The Minnesota Gophers have officially entered Big Ten conference play and will travel to East Lansing, Michigan on Saturday to play the Michigan State Spartans.
Barring a 39-28 loss in Seattle, Michigan State would be slotted as a top-ten team today. They were ranked No. 11 in the AP Poll before playing the Washington Huskies but are now off the top-25 entirely.
“They are a Mel Tucker coached, Michigan State, tough football team,” said Gophers head coach P.J. Fleck. “They got a guy that plays basketball for them that makes plays for them on the offensive side of the ball … they’ve got wide outs galore, tight ends that can block and are incredibly athletic making freaky catches. They’ve got a quarterback who’s played a ton of football, who’s got a ton of moxy, leadership and control of the offense.”
The quarterback Fleck mentioned is Payton Thorne, who ranks 23rd in the FBS with seven passing touchdowns this year. He completed a career-high 30 passes last weekend on 42 attempts along with three touchdown tosses. Five of Thorne’s touchdown passes have been for more than 25 yards.
Thorne’s favorite target in 2021, Jayden Reed, has missed the last two weeks with an undisclosed injury. Reed is one of the most talented wide receivers in the Big Ten, catching over 1,000 yards in 2021.
If it is without Reed, whose status is still questionable, Michigan State will lean on tight end Daniel Barker and wide receiver Keon Coleman to try and penetrate Minnesota’s secondary.
“If you look at DJ (Daniel) Barker and Keon Coleman and some of those guys step up and do what they did, that was very, very good to see and I think that’s really good things as we build to move towards the future,” Spartans offensive coordinator Jay Johnson said.
Fleck continued to say if the Spartans did not get behind early and start slow on offense last week, the game would have had a more interesting conclusion.
“You look defensively, their front seven is long, athletic, experienced and they are very strong. One of their corners is 6’3” … they got length, size … special teams are consistent. So this is a very good football team that we’re going to play,” Fleck said.
Michigan State is tied for first in the Big Ten for fumbles forced (8) and fumbles recovered (6), which are both tied for first in the FBS. Four of those fumbles came in one game against the Akron Zips where those turnovers were converted into 28 points en route to a 52-0 shutout victory in week 2.
Picking up right where they left off in 2021, the Spartans also lead the Big Ten in sacks and rank seventh in the FBS with 12 total this season. Jacoby Windmon is their main wreckingball who leads the FBS in forced fumbles (4) and is tied for fifth in tackles for loss (6.5). He is the first Spartan to win Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week honors two weeks in a row (versus Western Michigan and Akron).
Both teams will wear a “UG” decal on their helmets to raise awareness for National Suicide Prevention Month and support the mission of The Gregory H. Montgomery Jr. Foundation for Ultimate Growth.
