Michigan State defensive coordinator Joe Rossi and defensive lineman Jalen Thompson talked about the recent struggles on defense as they prepare to host the Purdue Boilermakers under the lights Friday night at Spartan Stadium at 8 p.m.

Black helmet, green jersey, blank pants for Friday night.

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I think that it is natural for some Spartan fans to be frustrated by the current football season, but there are some corners of the fanbase who are getting out of hand. A few more vocal critics have been calling for the heads of both Coach Smith and even Alan Haller.

To put it simply, I think that this criticism is shortsighted and, frankly, stupid. I expect this kind of nonsense from Wolverine fans. Spartans fans should know better. Some folks need to simmer down.

The fact is that Michigan State's current record is exactly what the math said it was going to be when I performed my schedule analysis back in August. Considering the fact that Smith has had to deal with a rash of injuries in the secondary and on the offensive line, and one could make the argument that this team is still overachieving.

So the opening and theme of this week's edition of Bad Betting Advice is half history lesson and half pep talk. There is no reason to freak out. The post season and a winning season overall is still on the table. They just need to hunker down and fight for the next two weeks.

In other news, I got a little annoyed on Tuesday when word started to circulate that Oregon had already clinched a spot in the Big Ten Championship Game. My math said otherwise and I went down a Twitter and math rabbit hole trying to figure out what was going on.

To make a long story short, I was misinterpreting a line in the Big Ten tiebreaker procedure about what to do in a three- or more way tie for first place once the No. 1 seed has been identified. The result is that my new and improved algorithm to calculate conference tiebreakers is not quite right.

I spent a lot of time on this a few weekends ago and I thought I had cracked a longstanding puzzle. Now I have to fix it again, which is just plain annoying. Grrrr.

Anyway, please enjoy this week's edition of Bad Betting Advice

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Michigan State’s 83-75 non-conference win over Samford on Tuesday night wasn’t a typical buy game.

The Spartans did not play perfect. They got off to a terribly slow start. They turned the ball over 14 times. They allowed 47 points in the second half.

This was also not a typical high-major versus mid-major game because the opponent has been dominant in its conference for the past few years. Samford has gone 15-3 in the Southern Conference in back-to-back seasons. The Bulldogs made the NCAA Tournament last season and gave Kansas a run for its money.

Samford played Michigan State tough because it has good players, but also because it plays a unique style of basketball that could help prepare the Spartans for some matchups down the road.

“They’re a good team,” guard Jaden Akins, who scored a career-high 25 points on Tuesday, said about the Bulldogs. “They came out, punched us in the mouth early. They play a different type of style. I feel like we kind of had to adjust to get going, but as you can see, they kept the game close throughout the whole game.”

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From left to right: DL Kekai Burnett, OL Mercer Luniewski, WR Jaylan Brown, RB Jaxon McCaig, DB DJ Kennard.

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