Michigan State at No. 3 Notre Dame: How to Watch the Battle for the Megaphone
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WHO: Michigan State Spartans (2-0, 0-0 Big Ten) at No. 3 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (2-0)
WHAT: Week 3 NCAA football
WHERE: Notre Dame Stadium, South Bend, Ind.
WHEN: Saturday, Sept. 19, 7:30 p.m. ET
WATCH: NBC / Peacock
The Spartans are riding a high East Lansing has not felt in years.
At 2-0 after a 35-7 win over Eastern Michigan, Michigan State will try to carry that momentum into Notre Dame Stadium and steal a night the rest of the country is not expecting. The opponent is a different animal. The rankings are still only guidelines. Pat Fitzgerald knows it.
Michigan State
The Spartans lean on a power run game built around Cam Edwards. The UConn transfer finished last season as one of the nation’s top running backs and has picked up right where he left off. Edwards leads the Big Ten with 250 rushing yards and has three touchdowns.
When Edwards is toting the rock, Alessio Milivojevic has a chance to play on schedule. The quarterback has yet to throw an interception this season. He has three touchdown passes and 417 yards, a total that sits in the upper half of the Big Ten. What stands out more than the numbers is his poise when the pocket collapses. Moving in the pocket and still making the right throw is easier said than done. Milivojevic’s trust in the offensive line has let him stay calm and deliver downfield.
The defense got hungry in Week 2 after a shaky opener. Interior defensive lineman Eli Coenen leads the Big Ten with 3.0 sacks after a two-sack night against Eastern Michigan.
All of it, though, has come against two MAC schools. Saturday is a top-three program in a packed house on national television. That is the jump.
Notre Dame
The Irish offense is legit. The defense may be even more so.
Notre Dame is averaging 46.5 points per game (tied for 21st nationally) compared with Michigan State’s 32.5 (tied for 63rd). Quarterback CJ Carr looks every bit the prospect he was billed to be: 492 yards, a 71.4 percent completion rate, six touchdowns and zero interceptions through two games.
The Irish run game is talented on paper but has been quieter, ranking 116th nationally at 114.5 yards per game. Michigan State is at 204.
It is the defense that sets the tone. Notre Dame is tied for 13th in the country in yards allowed (206 per game), 23rd in passing yards allowed and 14th against the run (65.5). The Irish opened with a 41-13 win over Wisconsin — a Big Ten team in the same neighborhood as Michigan State — then blanked Rice 52-0.
The Megaphone
Saturday is the Battle for the Megaphone. The rivalry has carried that name since 1949, when the Detroit alumni clubs of both schools introduced the Megaphone Trophy for the winner of each meeting. Notre Dame leads the all-time series 49-29-1 across 79 games. The Irish also hold the trophy after a 38-18 win in East Lansing in 2017. Michigan State’s last victory in the series came in South Bend in 2016.
The programs do not meet every year anymore. That is the disappointment. It is also why the nights they do meet feel heavier.
This will not be 1966. It does not have to be. A 2-0 Spartans team walking into a primetime building against a top-three favorite is enough. Edwards has to keep the chains moving. Milivojevic has to stay clean. The front has to make Carr uncomfortable. Do those things, and South Bend gets loud for the visitors.
If not, the Irish look like what the ranking says they are.
Either way, the Megaphone is back on the field. That part is already a win for anyone who remembers what this series used to feel like.
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