Will Florida Atlantic be an easier or tougher game for MSU?

It might just be easier. Howard Schnellenberger has worked hard to build this program into a "mid-major" power, but the Owls remain far from there.

They are 1-0 this season after coming back for a 32-31 victory at Alabama-Birmingham. They have some quality skill talent, led by receiver Lester Jean and quarterback Jeff Van Camp.

But there's no reason to think FAU's defense can stop MSU's offense in a weather-less Ford Field. UAB ran for 345 yards on that defense.

And Schnellenberger has a completely rebuilt, inexperienced offensive line.

"They were killing us. … They were getting penetration on almost every play," Schnellenberger told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel of that offensive line after the opener.

Plenty of good seats remain for what looks like another MSU blowout victory.


Full Listing

Those rushing yards had nothing to do with the DLine, our LB's and secondary simply were not fast enough to tackle that QB in the open field.

I think our players and our coaches learned a lot from our mistakes against UAB, specifically with defending the run. Hopefully, these mistakes are being addressed, analyzed and worked on in this week's practices. MSU doesn't have a scrambling QB for us to worry about, and we looked solid on defending the pass against UAB (granted Isabelle isn't known for passing the ball well).

Sadly, I believe we will lose this game, but it won't be a blowout.

Captain said

I think our players and our coaches learned a lot from our mistakes against UAB, specifically with defending the run. Hopefully, these mistakes are being addressed, analyzed and worked on in this week's practices. MSU doesn't have a scrambling QB for us to worry about, and we looked solid on defending the pass against UAB (granted Isabelle isn't known for passing the ball well).

Sadly, I believe we will lose this game, but it won't be a blowout.

MSU does have an excellent QB in Cousins along with one of the best groups of WRs and TEs in the Big Ten.  And Cousins will scramble a little bit–he had 75 yards against Michigan last year (although everyone had a pile of yards against UM the past 2 seasons).

Can we get a 2 deep depth chart on msu and fau, so we can compare pounds for pound ourselves.

This is a link to depth chart on the Michigan State rivals site.  See if this will work for you guys — I don't know if you have to have a subscription or not…

http://www.michiganstate.rivals.com/cdepthtext.asp?Team=MICHIGANST