Mark Dantonio has been an absolutely terrific hire for the Michigan State football program. Dantonio has done a whole in just a few years to turn around this proud program that fallen victim to constant mediocrity. <\/p>\n
Big Ten Conference 2011-2012 Football Previews: Michigan St. Spartans<\/strong> The Spartans went 11-2 last season, and they finished with a share of the Big Ten title.<\/p>\n No doubt the year as a whole was a huge success, but the way the season ended had to frustrate everyone involved. The Alabama Crimson Tide crushed Michigan State 49-7 in the Capital One Bowl on January 1.<\/p>\n The Spartans have quite a few key players back, but they have also lost some leaders, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Nebraska is now part of their division, so getting a Big Ten title will be a little tougher than it was previously.<\/p>\n Can the Spartans keep moving forward?<\/p>\n Kirk Cousins is a great leader at the quarterback position. Dantonio is constantly praising Cousins leadership ability on and off the field. Cousins completed 67% of his passes while throwing for 2,825 yards and 20 touchdowns in 2010. He has improved his decision making each year at the school, and I think he\u2019ll have a very good senior season.<\/p>\n The Spartans are extremely deep at the tailback position. No team in the Big Ten has more depth in the backfield. Edwin Baker ran for 1,201 yards in 2010.<\/p>\n He averaged 5.8 yards per carry. Le\u2019Veon Bell is younger and he provides a nice change of pace. Larry Caper was the Spartans leading rusher in 2009, and if he stays healthy this year I expect a big year from him as well.<\/p>\n The Spartans defensive line is anchored by Jerrel Worthy. Worthy may be the best defensive tackle in the conference, and the NFL scouts already love his skillset.<\/p>\n William Gholston has the potential to be very good at the defensive end position as well. Michigan State should be strong on the defensive front in 2011.<\/p>\n Greg Jones was the heart and soul of this defense in 2010, and there is no way this year\u2019s group of linebackers will be able to match the productivity of last year\u2019s unit. [soliloquy id=”82219″]<\/p>\n Eric Gordon was another high quality linebacker for this team, but he also graduated. The Spartans have some guys with plenty of athleticism that will start this year, but that isn\u2019t the issue.<\/p>\n The problem for Michigan State is that they will be starting at least two linebackers who have virtually no experience.<\/p>\n The offensive line has been an area of strength for the Spartans in the last few years, but they lost some very talented starters from a year ago. Three newcomers will likely be plugged into the offensive line, which could mean this unit will experience a significant drop in productivity.<\/p>\n If the line isn\u2019t as good, it will be tough for Michigan State to pound the football on the ground the way they have in the past few years.<\/p>\n Everything had to fall just right for Michigan State to go 11-2 last season. The Spartans only beat two teams with seven wins or more last year, and they narrowly won some games against inferior competition. I still think Dantonio has this program going in the right direction, but I think this year\u2019s schedule makes a temporary step backward quite likely.<\/p>\n Michigan State has a ridiculously difficult schedule in October. The Spartans will play Ohio State, Michigan, Nebraska, and Wisconsin all in the month of October. If they can make it through that part of the schedule, the final month is certainly much easier.<\/p>\n I think Michigan State goes 8-5 because of a tougher schedule and difficulty overcoming the loss of key defensive stars.<\/p>\n 2011 Michigan St. Spartans Schedule<\/strong><\/p>\n 9\/2\/11\t 7:30 PM ET\t YOUST College football preview guide for the 2011 Big 10 Conference Michigan State Spartans CFB betting season. Kyle Hunter weighs in with his ncaa football predictions, and BCS championship handicapping analysis\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":26284,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[50788,44530,49957,50790,50791,11475,4916,51004,51005,51006,51007,7836,50979],"class_list":["post-41294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaa-football","tag-2011-big-10-conference-football-previews","tag-2012-bcs-lines","tag-bcs-sportsbook-odds","tag-big-10-conference-football-predictions","tag-big-10-conference-odds","tag-big-10-conference-picks","tag-big-ten-conference","tag-michigan-st-football-predictions","tag-michigan-st-gambling-odds","tag-michigan-st-predictions","tag-michigan-st-schedule","tag-michigan-st-spartans","tag-spartans-bcs-futures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41294"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41399,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41294\/revisions\/41399"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nHead Coach: Mark Dantonio<\/strong>
\n2010 Record: 11-2<\/strong>
\nMichigan State Gambling Odds from JustBet to win BCS: +5,000<\/strong>
\nMichigan State Odds from JustBet to win Big Ten Legends Division: +330<\/strong>
\nMichigan State Odds from JustBet to win Big Ten Conference Championship: +550<\/strong>
\n MSU Team Page – Players Stats – Roster – 2011 Schedule –><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n**BETONLINE – THE BEST SPORTSBOOK FOR NCAA FOOTBALL BETTING! \u2013 CLICK HERE NOW + BET TODAY!**<\/a><\/h3>\n
Team Strengths:<\/h3>\n
Team Weaknesses:<\/h3>\n
2011-2012 Michigan State Football Prediction: 8-5<\/h3>\n
\n9\/10\/11\t 12:00 PM ET\tFLATL
\n9\/17\/11\t 3:30 PM ET\t @NOTRE
\n9\/24\/11\t 12:00 PM ET\tCMICH
\n10\/1\/11\t 12:00 PM ET\t @OHIST
\n10\/15\/11 12:00 PM ET\tMICH
\n10\/22\/11 8:00 PM ET\tWISC
\n10\/29\/11 12:00 PM ET\t @NEB
\n11\/5\/11\t 12:00 PM ET\tMINN
\n11\/12\/11 12:00 PM ET\t @IOWA
\n11\/19\/11 12:00 PM ET\tIND
\n11\/26\/11 12:00 PM ET\t @NWEST <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"