Michigan State football, Indiana locked in on Big Ten opener

Chris Solari
Detroit Free Press

EAST LANSING — One had the week off after a loss, the other watched his team improve to 3-0.

But both Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio and his Indiana counterpart Tom Allen delivered the same message to their players as they prepare to head into Big Ten play:

Forget the past, don’t worry about the long-term future. Stay in the moment and concentrate only on the next opponent.

“All we did was focus last week on Ball State. That was it. Never talked about anybody else,” Allen told reporters after his Hoosiers won Saturday, 38-10. “And this week, we're talking about Michigan State. That's our next game on our schedule. Obviously, it's the biggest game of our season because it's the next game. If I asked our players that, that's exactly what they would say. That's how we think here, and that's how we're going to approach it.

“But huge to get the first three, and really proud of the way we did it.”

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Peyton Ramsey.

MSU travels to Bloomington to face Indiana on Saturday, with the 7:30 p.m. kickoff (Big Ten Network) marking the third straight night game to open the season for Dantonio’s team. It's the second night game on the road in a row for the first time in program history.

The Spartans (1-1) lost, 16-13, at Arizona State on Sept. 8 before getting a bye last week to mend some of the injuries they are battling and to correct some of the problems that have led to two games settled by 10 points combined.

“Our goals are always to compete for a championship in November, a Big Ten championship,” Dantonio said Tuesday on a teleconference. “And to do that, you need to play well in September and October and get in the game so that you’re basically in a four-game playoff type situation as you go through November. Get to the championship game and win that, and then think about things beyond that.

“Because the main focus has to be, what can we do now? That goal is very off in the distance, and I think you have to focus on the present to be able to accomplish those big goals.”

Indiana, which went 5-7 overall a year ago but just 2-7 in Big Ten play, began this season 3-0 for the first time since 2015. It's the first 3-0 start under second-year coach Allen. It defeated Virginia at home, 20-16, a week after opening with a 38-28 win at Florida International.

“Really proud of our team to come together and to be 3-0,” Allen said. “It was something we knew we needed to do, we wanted to do, but had to go out and earn it. And that's what our guys did.”

The Hoosiers’ former defensive coordinator is starting to put his own stamp on their offense as well, still using a breakneck pace while working to keep his defense off the field and fresh as much as possible. Indiana's offense averages a fairly balanced 436.3 yards and 32.0 points per game, while its defense is yielding 322.7 yards and 18.0 points a contest.

“I put it on (the offense). I told them I wanted them to carry this football team early on because they have the most experience, especially in the offensive line, even though we've got young guys around them in skill positions,” Allen said after beating in-state foe Ball State. “But compared to the defense, it was totally something that I challenged them with was to be able to be explosive and to score points and to get first downs and control the football, control the clock that way.”

The Spartans defeated the Hoosiers in a dogfight last year, 17-9, in East Lansing. Indiana beat MSU during the 2016 season in Bloomington, 24-21 in overtime, for the Hoosiers’ first win over Dantonio during his tenure.

MSU’s loss in the 100-degree Arizona heat came at a big cost, with punter Jake Hartbarger injured and out for six to eight weeks and starting running back LJ Scott and left guard David Beedle both knocked out by injuries. The Week 2 defeat was the Spartans’ earliest since losing at Oregon in the second game of the 2014 season, when they finished 11-2 and went to the program’s first New Year’s 6 bowl game.

While this season's loss to the Sun Devils could cause problems at the end of the season, Dantonio said the College Football Playoff format allows for some wiggle room to make the four-team field after a defeat.

But not much.

“The Oregon game, as I remember in 2014, we were playing pretty well and probably would have made the playoffs had we beaten Ohio State that year. We didn’t,” Dantonio said. “So we lost two. I think two is the magic number probably for most (teams), not one.”

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari. Download our Spartans Xtra app for free on Apple and Android devices!