Friday night's Oregon vs. Michigan State game will feature a familiar foe standing on the Spartans' sidelines: Jonathan Smith.
The first-year head coach has pulled off the upset before against Oregon while he was the head coach at Oregon State, but with the Pac-12 crumbling and uncertainty about the program's future, he decided to leave Corvallis for East Lansing and potentially greener pastures.
Oregon is a new member of the Big Ten and it'll be facing Smith at a traditional Big Ten program -- and former power. The Spartans were a Big Ten powerhouse under Mark Dantonio for over a decade but have fallen on some hard times in recent years with the Hall of Fame head coach retiring and Mel Tucker having one good year sandwhiched in between three horrible ones.
Now Smith will look to turn things around, but he'll have the unfortunate task of facing a hungry top-10 Oregon team that's refreshed after a recent bye and riding a four-game winning streak.
Here's what Vegas thinks of the matchup with the final odds as of Friday morning, courtesy of DraftKings.
Line: Oregon -23.5
Over/Under: 52.5
Moneyline: Oregon -1450 | Michigan State +850
Obviously the smart play here would be to bet an alternate line for Oregon to cover a smaller spread, but I think it'll be close to that 23.5 range.
I think the game will be close for a half, but much like Ohio State did to Michigan State, Oregon will pull away and the Spartans will run out of gas in the final 30ish minutes. Dillon Gabriel will pass for over 300 yards and Jordan James will have himself again. Tez Johnson, too, will come up big with 100-plus receiving yards en route to a three-touchdown win.
Final score: Michigan State 17, Oregon 38