Michigan State football: Consider Miami on upset alert in Week 3

As Michigan State football manhandled the Youngstown State Penguins, Miami was dealing with a test. The Appalachian State Mountaineers — FCS icon turned Sun Belt contender — went into Miami and almost beat their first ranked team since capping off a win against No. 3 Michigan in 2007.

Miami, which lost ground in this week’s AP Top 25 (slipping to No. 24), just lost running back Don Chaney Jr. for the rest of the season to a knee injury. Linebacker Keontra Smith will miss a few weeks as well.

In Miami’s first two games, it’s 1-1 and was obliterated by Alabama. The Hurricanes have been outscored 57-38 in those games and are seemingly in some sort of tailspin.

This may be the perfect trap game for Mel Tucker, Michigan State football

On Mel Tucker’s resume at Michigan State, he’s already beaten Michigan once (although in a COVID-19 year). This would be Tucker’s first massive win and Michigan State’s biggest since beating Michigan in 2017.

In Florida’s Palm Beach Post, writer Tom D’Angelo argued why Michigan State might be the perfect test for Miami’s defense.

Michigan State is 10th in the country in yards per game (553), second in the Big Ten with 40 points per game (behind Maryland), and sixth in the country with 299 rushing yards per game. Miami knows that Michigan State has been blowing out teams in the first half, and is on high alert.

Would this even be an upset? Probably. We don’t really know what Michigan State is capable of under second-ish year head coach Mel Tucker. The offense seems like more of a bright spot than the defense, but this team is more than able to keep up with teams like Miami.

One underrated asset Michigan State may have is quarterback Payton Thorne. There’s a very real possibility that Kenneth Walker III wins a Heisman and teams know that, but overcompensating for the run game could leave the door open for some passing.

Against Youngstown State, Thorne was 16-for-21 and threw for 280 yards and four touchdowns. This was completely opposite to the Spartans’ game against Northwestern when Walker III lit up for 264 rushing yards.

Even more telling about this Michigan State team, Jordon Simmons established himself as a solid second running back, rushing for 121 yards.

Pitting Michigan State against Miami this weekend on national television at noon may be huge for the Spartans and their recruiting plans.

Miami should be on high alert because no one knows how far Michigan State can go.