It may be his first season as the coach of the Spartans, but Jonathan Smith has plenty of experience in these types of games from his time as a player and a coach at Oregon State. He knows what this game means to the program.

"I've felt it since getting here."

Read here:

The 1964 Michigan State-North Carolina game on September 26, 1964 at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill
was an important step on the decade-long road to making college football integration a fait accompli by 1970.

In this video, Michigan State's Clint Jones and Ken Willard relive the game that has been ignored by college football
history. The media remains fixated on poorly researched sports writing selling Bear Bryant myths.

The video is Episode 29:


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What a difference a week can make! It is really nice when you have a feeling that you perhaps understand the college football landscape a bit more clearly than others may. I had a gut feeling that the Spartans were poised for a breakout performance. I had a feeling that the extra week of rest, playing at home, and not having to play a team ranked in the top five would be helpful.

But I don't think that anyone was really prepared for how good MSU looked at Saturday night. Iowa is a solid team with a very good defense. MSU outgained them by almost 200 yards, never punted, and only had one turnover.

Even though the Spartans had to settle for seven field goal attempts, they still won by double-digits. Just two months into the Jonathan Smith era, the Spartans are already on the brink of fielding a very competitive Big Ten team.

With the win over Iowa, with Purdue terrible and with Rutgers fading fast, as we will see, the odds for a bowl game had gone up dramatically. The next few weeks will still be tough, but six wins, at least, is now very attainable.

And then there is the Michigan Wolverines. Boy, it is sure a shame was has happened to their season. Based on the reactions on social media, the Maize and Blue faithful have moved into the next phase of grieving and are close to accepting the fact that they just aren't very good... and maybe, just maybe, a little closer to admitting that that little cheating scheme that they used was perhaps a bit more effective than they want to believe.

Nah...who am I kidding? They will never accept that. Honest self-reflection just isn't in their nature.

But we have all week to talk about that.

In the meantime, please enjoy this week's edition of Against All Odds.

Our first opponent specific breakdown of the season. For rivalry week! Happy to answer any questions about Michigan from a tactical/strategic perspective, and talk about how I might attack them if I were in Smith's shoes.

My call to action for Rivals for a Cause:


I encourage everyone to donate and share this article to get others to as well!

Thanks all!

MSU has been deliberate and taken their time in evaluating which goaltender will come in after Trey Augustine. As of this morning that picture is much clearer, as the Spartans took a commitment from Swedish goaltender Melvin Strahl.

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