The dawn of the next era of Michigan State football is just days away, and one thing is clear. On Friday night at 7 p.m. Eastern Time in the familiar confines of Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, the Jonathan Smith era will officially kick off with a game against the visiting Florida Atlantic Owls.

Like the nocturnal and inquisitive bird of prey mascot for the Spartans' first opponent, Michigan State fans likely have a lot of questions. A lot of them will focus on the long list of new names and faces who will take to the field for the first time in Green and White.

Who is that young guy taking snaps and running the Spartan offense? It's Oregon State transfer Aidan Chiles. Who is that impressive looking tight end? It's Jack Velling, also from Oregon State. Who are all those new guys on the offensive line?

Who is Jordan Turner? He's a linebacker transfer from Wisconsin. How about this D’Quan Douse fellow? He is a defensive line transfer from Georgia Tech. Who is Ed Woods? He used to play defensive back at Arizona State.

And that's not all. In total, close to half of the current Michigan State roster (61 out of 118) is made up of freshmen and transfers. So don't worry if you spend as much time reviewing the roster in the program as you do watching the game on Friday night.

But the biggest question on the minds of Spartan fans centers around the new head coach. Who is Jonathan Smith? Who are all these West Coast native assistants that he brought with him? How are they going to assimilate into the newly expanded Big Ten? What type of culture and brand of football will he bring to East Lansing?

Ultimately, will fans see a marked improvement on the field and will that translate into a winning season?

Not all of those questions will be answered on Friday night for the night owls who watch the game. But with any luck the performance will be good enough to help Spartan fans forget about the struggles of the last two years.

Smith have a proven track record of building a program from virtually nothing. But can his success at Oregon State be duplicated in East Lansing? So far, all signs suggest that Spartans cans should be optimistic. With a bit of luck, when former head coach Mel Tucker's name comes up in a few years, maybe fans will be able to answer somewhat honestly:

Who?

Now, let's get to the Bad Betting Advice for Week One of the 2024 season.

The Las Vegas line for the Michigan State season opener against Florida Atlantic opened at -11 for the Spartans and has increased to -13.5 as of press time. The current point total line sits at a meager 47.5 points. Based on this data, my model gives Michigan State a 78% to win the first game of the Jonathan Smith era.

In this space, it is my tradition to always let the unbiased and cold microprocessor in my laptop make my official pick about the game outcome. When asked about this game, my computer sees a bit more offense and a slightly larger win than Vegas currently predicts. It sees a final score of Michigan State 35, Florida Atlantic 21.

In other words, my computers thinks that it would be wise to take the over and to bet on the Spartans to cover the spread against the Owls.

Based on the low over/under, the experts in Las Vegas appear to be in agreement with many of the preseason magazines that ranked the Spartan offense near the bottom of the Big Ten. Michigan State had a bad offense last year, so the prognosticators generally predict that it will be bad again in 2024.

But with a completely retooled quarterbacks room, a new starting tight end, solid running backs, a wide receivers room with a lot of young talent, and a completely new staff, I believe that there is certainly a chance that the Spartan offense will not just be better, but that it will be much better this year.

The offensive line continues to be a question mark, but if that unit can be functional, putting up 35 points or more on the Owls is an achievable goal. If that does happen, one of the biggest questions coming into the season will be answered positively.

Table 1 below gives a summary of the action in the Big Ten in Week One.

This table summarizes my predicted score for each Big Ten game, the opening Vegas line, the line projected by both my algorithm and ESPN's FPI, my computer's project point total (which for Week One is simply the historically average number of points scored per game in college football), and my recommended picks against the spread and straight-up (more on this later).