Michigan State football vs. Iowa final odds and a prediction

Welcome to the first post-bye week game in the Jonathan Smith era of Michigan State football. It always felt like Mel Tucker's teams were rusty after bye weeks as well as the late squads in the Mark Dantonio era (post-2015).

Hopefully Smith can have the opposite effect and lead his team to a huge win to start the second half of the regular season. A win would really get this team going ahead of a big Michigan game.

Michigan State won't quite be at full strength with some key players out like Dillon Tatum, Michael Masunas, and a handful of linemen and defensive backs. Hopefully, however, the Spartans will get Jordan Hall back this week after missing the Oregon game before the bye.

I don't know about you, but I'm excited to see how Smith coaches following a bye week in East Lansing. He lost his last two post-bye games at Oregon State so hopefully that trend changes.

If you're betting on the game, that interesting Smith stat could be useful. But also keep in mind that Smith lost to two very solid teams (Washington in 2022 and Arizona in 2023) following byes those years and did so by just three points in each game. If Michigan State loses to Iowa, I think it'll be a very tight game. Actually, the same goes with a win.

Here are the final odds for Saturday's Michigan State vs. Iowa game via DraftKings.

Line: Iowa -6
Over/Under: 39.5
Moneyline: Iowa -238 | Michigan State +195

Honestly, this is a tough game to predict because we just don't know how good Michigan State is going to look after a midseason bye week in the Smith era. I'm going to be optimistic here and predict a Michigan State win by three points and guess what? Cade McNamara throws the game-sealing pick to Charles Brantley a-la 2021.

Final Score: Iowa 20, Michigan State 24