{"id":17679,"date":"2011-09-13T15:58:24","date_gmt":"2011-09-13T20:58:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=17679"},"modified":"2011-09-13T16:12:36","modified_gmt":"2011-09-13T21:12:36","slug":"2011-college-football-predictions-michigan-state-spartans-at-notre-dame-fighting-irish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/2011-college-football-predictions-michigan-state-spartans-at-notre-dame-fighting-irish-17679\/","title":{"rendered":"2011 College Football Predictions: Michigan State Spartans at Notre Dame Fighting Irish"},"content":{"rendered":"

No. 15 Michigan State Spartans at Notre Dame Fighting Irish<\/strong>
\n Saturday, 9\/17\/11, 3:30 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 NBC<\/strong>
\n Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Notre Dame -5<\/strong>
\n Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Notre Dame -4.5<\/strong>
\n Opening Total:\u00a0 49.5<\/strong>
\n Current Total:\u00a0 51<\/strong>
\n Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Brian Kelly has no answers right now in South Bend<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Michigan State has been listed as an underdog in the betting odds in one of the more interesting lines for Week 3 of the college football season.\u00a0 The Spartans rank second among opponents in all-time victories (28) over Notre Dame, including a 34-31 victory as 3.5-point favorites a year ago.\u00a0 The program is getting very little respect in posting wins over Youngstown State (28-6) and Florida Atlantic (44-0), especially considering the team allowed just a single first down and 48 yards of total offense last week.\u00a0 \u201cTo do that in 2011,\u201d Spartans head coach Mark Dantonio stated.\u00a0 \u201cWhen you have so many concepts out there that an offense takes advantage of is pretty incredible.\u201d\u00a0 Michigan State is 5-3 ATS in road games the last two seasons.<\/p>\n

The Spartans know they are likely in for a battle facing a Fighting Irish team that is winless through two games, but a close game is always expected in this rivalry.\u00a0 Nine of the last 11 games in this series have been decided by seven points or less.\u00a0 Dantonio has enjoyed great success during the month of September in leading a program, coming in with a 20-11 record, including a 15-4 mark with this current team.\u00a0 Fifth-year senior quarterback Kirk Cousins is aiming to finish his career as a starter in this series with a 2-1 record.<\/p>\n

Notre Dame is one of nine schools nationally to have over 1,021 yards in total offense, which is the highest mark for an Irish team after two games since 1974.\u00a0 The Fighting Irish have dominated opponents in terms of yardage this year, especially in the first quarter, out-gaining South Florida and Michigan by a 297-89 margin.\u00a0 It still hasn\u2019t been good enough and head coach Brian Kelly has stated the fact.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re not good enough,\u201d Kelly stated after the team\u2019s 35-31 road loss to Michigan as three-point road favorites.\u00a0 \u201cAnd I mean across the board.\u201d\u00a0 Quarterback Tommy Rees has enjoyed great personal success despite the program\u2019s woes, throwing for 13 touchdowns over his last five games.\u00a0 Notre Dame is 3-13 ATS as a favorite.<\/p>\n

The Fighting Irish will be meeting the Spartans for the 75th time this weekend, leading the series with a 45-28-1 lead.\u00a0 Notre Dame will also be welcoming in the highest-ranked Michigan State team in 32 years, which could end up being a good thing, as the program handed the No. 7 Spartans a 27-3 loss in that contest back on Sept. 29, 1979.\u00a0 Fans inside Notre Dame Stadium should be aware that their beloved team is 5-4 following a defeat versus Michigan in this series.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Spartans due to their 10-4 ATS mark versus independents, while the Irish are 1-8 ATS in September.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on a winning season and let the college football handicappers at Maddux Sports line your pockets with cash.\u00a0 Long term packages are available now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No. 15 Michigan State Spartans at Notre Dame Fighting Irish Saturday, 9\/17\/11, 3:30 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 NBC Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Notre Dame -5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Notre Dame -4.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 49.5 Current Total:\u00a0 51 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Michigan State has been listed as an underdog in the betting odds in one of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":7117,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[200,1444],"tags":[1192,3990,3238,500,1311,5089],"class_list":["post-17679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-football","category-headlines","tag-brian-kelly","tag-kirk-cousins","tag-mark-dantonio","tag-michigan-state-spartans","tag-notre-dame-fighting-irish","tag-tommy-rees"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17679"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17682,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17679\/revisions\/17682"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}