Friday at 7 p.m., the Florida Atlantic Owls are kicking off their 2024 football season in East Lansing, MI., to take on the Michigan State Spartans.
Tomorrow’s game is the fourth matchup between the teams. The Spartans are leading the battle with a winning 3-0 record, two of those games being in East Lansing.
Here are the University Press staff predictions for the Owls season opener.
Megan Bruinsma, Sports Editor
Florida Atlantic is entering the second season of their rebuild under head coach Tom Herman with 21 new transfers. Michigan State is going into the first season of its own rebuild, with a whopping 61 new transfers and their first year with head coach Jonathan Smith. Due to this, expectations for either team are almost non-existent.
Bad blood between the teams has already been building with Aiden Chiles, MSU quarterback, telling fans to “bet the over.” Twitter ran wild with the quote, as it usually does, presuming he was referring to the FAU game. Chiles later clarified that he meant for the entirety of the season. Captain for the Owls, Jayden Williams, responded with respect and maturity, saying in a press conference, “We’re just ready to go out there and show what we can do.”
Either way, it sounds like the Spartans don’t expect much from the Owls and FAU can use that. The Owls need to embrace their underdog status. Capitalize on it. Own it. They can use their smaller size to squeeze through the Spartans’ defensive line in the running game.
A large concern of mine is how FAU finished games last year. It felt like every game was a fourth-quarter collapse and with a team like MSU, that simply cannot happen. As soon as the game kicks off, the Owls need to play with 110% effort for the next 60 minutes to have a fighting chance.
The Spartans have numerous advantages. They’re playing at home in a stadium that fits about 75,000, more than double the size of FAU’s stadium with a little over 29,000 seats. MSU athletics also announced that they will be striping the stadium by section, amplifying the energy and visuals of the crowd. They play in the Big Ten and although they haven’t had a winning record since 2021, they have the experience of tougher competition.
The Owls’ main advantage is Herman having an entire off-season to get comfier in his seat as FAU’s head coach. There’s no doubt that this extra year has given him the opportunity to insert his bowl game coaching knowledge and relay that game plan to his players, but it likely won’t be enough.
Prediction: MSU 35, FAU 17
Morgan Larkins, Staff Writer
The Florida Atlantic Owls playing on the road and facing a Big Ten team like the Michigan State Spartans is going to be an uphill battle. However, the Spartans have been one of the worst teams in the Big Ten for the last couple of years and have not had a winning season since 2021. Last year, they finished with a 4-8 record and scored 15.9 points per game while allowing 28.3 points a game. The Owls were better in comparison, scoring 23.8 points per game while allowing 25.5 points per game.
However, the statistics do not tell the whole story. The Spartans are in the Big Ten, which means they are constantly facing more talented teams like Washington, Ohio State and Michigan. The Owls are in the American Athletic Conference (AAC), so they don’t face the heavy hitters as often. If the Spartans were a tree, they would be facing hurricanes week after week. While the Owls would be up against a thunderstorm every week.
A major advantage for the Owls is that the Spartans are playing now under Head Coach Jonathan Smith from Oregon State. Smith turned the OSU program around before his departure and is looking to do the same at MSU. The entire team is playing their first season under Smith’s system and they have 61 new players. Transfer quarterback Aidan Chiles is the name to watch for the Spartans. The former four-star followed Smith from Oregon State and threw 309 yards for four touchdowns on 24 attempts in his freshman year.
The Owls could win this game if the Spartans underestimate them and make mistakes while executing plays under Smith for the first time. However, the Owls are a far less talented team than the Spartans.
Prediction: MSU 31, FAU 20
John Burke, Contributing Writer
The Owls have a tremendous opportunity on Friday night, as a win against Michigan State would be a true signature victory to start off the season. Marching into East Lansing and stealing a victory will be no easy task, however.
If you’re one of those fans who like stats and are also pulling for FAU to win on Friday, you might want to look away. The Owls are a whopping 1-10 all-time against Big Ten opponents, 0-10 on the road. Michigan State is 3-0 all-time against FAU. Their most recent clash came in 2011 when the Spartans “barely” edged past the Owls in a slim 44-0 victory. For the past six years, MSU has hosted a Friday night season opener every year except for the COVID-19 season. They are undefeated in those games.
On top of history working against them, I can’t think of a much worse environment for an essentially brand-new offense playing their first game together. If there’s one thing I can guarantee, it’s that Spartan Stadium will be LOUD Friday night. With a capacity of nearly 75,000, you can expect a sold-out crowd eager to trade their voices in exchange for a Spartans win.
Fans in East Lansing have been aching for a good football team for a while now, and new Head Coach Jonathan Smith may be just what the doctor ordered. After reversing the trajectory of the Oregon State football program, Smith hopes to do the same at Michigan State, starting with a victory on Friday night.
Coming over to MSU with Smith is sophomore quarterback Aidan Chiles, making his first career start at only 18 years old. The Owls will need to apply some pressure and rattle him early, but if they’re unable to do so, then the highly touted dual-threat QB may cause some problems.
As is usually the case in a Big Ten vs. AAC matchup, the greatest mismatch for the Owls appears to be in the trenches. Michigan State’s offensive line and defensive line seem to have significant size and skill advantages and it will be interesting to see if FAU can stop the running game or produce one of their own.
Taking everything into consideration, I’d say the outlook seems bleak for FAU in their season opener. The stadium will be rocking and I think the offense will struggle to finish and maintain drives. A realistic goal for the Owls would be to find some rhythm within the offense and try to carry that momentum into a big stretch of games starting next week.
Prediction: MSU 34, FAU 14
For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or DM the staff on Instagram: Megan Bruinsma (@megan_bruinsma), Morgan Larkins (@mj_larkins).
