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Michigan State Football: Way-too-early game-by-game predictions for 2022

By Connor Muldowney

Oct 30, 2021; East Lansing, Michigan, USA; Michigan State Spartans quarterback Payton Thorne (10) celebrates with teammates during the fourth quarter against the Michigan Wolverines at Spartan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 30, 2021; East Lansing, Michigan, USA; Michigan State Spartans quarterback Payton Thorne (10) celebrates with teammates during the fourth quarter against the Michigan Wolverines at Spartan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports /
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Michigan State head coach Mel TuckerSyndication Detroit Free Press
Michigan State head coach Mel TuckerSyndication Detroit Free Press /

Western Michigan was one of the top teams from the MAC last season and Kaleb Eleby returns at quarterback, but he loses top receiving target Skyy Moore to the NFL draft. This should be a nice comfortable win to start the season, but we’ve had a rather mixed bag of season openers under Mel Tucker so it’s hard to say what we should expect: rust or dominance.

I’m going with the latter here as Michigan State will impose its will in the opener and the offense will have a monster game thanks to Payton Thorne and then Jayden Reed going off against his former team. I’m expecting the Spartans to approach 50 points in this one.

Final Score: Western Michigan 20, Michigan State 49 (1-0)

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Akron was one of the worst MAC teams in 2021 and arguably one of the worst teams in the entire country. The Zips finished 2-10 last year with just one conference victory and I don’t see that improving much in 2022.

After handling a solid Western Michigan team in the opener offensively, I think this will be much more of a complete effort from the Spartans.

Final Score: Akron 10, Michigan State 41 (2-0)

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