College football week 5 and the Wyoming Cowboys will travel to Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, Michigan to take on the Michigan State Spartans. The game has a start time of 12:00 pm (Eastern) and will be televised on ESPN 2. Current Vegas odds have the Spartans listed as 29 point favorites, while the total is set at 47.
Analysis: The Wyoming Cowboys are off back to back losing seasons, which prompted the dismissal of head coach Dave Christensen after 5 years of service. In steps Craig Bohl, who won 3 straight FCS National Titles at North Dakota State. 16 starters are back for the Cowboys, but will it be enough to get them back to a bowl game. Well they are off to a nice 3-1 start to the year, with their lone loss being at Oregon, in a game that they didn’t play all that badly in. The Cowboys are a team that has been led by their defense this year, as they have allowed 19 points or less to teams not named Oregon. For the year the Cowboys rank 55th in total defense (370.5 ypg) and 54th in points allowed (23 ppg), but take out the Oregon game and they have allowed just 14.7 ppg. The offense has not been that good for them as they have averaged just 351.8 ypg (102nd) and just 17 ppg (121st). Colby leads the offense, but has completed just 57.0% of his passes, while throwing 4 TDs and 3 INTs.
What year the Michigan State Spartans had as they went 13-1 on the year, which included A big 10 title game win over Ohio State and a Rose Bowl win over Stanford. This year they have 12 starters and look every bit ready to successfully defend their Big 10 Title. The Spartans have started out 2-1 on the year with their lone loss being at Oregon. Last week Oregon bounced back from that tough loss with a total destruction of Eastern Michigan in a 73-14 win. In that win they outgained EMU by 361 yards, outfirstdowned them by 19, held them to just 8% on third down and benefitted from 6 EMU turnovers. They totally dominated this game, but then again they were supposed to, just like they are supposed to dominate Wyoming this week. Connor Cook has had a very nice start behind center as he has hit 69.7% of his passes for 711 yards and 7 TDs so far, while Jeremy Langford has led a solid ground attack with 203 yards so far. On the year the Spartans rank 23rd in total offense (509 ypg) and 6th in scoring (48.3 ppg), while on defense they rank 14th in yards allowed (290 ypg), 5th vs the run (71.7 ypg) and 50th in points allowed (22.3 ppg).
Pick: Tough scheduling spot here for the Spartans as they their Big 10 opener vs Nebraska on deck. The Spartans also put up 73 on Eastern Michigan last week and won’t look to exert that much energy here, especially with the Huskers on deck. I know that EMU isn’t a strong offense and neither is Wyoming, but the Cowboys do play at a very slow and deliberate pace, plus they also know how to play defense, as they have allowed just 23 ppg so far this year. I just don’t see the Spartans winning this one as easily as last week. I look for a 37-10 type game here.
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