Difficult Four-Game Stretch Will Determine Michigan State Football Season Success

Coach Jonathan Smith and the Michigan State Spartans face a brutal four-game stretch midway through the season. This heightens the importance of the games before and after that stretch of the football season..

Nov. 11, 2023; Columbus, Oh., USA; Michigan State Spartans tight end Maliq Carr (6) is tackled by Ohio State Buckeyes cornerback Calvin Simpson-Hunt (15) and Ohio State Buckeyes linebacker C.J. Hicks (11) during Saturday's NCAA Division I football game at Ohio Stadium. | Barbara J. Perenic/The Columbus Dispatch

As the summer continues, Coach Jonathan Smith and Michigan State inch closer to the first season of a new era of Spartans football. Coach Smith and his coaching staff have already faced many hurdles in just a short time in East Lansing. However, they have recovered relatively well from most of the setbacks they have had this offseason. The Spartans lost over 15 scholarship players earlier this offseason but rallied via the transfer portal, signing one of the top 2024 transfer portal classes of any football program in the country. 

The Spartans will soon kick off the season against Florida Atlantic August 30 in East Lansing. It will be the first glimpse of the work Coach Smith and Michigan State’s players have put in this offseason. Although it will only be the first game of the season, considering how Michigan State’s schedule is set up, it is a must win for the Green and White if they plan on having a successful season. 

Michigan State’s next three games after that are against Maryland on the road, Prairie View A&M at home and Boston College on the road. The first four games of the season will be critical for Michigan State. They must beat Florida Atlantic and Prarie View A&M, while it is likely they will, there are few guarantees for any team in college football, especially one with as many changes as the Spartans have made this offseason. 

The Spartans have to win those two games, then hope they at least beat either Maryland or Boston college on the road. However, even if they lost those two games, they would still be at 2-2 before entering a brutal four-game stretch against Ohio State, Oregon, Iowa and Michigan. The rebuilding Spartans could very well lose all four of those games and sitting at 2-4 heading into the final four games of the season.

Michigan State’s final four games of the season are against Indiana, Illinois, Purdue and Rutgers. Three of those fourgames are at home against very beatable football programs. If the Spartans are able to win two of the first four games and win two or three of the final four games of the season, most would consider the season a success. However, the Spartans must take care of business the four games before and the four games after the difficult four-game stretch, or the stretch could sink their season.

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