Michigan State Football Preview 2025: The Spartans Will Take the Next Step

X CFN, Fiu | CFN Facebook | Bluesky Fiu, CFN

Michigan State Offense Breakdown
Michigan State Defense Breakdown  
Season Prediction, Win Total, Keys to Season

The breakthrough Rose Bowl win over Stanford was back in 2013. The Spartans caught the awful break of being fantastic the year before the four-team CFP kicked in.

The lone appearance in the College Football Playoff was ten years ago. It ended in a brutal far-worse-than-final-score 38-0 loss to Alabama.

As amazing as the run from 2008 to 2015 was under Mark Dantonio, he went 27-24 in his last four seasons before the Mel Tucker era took over.

Way-too-long wind-up short, it’s been a while since Michigan State was a true player. The program is 54-54 since the goal line stand to beat Iowa for the 2015 Big Ten title.

Jonathan Smith took over a building job last year when he came in from Oregon State, and all things considered, going 5-7 was a far better record than it should’ve been.

Smith spent last season putting several young parts in place. Now there’s plenty of returning experience, and the right-fit guys brought in through a good transfer portal haul should make a whole lot of noise.

And now there’s a whole lot to like, even if the Spartans have a ton of work to do. It starts with the first three games of the season.

Michigan State has a manageable non-conference schedule - Western Michigan, Boston College, Youngstown State, all at home.

There’s no Ohio State or Purdue to deal with, Michigan and Penn State have to come to East Lansing, and overall, there are just enough breaks to make this a big-step-forward season if the team has collectively matured out of a slew of issues - more on that later.

So no, Michigan State isn’t close to going on a run of winning 11 games or more five times in six seasons like Dantonio did in the early 2010s, but returning to a bowl game for the first time in four years would be a great Year Two under Smith.

Michigan State Offense Breakdown
Michigan State Defense Breakdown
Season Prediction, Win Total, Keys to Season