Boston College Football found themselves victorious after cruising to a 66-10 win versus Fordham on Saturday. This week they travel to East Lansing where they will face the Michigan State Spartans at Spartan Stadium. We talked with Oren Basse, a contributor for SBNation’s The Only Colors, about what to expect from this match-up.
With Week 2 coming up, how do you feel about the team being able to exceed expectations this year?
My expectations going into the year were a 6-6 record with the possibility
of needing to win game #12 to get bowl eligibility. After one week, I do not have a reason to change that opinion. The Only Colors researched this team pretty thoroughly, so I had a pretty good idea what its strengths and weaknesses were. Game 1 mostly confirmed that. I’ll expand on this in the next answer, but yeah, 6-6 still seems most likely.
Michigan State’s defense and running game were definitely the main storylines of the day versus Western Michigan. Despite not being asked to do a lot, Aidan Chiles had himself a solid game. How confident are you in his ability to be a game manager in games where the other areas of the field (defense, special teams, run game) are performing well?
I will have to disagree with the premise of your question. I don’t feel that Chiles had a solid game. Sure he completed nearly 75% of his passes, but that only resulted in 155 yards. He also fumbled the ball twice, losing it once. More concerning were how off some of those incompletions were. His deep shots were significantly overthrown, showing a lack of touch. Even the one TD he had was a bad pass. He failed to lead a wide open Nick Marsh on the crossing route, causing Marsh to slow down as to not run past the ball, and that allowed the defender to get back in coverage. Marsh still made the catch but it was a higher degree of difficulty than it should have been.
At this point, Chiles is my biggest question mark. If he is better than what I saw in Week 1, then MSU will have no problem becoming bowl eligible. But if there are 11 more performances like last week’s, then it’s going to be a rough 2025.
The team started out 3-0 last year before they eventually faced many struggles, landing them at 5-7 for their final season record. What do you think needs to change for them to stay consistent throughout the year?
MSU’s 3-0 start last year was wins over Florida Atlantic, Maryland (who went 1-8 in B1G in 2024), and Prairie View A&M. Not exactly signature wins. I would say MSU was consistent last year, just consistently a bad team. This year, the strength of this team is the offensive side of the ball, with the QB position being the biggest remaining question mark (I am not ready to say the “weak link” just yet). If the offensive line can block well for the stable of running backs, and if the pass catchers (particularly Marsh and Omari Kelly) can continue playing well, then hopefully MSU can win the time of possession contest and help keep the defense on the bench. Basically, MSU needs to consistently establish a running game and a short yardage passing attack.
You’re now in the second year of the Jonathan Smith era for MSU Football. What are the changes to the program that he’s made that you’ve particularly enjoyed, and others you’re not so much a huge fan of?
I still have not gotten my finger on the pulse of MSU’s coach. Last year, as is the case nowadays when a new coach is brought in, there was a ton of roster turnover. Some MSU guys, some Oregon State guys who came with Smith, and then a bunch of other portal players. I don’t think the team really gelled. Some comments I heard in postgame press conferences last season furthered that belief. This offseason, there was still a fair amount of turnover, but not nearly as much as in 2024. So we need to see if this team comes together more. I need to see if Coach Smith can create a strong locker room.
If you are an opposing team, who is one player on the MSU offense, and one player on the MSU defense that you would want to gameplan around?
On offense, in case I have not already said it enough, it is WR Nick Marsh. Bama’s Ryan Williams and Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith were the two best freshmen WRs last season. There is a chance that Marsh was #3 on that list, though admittedly a distant 3rd. He will be playing on Sundays in a few years.
Defensively, it is a harder question to answer. The LB unit is the most established. Wayne Matthews III and Jordan Hall could be the best defenders on the team. The defensive line and the secondary are still trying to establish their depth chart.
Lastly, what is your prediction for the upcoming MSU vs BC game?
I was hoping this would not be a question. I feel like this game is a pair of strength-vs.-weakness matchups. I don’t trust MSU’s pass defense against Dylan Lonergan and the Eagles passing game. At the same time, if I were an Eagles fan, I would be worried about being able to slow down MSU’s running backs. I think we will see more points than last year’s game. This time I’ll predict MSU with the late touchdown to get the 27-24 win.
