A Day in the D

If the rain holds off, it could be a great, great day.

If the rain comes, it could be a great afternoon and the casino determines the greatness of the night.

Tomorrow we leave town at 8am for our annual MSU road trip. To Ford Field. To see a game against Florida Atlantic. It has been covered ad nauseum in the Detroit media, so I won't go in to it.

The last time I saw Florida Atlantic play was at Spartan Stadium. It rained. It rained a lot. The tailgate was miserable and the game was worse. It rained so hard the water ran down the stairs in small rivers, cascading over each step and washing away all the joy and happiness of a fall Saturday.

Tomorrow the game is indoors, thankfully. Of course the 7:05 Tigers game is just in time for a 7:30 pm thunderstorm (60% chance).

Florida Atlantic is 1-0 after beating UAB 32-31 last weekend. Florida Atlantic threw for 254 yards and ran for 93, but threw the ball 24 times and ran 28. The running game is either terrible, or UAB's defensive front is great. I am leaning towards the former.

The good news? UAB ran up 424 yards of offense with 345 rushing yards (47 rushing attempts!). Caper, Baker, and Bell must be salivating just thinking about the field turf and that defense. With only 79 passing yards (19 attempts) I have to guess UAB is not a great passing team. It will be interesting to see if it was partly FAU's secondary and how MSU decides to attack it.

I am also anxious to see how the kicking game looks on the turf. The real excitement will come from watching the athletic tight ends fully utilized (if the FAU secondary is that good) and Keshawn Martin on the carpet. He could be scary. FAU has a good punting game.

Greg Jones and company should be even more effective on the turf, and I expect the interception drought to not only end, but end in a pick 6. FAU QB Van Camp spread the ball around to 6 different players last week, but only one player had more than 1 catch. That player was Lester Jean, who finished with 9 catches for 164 yards and 2 TD's. He is a big target at 6'3" 195lbs, but will be getting plenty of attention, you can be sure.

MSU is just too deep at receiver, running back, and tight end to not score frequently. The defense will be tested by a team that
Make it:

MSU - 41
FAU - 24