Michigan State Football: Early preview of Week 3 battle vs. Arizona State

Michigan State football gets another shot against Arizona State on Sept. 14. Will the offense be able to generate enough points for this revenge game?

Arizona State will be breaking in a new quarterback with Manny Wilkins Jr. moving on to the Green Bay Packers. Also, the Sun Devils have lost star receiver N’Keal Harry, but they do bring back junior running back Eno Benjamin, who rushed for over 1,600 yards and 16 touchdowns.

Replacing the production of Wilkins and Harry will not be easy.

The Sun Devils will need to rely on wide outs Frank Darby, Kyle Williams and Brandon Aiyuk. All three had over 400 yards of production in 2018.

However, the most important position to replace is the quarterback spot. Freshman Ethan Long has impressed head coach Herm Edwards. He went on to tell Tyler  Drake of Arizona Sports 98.7 FM that “…he’s got to be on the field.” The coach went on to add that while Long may not be the starting quarterback, he could end up being a sort of “swiss-army knife” type of player like the New Orleans Saints’ Taysom Hill.

Who will be the starting quarterback for Arizona State? That’s a good question as Long is still a contender — it is a battle between junior Dillon Sterling-Cole and a couple of freshmen. The other two freshmen being Jayden Daniels and Joey Yellen. The latter was a four-star prospect with an offer from Georgia and was considered by 247Sports as the No. 13 overall pro-style quarterback.

What does this mean for MSU? It means the Spartans have a great opportunity to get some revenge. Arizona State will not be challenged early as it plays Kent State and Sacramento State. This MSU defense could be better than in 2018 and if the Spartans can get some points then should be able to win this game.

Final score: Arizona State 9, Michigan State 24