Michigan State football: Final score predictions vs. Illinois

Michigan State football is fresh off a bye and it’ll be looking to inch closer to bowl eligibility.

The Spartans will be in Champaign on Saturday afternoon, looking for win No. 5 against a team that started the year red-hot and even jumped into the rankings. Michigan State will be playing one of the trickier teams in the conference because you just don’t know which Illinois team is going to show up. It could be a comfortable win for the Spartans because they are fresh off a bye and they have the talent, but Michigan State is riding a two-game losing streak that saw it lose to Indiana and Michigan.

Bret Bielema and Illinois will be bowling this season so they’re just playing for an improved bowl selection while the Spartans just want to get invited to the party. Winning this one will go a long way.

The Spartans will have Aidan Chiles back after he exited the Indiana game early with an injury and Jonathan Smith will look to improve to 2-0 after bye weeks this season and surpass his preseason win total set by Vegas at 4.5.

What do our writers think about this one?

Connor Muldowney: This is a tough one to predict because Michigan State hasn’t looked good since the Iowa game but I see the Spartans looking refreshed off a bye and Aidan Chiles looks like he did against the Hawkeyes about four weeks ago. Michigan State holds on in a tight one and wins thanks to a touchdown pass to Nick Marsh in the final minutes. Michigan State 27, Illinois 23.

Emmett Matasovsky: The Spartans showed signs of improvement over their last bye week, but this Illinois team had their own bye week to prepare as well. Additionally, Illini QB Luke Altmyer does not make the bad mistake to hurt his team (3 INTs all season). With Malik Spencer and Chuck Brantley questionable at best, this could be bad for the lack of Spartan pass rush. The Spartans threaten, but the lack of Illinois mistakes doom them. Michigan State 17, Illinois 24.

Michael Eichstaedt: Michigan State 21, Illinois 31

DailyMSU: Michigan State 21, Illinois 20

Chris Norman: Michigan State 17, Illinois 27

Anthony Garvert: Michigan State 24, Illinois 21

Zack Theis: Michigan State 20, Illinois 24

Owen Schuchaskie: Michigan State 27, Illinois 21

As you can see, most of our writers have Illinois but don’t count Michigan State football out just yet. This is a very winnable game for the Spartans.