Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Michigan St Spartans, Spartan Stadium, East Lansing, MI
Saturday, September 18, 2010, 8:00 pm EST, TV: ABC or ESPN2 (check local listings)
Opening Line: Michigan St -2 1/2
Current Line: Michigan St -3
Opening Total: 51 1/2
Current Total: 54
Money Line: Michigan St -155 / Notre Dame +135
Odds from above taken from Bookmaker Sportsbook who is offering a 25% bonus to all new bettors wagering this weekend.
After a heartbreaking loss to arch-rival Michigan last week, Brian Kelly leads his Notre Dame Fighting Irish on the road for the first time against Mark Dantonio’s Michigan St Spartans. The Spartans are 2-0 with wins over Western Michigan 38-14 and against Florida Atlantic 30-17. Notre Dame is 1-1 with a 23-12 victory over Purdue and the 28-24 loss against Michigan where they once again failed to cover the college football point spread.
The Notre Dame-Michigan game last week was arguably the most exciting game of the day. It was back and forth and both teams had over 530 total yards. The Irish threw three interceptions which was one of the reasons they lost. The main reason they lost was because they couldn’t stop Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson. Robinson passed for 244 yards and a touchdown, and also ran for 258 yards and 2 more touchdowns. Notre Dame quarterback Dane Crist injured his eye and missed a large portion of the game. He returned at halftime with the Irish down 21-7. Notre Dame came storming back and took the lead with 3:41 left on a 95 yard touchdown pass from Crist to wideout Kyle Rudolph/ Crist Finished with 277 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. Robinson led The Wolverines on a scoring drive and they scored with 27 seconds left to win 28-24. The Notre Dame defense will have to play much better against Michigan st if they hope to compete with the Spartans. Crist is expected to start with his eye injury, but bettors should keep an eye (no pun intended) on the situation, as back-ups Nate Montana and Tommy Rees were awful in Crist’s absense.
Michigan St is 2-0 but hasn’t played anybody yet. The Spartans are 11th in the country in rushing averaging 261 yards a game. Edwin Baker and Le’Veon Bell both have 3 rushing touchdowns each in two games. Baker has 300 yards on 32 carries and Bell has 20 carries for 190 yards. Quarterback Kirk Cousins has only 328 yards in two games, along with 2 touchdowns and an interception. With a running game as good as the Spartans have, the quarterback doesn’t have to do much besides protect the ball and throw on occasion to keep the defense honest. On defense he Spartans are dominant against the run giving up only 130 yards in two games along with 1 rushing TD. Against the pass they are decent but can be beaten. They are giving up around 250 yards a game so far and have allowed 3 passing touchdowns so far. The Spartans played Florida Atlantic in a ‘home’ game for the Owls. The game was played in nearby Detroit, but was listed as a home game for the Owls. The game was close in the first quarter as Michigan St only led 10-7. They were up 20-7 at halftime, and jumped out to a 30-14 lead before winning 30-17.
The Spartans pretty much owned the Irish during the Charlie Weiss years going 4-0-1 against the spread when they played Notre Dame. Also, 5 of the last 6 meetings have gone over the total, so a lot of points could be scored in this game. The temperature will be in the 60’s with a 30 percent chance of rain. We like the Over in this game for a free pick but we like the side much better and have released a premium college football pick on this game. We are currently riding a 14-3 against the spread run with our NCAA football picks so dont miss out on this TV winner.
