Indiana is 8-0 for the second time in program history with the chance to be 9-0 for the first time ever, this Saturday, in Spartan Stadium. A trophy that’s been fought over for 74 years — the Old Brass Spittoon — is all on the line for Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti and his Hoosier squad. Except the team could be without Heisman candidate starting quarterback Kurtis Roruke.
“Optimistic on Kurtis Rourke, he's thrown the last few days, building up,” Cignetti said Monday. “Workload will increase as the week goes on. That's all I'm going to say about it.”
There are reports from ESPN’s senior college football writer Pete Thamel that Rourke has been throwing more as the days come along.
Regardless of the history and narratives around the matchup, Cignetti kept his calm and business-like demeanor speaking to the press on Monday.
“[Michigan State] played a tough schedule,” Cignetti said Monday. “Been in a lot of close games. It will be a big challenge.”
He continued to praise Michigan State, even more than any other team so far this season.
“Very talented offensively in the skilled areas,” Cignetti said. Cignetti followed up with comments on their sophomore quarterback Aiden Chiles. “Talented guy. Now he's the starter, so he's playing more. He's young. Still young. Very talented. Made a lot of good plays.”
Cignetti said he has “a lot of respect” for MSU’s head coach Jonathan Smith. He called the turnaround he led of Oregon State’s football program “tremendous.”
The respect went both ways, Smith gave props to Indiana as well.
“Credit to them… Obviously, schematically Cignetti knows what he’s doing and I do think they’re playing with a lot of confidence,” Smith said Monday at his presser.
A deeper look under Sparty’s armor
MSU (4-4, 2-3) is coming off an in-state rivalry loss to Michigan 24-17, Indiana plays Michigan next week but first is the loser of this rivalry.
The strongest point of the Spartan offense is the run game. The Spartans boast two running backs who have over 2,000 career yards, senior Kay’ron Lynch-Adams and junior Nate Carter.
Carter put up 118 yards and a TD on 19 carries on Michigan’s defense. From watching his film, he takes after Marshawn Lynch’s philosophy of running through an individual’s face.
The MSU run game splits between these two backs, which sounds eerily familiar to a run game IU fans watch weekly. Carter’s led in touches a few weeks but so has Lynch-Adams. These two mixed in with the dynamic Chiles led to the team average of 137 rush yards per game.
The passing attack isn’t as dangerous, hence why MSU is No. 90 in total offense averaging around 360 yards per game. Chiles has the physical talents, he just hasn’t put it all together mechanically.
Chiles sells play action well due to his ability to run and he extends plays better than most if not all college-level QBs.
His completion percentage hasn’t been great until as of late, but in his past two games he’s finished with around a 73% completion percentage. Granted he’s thrown for 256 and 189 yards in those two outings. Chiles is warming up, if not hot, which could prove to be an issue for Indiana’s defense.
The bigger issue for MSU’s offense is the lack of touchdowns, finding the endzone just 16 times on offense eight games into the season. Twelve of those 16 TDs have come in the red zone, where MSU’s success rate is only 40%.
Smith will need to ramp up the offensive production, which he noted on Monday, if MSU gets into a shootout with the Hoosiers.
The MSU defense, however, could slow Indiana down long enough for their offense to respond.
MSU ranks 23rd in total defense, allowing 315 yards per game, which has allowed MSU to hang in games already this season. Eventually, the offense gets going and has led to wins here and there.
Their defense is led by senior linebacker Jordan Turner, who makes plays behind the line scrimmage, in space and in the second level all while reading his keys and doing little things right.
Their largest issue on defense is getting pressure and production from their defensive line, as there have been four games this season where the linemen have not recorded a sack. But the regular blitzing gets home occasionally for MSU.
While there are no glaring heroes on the MSU defensive stat sheets, it’s a joint effort to cause regular stops. The only games they’ve allowed over 24 points were losses to No. 1 Oregon and No. 4 Ohio State, which is expected. Those other two losses, they’ve lost by a single score: 24-17 to Michigan and 23-19 to Boston College on the road.
All the Spartans’ losses were either to top teams in the country or teams that were formerly ranked, which is why MSU poses a threat to Indiana. They’re the most unpredictable team on IU’s schedule and there’s a lot of fuel on the fire for MSU.
Kickoff for No. 13 Indiana at MSU is 3:30 p.m on Peacock.
