of this week didn't have an issue in turning the page to the next installment of a season still very much in its infancy.

Relegating traces of the 66-10 win over Fordham required little effort for a team that began its journey in fashionable style, and the requisite page-turn to the Spartans occurred seamlessly after Michigan State cruised past Western Michigan with a 23-6 win that was 21-0 at halftime. Once digested, both teams took their talents back to a practice field littered with anticipation of possibilities and potential that's carrying each roster into a nationally televised spectacle.

"We're excited about the opportunity to play on Saturday," said head coach Bill O'Brien. "I coached in the Big Ten. I know what those stadiums are like, and to go on the road and have the opportunity to play a team like Michigan State, which is led by a great head coach in Jonathan Smith, it's going to be a matchup of two physical teams and two well-coached teams."

Getting through a Mid-American Conference opponent didn't push Michigan State to its brink, so those first days were spent weighing how much of the Spartans remained untapped or untouched. The win over the Broncos posted less than 200 yards passing for an offense with less than 350 total yards, but overlooking Aidan Chiles or his unit as a gimmick intensified the inherent risk of facing a quarterback that rushed for 41 yards while going 17-for-23 for 155 yards and a touchdown.

"It's going to be a big game," said defensive back Carter Davis. "We just focus on today and getting better today. We have meetings and class, so we're just taking it step-by-step, and when Saturday comes, it's going to be one of those types of games like how we played Missouri last year. I played Florida State last year, and we won some tight games. There will be a lot of people [at Spartan Stadium]. I can't wait."

Chiles approaches his offense as a cheat code mystery while successfully overcoming some past issues from his first season as Michigan State's starting quarterback. He was remarkably consistent in balancing his numbers between home and away games for the Spartans, and he charged through the majority of teams with a red-hot first half performance that caught teams off-guard. Even in last year's game against BC, he overcame a slower first quarter to throw for 89 yards in the second quarter with additional numbers that placed Michigan State ahead of the Eagles on a touchdown run. His lone interception to Amari Jackson set up a 36-yard touchdown run for Treshaun Ward, but it's not difficult to see just how much another step forward in his development can put opposing defenses on notice.

"We've been here before," said Davis. "We were 3-0 last year and ended up losing, and we went on a little slump. So we've been here before where we know how it feels to win, but we know how it feels to lose with complacency. We just have to keep staying hungry and always have that chip on our shoulder…it's the preparation and understanding the things that they do with the keys that they've given us, the keys that we see, to do our job to the best of our ability."

Here's what else to watch in this week's game:

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Game Storylines (Magic Johnson Edition)

Ask not what your teammates can do for you. Ask what you can do for your teammates.

Last week's blowout meant nobody saw much of Dylan Lonergan in the second half, so determining which quarterback is better suited for mistake-free football is a bit of an impossible conversation. The term itself - mistake-free football - is a bit of a misnomer because it implies turnovers, but any edge favoring Lonergan over Chiles boils down to BC's ability to walk through presnap reads against the Michigan State defense.

"We made plays [and] spread the ball out a lot last week," said wide receiver Reed Harris, "and hopefully we can continue to do that because at the end of the day, everybody wants distribution, everybody wants the ball. You know you had a great day when Lewis [Bond] can have 140 yards, [Jaedn] Skeete can have two touchdowns, [and] I can have one. That's a good day in the receiver room, and that's our goal every single week."

Chiles is going to force BC to defend him with vision, anticipation and reaction where one of Lonergan's biggest assets is his ability to read a defense and execute a checkdown or pinpoint throw. Whichever quarterback is able to identify the soft spot quicker is likely going to gain that all-important superiority, but the bigger question arrives in the third quarter when both quarterbacks need to settle into their execution and avoid a missed assignment, a missed checkdown, the wrong read or the wrong mechanics.

A lot of people have great ideas, but they don't know if there's a need for it. You also have to research your competition.

Chiles struggled in the third quarter for most of last season, so tipping the field against Boston College is more than simply waiting for Lonergan and the Eagles to make a mistake on the opposite side of the ball. In most third quarters, the idea of grabbing time of possession stems from a team's ability to create defensive stops and chances, and avoiding those mistakes is all about researching the possibilities and potential coverages or keys within the opposing team's synergy.

To that end, the Spartans are more traditional on defense, and their base 4-3 model held Western Michigan without a trip to the offensive red area in last week's win. BC was No. 1 in the nation after posting the most effective and lethal passing attack, but the base 4-3 model is a more traditional defense that operates within the box to stop the underneath passes and quick runs between the guards.

That said, throwing to the end zone is slightly more complicated against a defense that prevented Western Michigan from ever entering the red area. The Broncos were 4-for-14 on third down in last week's game and ended the first half with three straight three-and-outs before throwing an interception on the third play of their last drive. It took Broc Lowry's 42-yard pass to Baylin Brooks to finally push Michigan State's defense inside of its 30-yard line at the start of the third, but the drive stalled and ended on downs with an 11-yard pass on 4th-and-12.

"We won our fair share of shots and our ability to get those chunk plays," said tight end Jeremiah Franklin of BC's offense, "because if you can get a bunch of explosive and chunk plays, that really changes the dynamic of the field. Once you get those plays rolling, you really get good momentum, and if you can really lock in and consistently get a few of those per game, that's how you really increase your chances of winning."

Western Michigan did little beyond a 42-yard play against the Michigan State defense, and even Broc Lowry's pass to Baylin Brooks that broke a four-drive streak of missing a first down - three three-and-outs and an interception within the first three plays of a final drive - failed to activate the offense beyond a turnover on downs.

Players today don't hate each other. I hated Larry and every Celtic.

Michigan State's defense very clearly has the talent to match Boston College at a one-on-one level, but Sparty's ability to post an offensive shutout against Western Michigan occurred because of the quick chemistry between transfer cornerbacks Malcolm Bell and Joshua Eaton. Each came from a Group of Five school, but Bell is a six-foot, two-inch unicorn who grew up in Canada and spent his first four years in BC's general footprint. In 2023, he posted a season-high eight tackles with six solo takedowns in the game against BC, but the Huskies missed a golden opportunity to score a second straight upset win over the Eagles when they lost, 21-14, in Alumni Stadium.

Like him, Eaton is a six-foot lockdown corner who started 20 games for Texas State after transferring from Oklahoma. Amazingly, he's seen more than 1,300 snaps on defense, and he finished his career in the Sun Belt Conference with the second most pass break-ups on the Bobcats. In total, he saw close to 700 snaps between defensive back and special teams, but his size and skill makes him a handful for whichever receiver draws the second assignment.

O'Brien indicated his desire to avoid the ground-and-pound against opponents, but lost in that comment was his spoken admission that BC would chew through teams if it became necessary. Michigan State isn't a team that requires the proverbial "three yards and a cloud of dust," but those defensive backs on the outside conceivably could push the Eagles back into a more boxed-in setup to matriculate the ball down the field.

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Question Box

How does the defense scheme to contain its first mobile quarterback?

Makhi Frazier gained well north of 100 yards in his first game as Michigan State's running back, so stopping Chiles isn't as direct as collapsing the pocket to attack the run. The replacement for Kay'ron Lynch-Adams and Nate Carer, he's likely going to feast on roles out of the backfield because his size makes him an attractive receiving option against a stout defense like BC's.

Teams with mobile quarterbacks have to react quickly in an offensive scheme designed to break plays into improvisation. That means Frazier is likely releasing from the backfield when Chiles scrambles. Additional options are available in the underneath receiver or in a tight end-type situation, but Frazier, who wasn't part of the passing game in Week One, stands to benefit from BC's attacking linebackers.

Who is responsible for tracking Jordan Hall?

Hall was a wrecking machine even when he wasn't tackling the ball carrier. Beyond the eight tackles and two tackles for loss, his collision with a Western Michigan offensive lineman resulted in Michigan State's safety in the third quarter, so containing him has to stand atop BC's blocking scheme.

The 4-3 front makes it difficult to track him, though. As the middle linebacker, he can find his own gaps as they appear while creating traffic through the front of the line, and the four-man front makes it less likely for an offensive lineman to explode into the second level to engage a linebacker. At six-feet, three-inches, the 238-pounder is large enough to make everyone forget about his mysterious disappearance during last season.

Can BC break its traditional Big Ten blockade?

BC is 1-2 in its last three games against non-traditional Big Ten teams but hasn't played a historic team from that conference since the No. 23 Eagles lost at Purdue in 2018. Before that, three bowl games against Penn State, Maryland and Iowa produced a separate 1-2 record across the 2014, 2016 and 2017 seasons, but those losses to the older pre-realignment programs combined with consecutive losses to Northwestern in 2011 and 2012 to force BC's winless streak against "regular" Big Ten schools back to the Champs Sports Bowl win against Michigan State.

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BC-Michigan State X Factor

I resemble that remark. -Curly Howard, "The Three Stooges"

Neither BC nor Michigan State exited last week's game with a clear identity. Both teams destroyed their respective opponents and won in a way that made fans happy, but neither team entered this week with any enhanced or ensconced reputation among national college football programs.

That unknown veneer disappears this week, and it'll likely temper expectations if teams swing wildly within their performances. Lonergan, for example, led one of the most efficient and successful offenses in the nation during last week's game, and Chiles shook off his reputation for committing turnovers by rallying behind a stout defense.

"[Chiles] can throw and he can run," said O'Brien. "He's very athletic. He can let it rip when he throws. When you watch the tape, he'll throw a 20-yard comeback from the left hash out to the right hash, or from the right hash to the right sideline, or the right hash out to the left sideline. He's got a cannon for an arm and throws a beautiful deep ball."

I don't think either team is leaving this game unscathed, but I'm not sure that either team is going to walk into next week with questions about its offense. I think the storyline is more towards the middle where both teams overcome some form of mistake to enhance their own idea of how to execute a game plan.

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Pregame Quote and Final Thoughts

I've come up with my own cure for a closed mind: try it once and see. -Georges St.-Pierre

Maybe this game has some weird cosmic karma within the football heavens, but I've always had the opinion that football is a series of one-game seasons. Preparation for each week is relative to that week's opponent, and Bill O'Brien is particularly committed to improving the team on a daily basis. Previous coaches used to echo that sentiment, and players themselves talked about how the 12-game season is too short and too precious to waste on a cavalier attitude.

I'm sensing that mentality spilling into his players, who in turn comment in every interview and every conversation about their legitimate commitment to improving on that given day. For that reason, Saturday isn't the dictaphone for the rest of the season, but it's certainly the most important game of the year…until next week, at least.

Boston College and Michigan State kick off on Saturday, September 6, at 7:30 p.m., from Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, Michigan. The game can be seen on national television via NBC with national streaming available through the network's Peacock app. Additional viewing for non-cable subscribers is available through Peacock for subscribers to the direct-to-consumer product.

Players Mentioned

Carter Davis

Jeremiah Franklin

Reed Harris

Amari Jackson

Dylan Lonergan

Treshaun Ward

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