Michigan State football's series history vs. Boston College is troubling

Michigan State's Charles Brantley returns an interception for a touchdown during the second quarter in the game against Prairie View A&M on Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing.
Michigan State's Charles Brantley returns an interception for a touchdown during the second quarter in the game against Prairie View A&M on Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing. / Nick King/Lansing State Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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Michigan State football is red hot as the non-conference portion of the season comes to a close this weekend. The Spartans are a perfect 3-0 after a dominant 40-0 win against Prairie View A&M and now they head east once again to take on a surprising team in Boston College.

The Eagles are off to a solid start this year as well as they sit 2-1 with their one loss coming by a few points on the road against a top 10 Missouri team.

This game has all the makings of being another extremely close contest, but let's hope it goes a lot better than Michigan State's matchups with the Eagles in the past.

Boston College dominates the series history

The Spartans have played Boston College six times in their history and unfortunately hold a 1-4-1 all time record. This is surprising because you usually don't think of Boston College as being a good football program, so I defintely expected this record to be more in MSU's favor.

Michigan State's one win in this matchup came in East Lansing in 1995 when MSU beat the Eagles 25-21. Three years before this contest the Spartans traveled to Boston College where they lost 14-0.

The last meeting between these teams came in the 2007 Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando, Fla. Michigan State lost a close game 24-21 to Boston College quarterback Matt Ryan who went on to have a very successful NFL career.

The other three matchups between these teams came in the 1930s and 1940s with two wins for the Eagles and a 13-13 tie in 1936.

Can Michigan State turn the tide in this series and get their second win in program history? History unfortunately says no even looking beyond the disappointing 1-4-1 overall record.

The Spartans are 0-3 in true road games against Boston College, and on top of that they are 1-1 when playing Boston College in year one under new head coaches. The 2007 loss was in year one under Mark Dantonio and the win in 1995 was Nick Saban's first season in East Lansing.

But this is a new era under Jonathan Smith. This is a new team that has showed a lot of promise this early in the season. This is a program that has already proven they can go on the road and win a game that everyone thinks they are going to lose. So I wouldn't count Michigan State out. In fact, I expect MSU to win this game, move to 4-0 and hopefully enter the AP Poll rankings for the first time this season and under Smith.