Jonathan Smith, MSU look to stop a long, lopsided streak against Ohio State

Michigan State lost a game on Saturday to Boston College it probably shouldn’t have, and now will move on to face No. 3 Ohio State next.

On Monday, head coach Jonathan Smith recognized the challenge ahead, but still remained even-keeled.

“There’s definitely not panic, at least in our building,” Smith said. “At the same time, there’s a sense of urgency. We want to be playing our best football at the end. We’ve got to keep improving. We had an opportunity to win a game, but we also had an opportunity to be sitting here at 1-3. So we’ve been able to finish on the field; last game we didn’t.”

To say the series with the Buckeyes has been noncompetitive lately would be an understatement. Michigan State has not beaten Ohio State in East Lansing since 1999 — Nick Saban’s final year at MSU. Ohio State has won eight consecutive meetings against the Spartans overall, the last seven by at least 20 points. The average margin of defeat during OSU’s streak is just over 30 points per game. MSU's last victory in the series came in Columbus in 2015.

The Buckeyes lead the all-time series over the Spartans 37-15.

Nine-straight losses to OSU would make it Michigan State’s longest losing streak to any opponent since the Spartans joined the Big Ten and the third-longest in program history (streaks of 14 losses and 10 losses against Michigan, which started prior to Big Ten conference membership).

Michigan State’s winning percentage (.288) against the Buckeyes is its worst against any opponent that it has faced at least 10 times.

“I want our approach [to this game] to be pretty consistent [with the other games],” Smith said. “We respect everybody we play. Obviously, these guys demand some respect and so we’ll give them that with our work and preparation.”

Despite nine-straight losses at home against Ohio State, the home-field advantage could be one of Michigan State’s best assets. The Buckeyes have faced three Group of Five teams in Columbus in their three games so far this season, so a night game on the road against a conference opponent is a large change of scenery.

“We’re going to get them to the point on Saturday they’re excited to play in this game,” Smith said. “There’s some good players on the other side and the atmosphere at our place, [we] count on it being packed and full of energy.”

This is also not the first time that Smith will face the Buckeyes or Ohio State head coach Ryan Day.

Smith’s very first game as the head coach at Oregon State was against the Buckeyes in 2018. It did not go so well for Smith and the Beavers, as Ohio State won 77-31 with Day serving as the acting head coach for a suspended Urban Meyer.

For an upset to be possible, Michigan State is going to need a clean game from both a penalty and turnover standpoint. It’s been one or the other the last two weeks, as MSU did not turn the ball over against Prairie View A&M, but was penalized for 102 yards. Against Boston College this past weekend, penalties only cost the Spartans 25 yards, by far a season-low, but the four turnovers gave the game away.

A replication of penalties against PVAMU or turnovers against BC means a game against Ohio State might get ugly fast.

Some of that pressure is going to fall on 19-year-old quarterback Aidan Chiles, who has turned the ball over eight times this year, six being in MSU’s two games against power conference opponents -- Maryland and Boston College.

“There’s a fine line [between playing with reckless abandon and playing with energy],” Smith said about Chiles. “You want to play to the edge and not cross it. Again, there’s some learning experience going[on]. Aidan’s working at it. I think we’ve got to continue to help him scheme-wise – we’re always looking to put him in the best position. But I also think that those other 10 guys [on offense] — we could help him out a ton by running the ball more effectively [and] efficiently and not get into some of these situations where it’s third-and-10 again and asking him to get us out of that.”

Four of Chiles’ six turnovers against Maryland and Boston College occurred while MSU was behind the sticks, twice on third down and twice on first down. The other two were on a third-and-9 and when MSU was working against the clock on the final drive against BC.

“[Chiles] was disappointed, just like everybody in the building was [about the loss to Boston College],” Smith said. “He’s anxious to get back and look at it, to work, fix some things. Again, it’s about learning in these games. Not just for him – for ourselves, the coaches, players – everybody’s continuing to learn and really gain some confidence that we can do it at a high level [and] that we’ve got to do it more consistently.”

Well, there might not be a better way to learn how things are done at a high level than face a program that hasn’t lost three or more games in 12 consecutive seasons. Day is 38-0 against conference opponents not including Michigan and 42-0 against unranked teams for a reason.

Regardless, the game will be settled on the field and not on paper, even if Michigan State is an early 25-point underdog. Many MSU fans can remember 1998, when an unranked, 4-4 Spartan team beat the undefeated, first-ranked Buckeyes in Columbus by a final score of 28-24 to ruin Ohio State’s national championship aspirations.

Despite the loss to Boston College, Smith still has this team ahead of schedule. The next step might not necessarily be winning against the Buckeyes, but at least gaining some respect.

That will all be determined on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time in East Lansing. The game will be streamed exclusively on Peacock.

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