After a 38-7 home loss to Ohio State on Saturday, it will be a quick turnaround for Michigan State and head coach Jonathan Smith.

The Spartans will play undefeated Oregon on Friday at 9 p.m. Eastern Time in Eugene. With the Friday night time slot, Michigan State’s game week preparation schedule has been pushed up one day.

This will be the first Big Ten conference game between the two teams and the challenge of playing Oregon on the road in a rowdy environment has the Spartans excited.

Smith has coached at Autzen Stadium before. During his tenure at Oregon State, he went 2-4 against the Ducks, but 0-3 in Eugene. It’s not an easy place to play.

“We know through experience how tough it is, that atmosphere and where we’re playing at,” Smith said at his weekly press conference on Monday. “We’re going to just try to prep our guys for a tough road environment.”

It’s not just the environment that will be tough to deal with on Friday. There is a reason why the Ducks are 4-0.

“When you look at Oregon, [it is] explosive offensively," Smith explained. [The] quarterback’s a good player, accurate with the ball, might be leading the country in completion percentage, and they've got some athletes that he’s throwing it to. Flip it around, [Oregon has] a solid defense. I look at those guys [and] they just continue to improve. From game one to game four, those guys have continued to improve and play really, really well.”

Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel, who is in his sixth year of college football, leads the nation in completion percentage (81.5%). He is 12th in FBS in passing yards per game with 298 to go along with his nine-to-one touchdown-to-interception ratio. Gabriel has also added two rushing touchdowns this season.

“Accuracy, not just completing the pass, but where he’s placing the ball so they can catch and run, quick decisions — [he's a] really good player,” Smith said about Gabriel’s strengths. “I mean, he’s athletic, he can run. He’s got a long couple of carries on tape already and so you can see the experience and talent. I mean he looks very, very confident and comfortable in that system."

Smith has coached against Oregon head coach Dan Lanning twice. Smith and Oregon State won in 2022 at home, 38-34, but Lanning got the better of Smith last season with a 31-7 victory in Eugene.

“I think Dan’s a really good coach, got a bunch of respect for him,” Smith said about Lanning. “We’re not talking every day, but I enjoy our conversations when we gather at meetings and whatnot. He’s done a great job there and he’ll present another challenge with his team. Those guys play hard, schematically sound, and that’s just the M.O. of his program.”

Evidently, Smith has a strong familiarity with the Oregon program having coached against the Ducks multiple times. However, Lanning and the Ducks are also familiar with Smith and how he and the the majority of his staff operates. Also, Michigan State cornerbacks coach Demetrice Martin spent the previous two seasons in the same role at Oregon.

“I think it’s a two-way street,” Smith said when asked if the familiarity benefits one team more than the other. “Obviously, their schemes the last couple of years have been consistent and so we’ve studied and game planned against [them] and that’s a two-way street.”

Smith noted that there were no long-term injuries coming out of Saturday’s game against Ohio State. Injuries have been an issue this season for the Spartans and it has resulted in some freshmen getting game action sooner than expected, including defensive back Justin Denson Jr. and offensive lineman Rustin Young and Rakeem Johnson, who started Saturday’s game at left tackle for Stanton Ramil.

Smith hinted toward Denson potentially seeing more reps as the season progresses, and praised the play of the young offensive linemen.

“Denson’s going to be playing,” Smith said. “He’s been playing a little on special teams and he actually did a nice job defensively with a couple of tackles [against Ohio State]. The two O-linemen, it was good experience for them. I thought they battled out there. We’re going to keep pushing that to see if those guys are one of the best five we can put out there. Stanton [Ramil] took some reps today, so by the end of the week we’ll know where those five are at, but I kind of liked how Rakeem [Johnson] and Rustin [Young] battled out there against a really good D-line.”

A 38-7 loss is never good no matter the opponent, but there were some positives that Smith saw after reviewing game film.

“In general, I thought our protection was a step better,” he said. “We had some leakage where I was just more impressed with [quarterback] Aidan [Chiles] standing in there making some accurate throws. Looking at us on defense on third down, we had some opportunities that could have [allowed us] to get off the field.”

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