Last week was ugly for the Spartans, but it’s a new week and Michigan State will look to pick up a much-needed bounce-back victory over Minnesota on Saturday.
The Spartans were shredded by Washington last week to drop their first game of the year. Minnesota, on the flip side, rolled past Colorado to remain undefeated on the season and improve to 3-0. Saturday marks the Big Ten opener for both the Spartans and Golden Gophers — which is a massive game for a pair of teams that have aspirations of winning the Big Ten this year.
What does the Spartans Wire staff think about this matchup? Here are our score predictions for Michigan State-Minnesota and how we see this nonconference game playing out:
Andrew Brewster
Prediction: MSU – 21, Minnesota – 17
While last week will have shaken the faith of many Spartan hopefuls, I think a home game against a good but hurting team like Minnesota will be a good bounceback for Sparty.
Cory Linsner
Prediction: MSU – 35, Minnesota – 30
I am going to have faith that Mel Tucker will get his team to bounce back following the embarrassing loss a week ago. There are glaring holes on defense, but luckily Minnesota’s strengths shouldn’t exploit them too much. MSU’s offense will need to be more efficient early in the game, but I think they should be able to do the job.
Robert Bondy
Prediction: MSU – 31, Minnesota – 27
Minnesota has looked very impressive so far this year but they have yet to face an opponent like Michigan State. Like many, I’m not particularly high on the Spartans after Saturday’s beat-down loss at Washington but … there’s still plenty of talent on this roster to expect a bounce-back performance. Spartans quarterback Payton Thorne looked sharp on Saturday and if the offense can get just a little bit of production on the ground then I like them to win this one at home.
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