Michigan State football: 3 fearless predictions vs. Maryland

Michigan State football will host unbeaten Maryland on Saturday afternoon looking to bounce back from the Washington debacle.

What a disaster this season has been thus far for Michigan State football. While the obvious negative storyline involves Mel Tucker, there’s an underlying issue that hasn’t been talked about enough: injuries. It feels like that’s the theme of the program every single year.

Michigan State has been bitten by the injury bug yet again — and twice as hard.

The ailing Spartans, who could be without over a dozen players on Saturday, will host an undefeated Maryland team trying to improve to 4-0 behind the arm of Taulia Tagovailoa. The Spartans need to get after him early and often — something they couldn’t do against Michael Penix Jr.

This game is important for Michigan State if it wants to have a chance at a bowl berth this season.

To celebrate homecoming weekend, here are three of my most fearless predictions for the crucial game.

1. Nathan Carter rushes for 100 yards again

Through two Michigan State football games, Nathan Carter looked like a superstar. He had back-to-back 100-yard games to open his Spartan career and he looked like the clear top player on offense. But the offensive line has done him no favors.

Need proof? Just look at the Washington game. He had no running lanes and was hit in the backfield a ton which was disappointing to see. The offensive line was supposed to be a strength this year.

I think we’ll see the offense design more runs to mask these issues in the trenches. Carter will have more runs designed to utilize his speed and elusiveness around the edge and I think he’s going to take full advantage with another 100-yard performance. This will mark three 100-yard games in his first four outings as a Spartan.

Carter’s final line with be 20 carries for 127 yards and a touchdown.

2. Jordan Hall records 10 tackles

If you’ve read up on the (few) bright spots from Michigan State’s loss to Washington, you’d know that Jordan Hall was one of them. The freshman linebacker looks like a budding star through three games. In fact, he’s rated as the Big Ten’s 10th-best linebacker this year and the nation’s No. 8 linebacker in terms of pass coverage. Not too shabby for a true freshman.

Hall is going to have a big game on Saturday against Maryland.

While he has just nine total tackles this season, he’s only played a small percentage of defensive snaps. We’re going to see a healthy dose of Hall on Saturday afternoon as he surpasses his season total for tackles in one game. He’ll even finish with two tackles for loss and 0.5 sacks.

This could be the start of a special career in East Lansing for Hall.

3. Katin Houser engineers a comeback

Last week was a rough one for Noah Kim. The veteran quarterback struggled mightily against a defense that had been mediocre through the first two weeks of the season against inferior opponents and a lot had to do with the offensive line struggling. I think that continues this week as he will get off to a quick start, but stall out through the end of the first quarter and the second quarter.

After halftime, he’ll take the field as the starter once again, but he’ll turn the ball over on the first drive and then go three-and-out on the second possession. Harlon Barnett will make the call to put Katin Houser in the game.

Down 20-10 in the second quarter, Houser will breathe some new life into the offense, but he, too, will be running for his life thanks to offensive line struggles. Houser will throw a touchdown pass and lead two more scoring drives to put Michigan State up 23-20. I have a feeling Maryland wins this one, but the Houser magic will have us believing again.

Michigan State holds on to win 23-20 and Houser’s solid player opens up the QB1 job again.