Boston College Football 2024 Opponent Preview: Michigan State

In continuing our look at the potential preseason opponents for Boston College Football in 2024 and weekly game previews, Week Four offers the team a reinvigorated Michigan State group going through as much turnover in the offseason as the Eagles are. The game 9/21 is also the Eagles’ Red Bandanna Game honoring Welles Crowther ‘99, which should mean BC will get a bigger crowd for one of the larger names on their 2024 opponents list.

Last Season (4-8)

Flashback to 2021. New head-coach Mel Tucker Jr led Michigan State to a 10–2 record in regular season games with victory over Michigan and the Spartans won the Chick-Fil–A Peach Bowl against Pitt ending the season ranked No. 10 in College Football Playoff rankings. Spartans seemed fresh and on the rise, Tucker’s assured that the success rate will not ‘ plateau,’but instead challenge SEC schools in recruiting.

Since then, they have a win/loss ratio of 9 wins and 15 losses, belongs to Michigan State. In the current season of 2023 MSU began with the rating 2-0 with the defeats of CMU and Richmond and then struggled falling to six consecutive losses. The Spartans only managed to score 10 points total and failed to hold their defence against 170 points in four games against no. 8 Washington, no. 2 Michigan, no. 1 Ohio St. , and no. 11 Penn State. On the other hand Tucker was sacked in September 2023 during an off-field controversy. MSU thus began this season with the necessity to make a fresh coach’s addition to reestablish program’s glamour off the field to complement the improvement of on-field fortunes as the university transitioned to the new-look Big 10.

This Season:

Enter Jonathan Smith. Smith, 45, is new in East Lansing, after a fruitful time at OSU where he served for six years. Despite a rather dismal win-loss record of 34-35 overall, he had three consecutive seasons with win-loss records and carried out 18 wins in two seasons for the Beavers. He takes with him an interesting QB prospect in Aidan Chiles, a 4-star recruit according to all the major recruiting services, who will now be able to start at a program that is MSU after he was a redshirt at OSU his first year in college. Smith, didn’t stop at that he went further technically recruiting 23 other transfers including several 4-star talents to fill gaps across the team. To summarize, there is no good answer to the question of what is anticipated from Michigan State this year. Of all the returnees in MSU, 38 players also entered the transfer portal. No returning players, a new head coach accustom to a far brighter light for the first time, and an untried quarterback, and practically all sorts of things could happen for the Spartans this year. Top rusher N. Carter 798 yds 4 TDs returning with top receiver M. Foster Jr. 576 yds 3 TDs but, underperformed in an unproductive offense that never scored more than 16 points per game. Defensively, MSU still needs to find an identity to be able to challenge the other teams in the Big 10 which may still be a year or two away.

Fortunately for BC this game comes in the first half of the season, though it means no easy games. MSU has talent on its roster and Smith is a program builder in definite. But because this game is going to be played early in the season, this is where the Spartans as a team are still going to be building themselves up – which is helpful for BC. This game is up in the air for the Eagles in the hopefully sold out Alumni Stadium.