Patrick Diamond
Sports Blog Editor
@Diamond_Courant
Another year of college football is underway and after an exciting first week, consisting of a few upsets, including Brigham Young’s backup quarterback tossing a game winning hail mary to beat a Nebraska team that hadn’t lost a season opener in 29 years, this week should be fun. A matchup that can only favor my 8th ranked USC Trojans, the respective 6th and 7th ranked Michigan St
ate and Oregon will be battling to add a playoff resume building win. What better a place to have an ESPN College Football GameDay than East Lansing, Michigan for this week’s: Game of the Week.
The Oregon Ducks, like Michigan State, will be looking to build on a great offensive night against their transfer quarterback’s, Vernon Adams Jr., former school, Eastern Washington where they put up an impressive 62 points. Despite this impressive offensive performance, they’ll definitely be looking to show some improvement on the other side of the ball, as they let up 42 points in their Week 1 win. They will have to play much better defense than this if they want to win against Michigan State. Even with an offense like Oregon’s, ranking first in total offense, they can’t expect to put up 62 against a defense like Michigan State’s.
Similar to Oregon, Michigan State had a fairly easy start to the season with a 37-24 win over Western Michigan. Michigan State is relatively neutral offensively as they rushed for 196 yards and passed for 256 yards week 1, but they will be relying on their senior quarterback and potential Heisman Trophy Candidate, Connor Cook. Considered by many as a top NFL prospect, this is a big game for Cook to prove that he can lead a team in a game with as big a magnitude as this one.
Players to Watch:
Oregon:
Vernon Adams Jr.
Coming off an impressive game against his former team, look for Adams to have a huge night passing and rushing
Michigan State:
Connor Cook
Like I said earlier, Connor Cook is a very important part of the Spartans offense, and if he plays to his full potential he should be able to put Michigan State in a good position to win.
Prediction:
45-31 Oregon
As good as Connor Cook is, I think that the Oregon offense will overpower Michigan State. I don’t see Oregon’s offense coming up short this week.
