Michigan State travels to Southern California to take on UCLA who also has a brand new head coach and has been a different story of rebuilding a program.
Michigan State is making the west coast trip this weekend to Southern California to battle with UCLA in a Big Ten matchup. Both of these programs have brand new head coaches at the helm and are in the middle of a rebuild at their new schools. Pat Fitzgerald was hired at Michigan State coming off the couch having been away from coaching for a few years. Fitzgerald brought in a couple of transfers but not too many of note. Bob Chesney was hired at UCLA from James Madison to turn around the program. When Chesney came into UCLA he already had a starting quarterback in Nico Iamaleava and was able to bring in a bunch of transfers with him from JMU. Chesney, having been a coach at the group of six levels, allowed him to take his best players from that program if they wanted to leave and follow him to UCLA. These are two different ways of rebuilding a program in college football right now with MSU going through some growing pains and UCLA smoothly transitioning in their new eras.
UCLA has been one of the big stories of the college football season as they are off to a 6-0 start while Michigan State has now lost five in a row and is on the verge of losing out on a bowl game. UCLA has already acquired key wins this season getting a road win over the Oregon Ducks and a home victory against a solid Wisconsin team. Michigan State and Pat Fitzgerald are still looking for that key victory as their only two wins have come over Toledo and Eastern Michigan, two Mid-American Conference schools. The Spartans have come close the last two weeks and should arguably be on a two game winning streak but that is not how their fortunes have played out. UCLA will be without Nico Iamaleava for the rest of the season so they will be relying on backup Ty Dieffenbach who got the start last week against Wisconsin. He was 22-of-33 for 264 yards and an interception in his lone start this season. This most likely means the Bruins will be relying on the ground game against this Michigan state defense to get the job done.
The Bruins have one of the best rushing offenses in college football as they rank 12th in the nation in rushing yards per game. They average 231 yards on the ground per game and are led by transfer running back Wayne Knight with 84 carries for 571 yards and 11 touchdowns. Knight has been terrific for UCLA after following Chesney from JMU and he will definitely be leaned on against MSU’s run defense. The Spartans run defense did play better against Northwestern as they only gave up 3.2 yards per carry to a really good rushing offense. The defense only allows 140.7 rush yards per game so it will be a matter of which unit will break first. One of the biggest things as well in this game will be the turnover margin and which team wins the turnover battle. Both teams are at different ends of the spectrum with how they have fared so far this season. Michigan State ranked near the bottom of the FBS with a minus five turnover differential on the season and UCLA is top five with a plus 10 turnover margin. One of the reasons MSU lost last week was a fumble lost inside their own ten yard line that led to a field goal. If Michigan State can clean up the turnovers and force some of their own, then maybe they can get the backup quarterback to make some mistakes.
These two teams are headed in different directions during their rebuilds. One team has already settled into their new culture and coach and is winning games like it is nothing. The other may not have won a big game yet, but they keep getting better, buying into the coach’s personality and just need a little more time. This game should be a showcase of two ways to do a rebuild in college football and how neither way is necessarily right or wrong. It will be another test for MSU’s run defense against a top-12 unit in the nation as Coach Fitzgerald looks for a marquee win in his first season.