Oregon enters the season with the kind of buzz that comes with real playoff expectations, and the Ducks have plenty of talent back to chase a national title run under Dan Lanning. There’s even the possibility they head out of Las Vegas next January as champions.
But one analyst thinks the road to that destination could get bumpy in a very specific spot.
CBS Sports college football analyst Brad Crawford pointed to Oregon’s Nov. 20 trip to East Lansing as the game that could disrupt an otherwise smooth run. The opponent: a revamped Michigan State team now led by returning Big Ten coach Pat Fitzgerald.
Crawford doesn’t expect Michigan State to burst out of the gate under Fitzgerald. Still, he believes the Spartans could be exactly the kind of team that catches Oregon at the wrong time.
“We're expecting the Spartans to struggle during Pat Fitzgerald's first season, but this is an ugly setup for the Ducks," Crawford wrote. "Playing for the seventh consecutive week before the regular-season finale, Oregon travels to East Lansing on a Friday after slugfests with Ohio State and Michigan.
Michigan State will have nothing to lose. Once a season, Dan Lanning's team plays with its food against an inferior opponent.
This could be it."
The Ducks will also have a major road test in Columbus against Ohio State on Nov. 7, and Crawford’s point is that the stretch before the finale could leave Oregon vulnerable. He framed that late-November trip as a spot where a supposed mismatch might not feel so simple.
Oregon has won five of the eight all-time meetings with Michigan State since 1979, but that history may not matter much by the time the teams meet on Friday, Nov. 20.
The broader Big Ten picture could make it even more interesting. Late-season upsets could shake up a crowded race, and Indiana is also mentioned as a team that may learn that the hard way.
By November, the season could look very different than it does now. That’s what makes this one worth circling: it could be a defining test for Oregon, or it could wind up meaning very little at all.
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Michigan State Players Are Already Feeling Pat Fitzgeralds Culture Shift
Pat Fitzgerald is only in his first offseason at Michigan State, but some of the small changes around the program are already signaling a different tone. He has brought back an older fall-camp tradition that puts players closer together off the field, and he has also started leaning into the kind of team-first ideas that make the program feel a little more communal as the Spartans get set for the season.
One of the more visible examples is the renewed emphasis on the No. 1 jersey, which has long carried meaning in East Lansing because of the players who have worn it before. Fitzgerald has added a new layer by letting the group be part of the decision, and that approach has gone over well inside the locker room. It is a subtle shift, but for a team adjusting to a new voice, those details can say plenty about where the culture is headed. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan State Just Revealed Which Newcomer Earned A Rare Team Honor
Michigan States new look under Pat Fitzgerald picked up a symbolic touch this week, with the program using a team vote to choose the first player to wear No. 1 in his tenure. The jersey is meant to represent The Spartan, giving the number a meaning beyond the usual roster rotation and making the selection a small but notable early marker for the culture Fitzgerald wants to build.
The honor went to first-year transfer Kenny Soares Jr., a former NC State linebacker who is expected to help the Spartans as a pass rusher. It is the sort of recognition that says as much about how quickly a newcomer has fit in as it does about what he might do on the field, and it gives Michigan State an early glimpse of how the staff plans to blend tradition with its incoming personnel. [Read more 🡒]