The Oregon Ducks are absolutely loaded with talent, and everyone in college football has coach Dan Lanning pushing for a national title berth, with real talk about winning it all in Las Vegas next January. Seriously, the expectations are through the roof. But sometimes, even when you’re on what looks like “cruise control” for a perfect season, there’s one game that can mess everything up. According to CBS Sports college football analyst Brad Crawford, that one game isn’t even the huge showdown in Columbus against Ohio State on November 7th. Nope, he’s looking at something far more unexpected: a new-look Michigan State team.
Pat Fitzgerald’s Spartans Could Deliver an Ugly Upset
Crawford is pretty clear: most folks are expecting the Spartans to struggle in Pat Fitzgerald’s first year as head coach. They aren’t supposed to make a huge splash immediately. But he wrote that if any program is due for a culture-changing win early in Fitzgerald’s tenure, it’s Michigan State. And get this: Crawford pegs the Ducks’ game in East Lansing on Friday, November 20th as that exact moment for an upset. This is an “ugly setup” for Oregon, he wrote, and he’s not wrong.
Oregon’s Schedule Creates a Trap Game
Here’s why Crawford thinks it’s so ugly for Oregon: that Friday night game against Michigan State comes after literal “slugfests” against Ohio State and Michigan. It’ll be the Ducks’ seventh consecutive week of playing football before their regular-season finale. They have to travel to East Lansing on a Friday, tired and potentially banged up. Meanwhile, Michigan State will have absolutely nothing to lose in that game. Crawford even pointed out that Lanning’s team tends to “play with its food against an inferior opponent” at least once a season. Could this be it? It certainly sounds like a prime spot for it. Even if finding four or five wins is tough for the Spartans in Fitzgerald’s first year, a late-season upset could be huge in what will be a crowded Big Ten race.
So yeah, a perfect season for Oregon? It sounds incredible, but this Michigan State game on November 20th could be the ultimate spoiler. Will the Ducks avoid playing with their food and navigate this messy setup? Or will a rebuilding Spartans team deliver a shocking upset that changes the landscape? We’ll find out before long, and honestly, the Big Ten is gonna be wild to watch.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by The Sporting News.
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