I thought I felt a hint of coolness in the air in the past week, amid the cloudy, muggy August days, which made my stomach flip-flop and breath quicken in excitement ... because it's almost time.

If you've read David's excellent piece on the inner workings of the Jonathan Smith regime, the excitement is well-founded. Smith's actions in the past nine months have given credence to why I thought he was uniquely suited to take over the Michigan State program --substance over style, accountability, and good old-fashioned program building from the ground level up, and from the inside out.

For me, the question that will ultimately determine whether Smith is able to elevate MSU from an also-ran to contender in the league is not based on his play calling acumen or program building ethos, but whether or not he is able to bring in the level of talent to compete with the upper tier of the conference.

Something that I think is a consistent, but inadvertent dig at Mark Dantonio's tenure is the idea that he was able to transform ragtag bands of two-stars and three-stars into conference contenders through the power of friendship and white-hot hatred of Michigan.

When Dantonio had the Spartans competing for titles from 2011-2015, players like Trae Waynes, Darqueze Dennard, and Le'Veon Bell certainly played above their high school rankings and were clearly some of the most talented players in the country. The discourse on pure star rankings obscured the fact that the best MSU teams were extremely talented. The fact is that the Spartans will have to get back to fielding talented teams to get back to title contention, and that should go without saying.

I have argued at length that the idea that anything can happen when the Spartans and Wolverines play one another is misguided, and that when looking at games retrospectively, the better, deeper, and more talented team wins virtually every time in the 21st century.

While it will take some time for Michigan State to get the depth and breadth of talent needed to contend, its first opponent of the Smith era is a team with fine coaching, decent schematics, and a dearth of talent that should allow for a positive start to the Smith Regime.

Florida Atlantic University, coached by Tom Herman, loses its top receiver from last year to the portal, brings in a solid quarterback from Marshall, has question marks all over the offensive line, and boasts a decent defense. There will be breakdowns on the Owls' individual players from our staff following the Film Room, but I wanted to provide some insight on what FAU does schematically first, and what it might tell us about the early returns on the Smith regime.