Michigan State Football: 5 things that must happen for Penn State upset

EAST LANSING, MI - NOVEMBER 04: Felton Davis III #18 of the Michigan State Spartans battles for yards next to Brandon Smith #47 of the Penn State Nittany Lions during the first half at Spartan Stadium on November 4, 2017 in East Lansing, Michigan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) /

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CHAMPAIGN, IL – SEPTEMBER 21: Miles Sanders #24 of the Penn State Nittany Lions runs the ball as Bobby Roundtree #97 of the Illinois Fighting Illini pursues during the game at Memorial Stadium on September 21, 2018 in Champaign, Illinois. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images) /

4. Shutting down Miles Sanders

No Saquon Barkley, no problem for Penn State. Though the Nittany Lions almost surely miss their former All-American talent in the backfield, they’ve replaced him with a former five-star recruit in Miles Sanders — yes, the same Miles Sanders who almost flipped his commitment to Michigan State in the recruiting process.

The Nittany Lions have been using Sanders a decent amount through five games and he has 538 yards and six touchdowns on 6.2 yards per carry. He’s the type of player who can go off for 200 yards in any given week. Sometimes, though, James Franklin forgets he has a top-tier back.

Michigan State has the No. 1 run defense in college football through five weeks so if they can continue that dominance against Sanders, Trace McSorley and the Nittany Lions, things will get a lot easier, especially when trying to stop the aerial attack.

Stop Sanders and the ground game and force the Nittany Lions to become one-dimensional and McSorley’s accuracy issues may become more evident.

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