It’s Brass Spittoon week and it sucks how much people simply don’t care. Not that the fan bases are particularly interested in this trophy game in a normal year, but that Indiana fans have officially disconnected for the year from football and Michigan State has been thoroughly unimpressive. In other words, this isn’t an interesting game in the slightest. While Michigan State’s defense does give Indiana some runway to perhaps put points on the board, the lack of defense will make Payton Thorne look like CJ Stroud.

That’s all the introduction I’ve got for ya. For the SEO, let’s see what we’re looking at when the Indiana Hoosiers take on the Michigan State Spartans. Whoo hooo.

History

• Last season, the Hoosiers lost an upset bid 20-15, mostly due to the offense being completely inept and a Jack Tuttle pick 6.
• The Hoosiers have not won back to back games in this series since 1993, 1994. That’s not on the table this year, I just enjoy mentioning it.
• Kevin Wilson never beat the Spartans, while Tom Allen is 2-4 in the spittoon game.

Fun Facts

Look, I would have reached out to our Michigan State correspondent Green Akers but he’s currently doing dad things and I did not want to disturb him. Because of this, I have drafted 3 fun facts about Michigan State I’m sure you will enjoy.

• The green in Michigan State’s colors that is so prominent is called “Spartan Green.” If you ever need it and want to confuse the people at Lowe’s, the Pantone is 567, Hex is #18453B, RGB is R-24 G-69 B-59, and CMYK is C-82 M-0 Y-64 and K-70. You’re welcome.
• Michigan State is located in East Lansing, Michigan. Boom.
• This game would be way more interested in basketball.

Things to Watch For

1) Is there enough tape on the quarterbacks for them to not be effective? Or is there still a mystery element to them.

Listening to the CrimsonCast post Ohio State podcast, they said something very interesting about the way Indiana has structured its QB system. Essentially, they claimed that Indiana quarterbacks are literally only effective when there is no tape of them available to scout. Once there is an abundance of tape to eat through, defenses end of stopping the Indiana QB room because nothing any of them do is particularly spectacular. Essentially, Indiana QB’s look good at first because nobody knows what they can do. This appears to be a fantastic observation. Look at Michael Penix in 2017 and Donaven McCulley last season. Both examples had fantastic bursts when they were first put into games, but became more mortal the more they played. In McCulley’s case, he was so ineffective after the Maryland game he was replaced for a walk on. Will Dexter Williams follow that path or will he follow the Penix path and actually be a good QB? We will find out.

2) How deep a hole can the Hoosiers dig themselves for next season?

For all the complaining and all the losing over the last two years, two wins to end the season would go a long way to inspire confidence in the fan base. If the Hoosiers can come in and scrape 2 wins at the end of the season, some of the Allen hot seat talk would probably subside for a time. However, should Indiana come out, score only 7 or 14 points and get completely blown out, I expect a full scale upheaval heading into the Purdue game. Indiana needs momentum and simply beating Purdue isn’t enough to get momentum heading into 2023. They need 2 wins. Will they dig a deeper hole though? We’ll see.

3) Can Dexter Williams stay healthy?

Indiana QB’s get hit now-a-days because they have no line. It’s why Penix got hurt last year, it’s why Bazelak has been dinged up, and it’s why Peyton Ramsey use to run for his life every other play. Keeping Williams healthy and a viable option for opening day next year is a must. Will Allen protect him or will he do the Allen thing and get him killed? (probably that) We’ll see.

It’s Almost Over

I’m so happy this season is almost done. I wish it’d gone better. I wish I didn’t need to turn into one of those “at least basketball season is here” guys, but damn writing about a team for two seasons that has 5 total wins over that time is hard. It’s hard to find the gleam and shine anymore. But at least it’s almost over. One more after this.

Game Time 11/19 –12:00 PM EST – BTN