By: Noah Gould
This week’s headline game was of course the showdown in East Lansing between 7th ranked Oregon and 5th ranked Michigan State. Both teams have been in the mix for the championship each of the last two seasons. This game, the second of a two year series, was this year’s first matchup between two top 10 teams and the first game of the season with a real impact on the playoff.
Michigan State comes into the season off of a 11-2 year with losses only to the two national championship teams and a cotton bowl comeback win over Baylor. They return QB Connor Cook now in this third year as starter. They did lose architect of their amazing defensive scheme, DC Pat Narduzzi, to Pittsburgh and star running back TJ Langford to the NFL. The Spartans will probably have a different philosophy than they did a year ago. They will be much more aggressive in the passing game and Connor Cook will take the next step in his evolution from the game manager of 3 years ago to a star QB in college football. The Spartans are the only team that seems likely to give challenge to Ohio State in this year’s Big Ten. What is an interesting to watch is that since Ohio State is currently being anointed as possibly the best team in the history of college football Michigan State could be automatically given a spot in the playoff if they knock off OSU in the Big Ten championship game. Either way the Michigan State Ohio State game will be one of the biggest regular season games in college football.
Oregon enters 2015 looking to get into the college football playoff for a second straight year and win the Pac-12 conference for the fifth time in seven years. The Ducks do come into this year as the favorite to win the Pac-12 but like 13 of the teams in the AP preseason top 25 they have a new starting QB. Vernon Adams, the six foot Eastern Washington graduate transfer, has taken the reigns of the Oregon offense from Heisman trophy winner Marcus Mariota. Adams was an FCS star and threw for 4,994 yards in his best season. Although, Adams only arrived on the Eugene campus three weeks before the start of the season he does seem to still be running the complicated Oregon offense, and he is blessed with one of the greatest wide receiver corps in the country.
Adams was hardly the problem on Saturday as the Michigan State defense proved too much forthe ducks. Michigan State’s defense showed once again that it is one of the best in the country on Saturday. The Spartans collected their biggest regular season victory in recent memory as they won 31-28 and controlled the high profile game most of the way. Their defense held up very well against the great Oregon offense, but their offense more than did its job. Connor Cook showed his veteran presence in the pocket and the huddle as usual and new running backs Mandre London and LJ Scott were able to take care of business on the ground.
Michigan State’s win on Saturday was huge. They proved themselves to again be one of the best teams in the country. Each of the last two years Michigan State has been about only one loss away from the playoff or championship game. The problem for them has been that they had a loss in week two both years which kept them out of the conversation for much of the season. This year will be quite the opposite. This victory will have them in the playoff conversation for most of the season. Besides the regular season matchup with Ohio State the Spartans don’t have another currently ranked opponent on the schedule. They have a clear path to the Big Ten championship game and there for the playoff even with a loss.
For the Ducks it is a different story. Even after upset losses by Stanford and Arizona State in week one the Pac-12 is still very much up for grabs. Arizona, the only team to beat Oregon in the regular season last year, returns a good team and USC and UCLA are being given national praise as playoff contenders. This is a double edged sword for the Ducks. Even if they have one loss the winner of the Pac-12 is almost guaranteed a playoff spot. Conversely it will be very difficult for the Ducks to win the conference this year and furthermore to get into the playoff they would probably have to do it without another loss.
This year’s Oregon-Michigan State game was the second of a two year series. It was amazing to see two teams commit to playing another top 10 team out of conference. This is something that rarely happens in college football except for between traditional rivals and it needs to happen more. Especially in the playoff era where trying to be a one loss team with the best strength of schedule seems to be the goal. More interconference showdowns especially early in the season would only make the sport more fun. While many other power houses scheduled much easier nonconference games these two programs gave everyone two great high profile games at the beginning of the last two season.
