The first Big Ten Conference game will be played Friday night in Eugene, Oregon, with No. 6 Oregon hosting Michigan State. The Ducks defeated fellow conference newcomer UCLA on the road last week, and now have seven games in seven weeks, all against longtime Big Ten incumbents.
Oregon’s Big Ten baptism includes a home game against Ohio State and trips to Maryland and Wisconsin, but the Ducks must deal with Michigan State first. The Spartans started 3-0, but have faltered a bit since a 38-7 home loss to Ohio State last week and a loss to Boston College the week before that. Michigan State opened Big Ten play with a win at Maryland, but the September 7 win was the team’s last against an FBS opponent.
Old Pac-12 beef will also come to the fore in this matchup, as Michigan State coach Jonathan Smith was the head coach at Oregon State for six years and is a former star quarterback for the Beavers. Smith went 2-4 against Oregon as head coach, but both wins were spoilers over top-10 Ducks teams over rivalry weekend. This marks the rubber match for the Dan Lanning vs. Jonathan Smith rivalry, which is currently tied 1-1.
Follow live updates on Friday’s Oregon vs. Michigan State.
How to watch Oregon vs. Michigan State live
Date: Friday, October 4 | Time: 9:00 PM ET
Location: Autzen Stadium — Eugene, Oregon
TV: Fox |Live stream: fubo (free trial)
Oregon vs. Michigan State: What you need to know
Oregon State QB Dillon Gabriel on pace to challenge Bo Nix’s completion record: The Oklahoma transfer has settled in well at Oregon State, currently leading the nation in completion percentage (81.5%) and receiving multiple major wins. Ranked in the top 15 in the nation in passing categories. This hot start comes just one year after Bo Nix set a new NCAA single-season record with a completion percentage of 77.4%, and it shows how talented the Ducks have been in recent years with offensive coordinator Will Stein. It shows how strong it is. And that’s not the only record Gabriel is chasing, as the sixth-grader continues to climb the career list, threatening Case Keenum’s all-time NCAA records for passing yards and passing touchdowns.
Aidan Childs leads Michigan State’s offense in third road start: When Jonathan Smith transferred from Oregon State to Michigan State, then-Beavers quarterback Aidan Childs also transferred to East Lansing. Transferred. Chiles, a promising high school prospect who played as a true freshman backup in 2023, grabbed the starting job for the Spartans and contributed to both the ups and downs of the offensive line in 2024. Chiles has scored eight total touchdowns (five passing, one passing, one passing). He also had eight interceptions through five games, including three picks in a four-point loss at Boston College. For the Spartans to pull off an upset, their offense will need to play a cleaner game than they did on their last outing.
Oregon State rides success with improved offensive line play: Gabriel has continued to be efficient all season, but the offense as a whole has fallen short of expectations in the early weeks of the season. One of the reasons was that the offensive line’s play was unstable. This group has been dealing with injuries and is still trying to find the right combination of players at every position, but the last two games have hit the ground running for the first time all year, and they’re finally thriving like Oregon’s line has been in recent years. I started. Oregon State hasn’t allowed a sack in the last two games and has put together two of its best performances of the year with a rushing attack.
Oregon vs. Michigan State predictions, picks
This will be the toughest challenge yet for a Michigan State team that is still in the early stages of its rebuilding process after struggling in two tough trips to Maryland and Boston College. Maybe the Spartans are battle-tested and that gives them an advantage, but having a cross-country trip in a short week after a game against Ohio State is a cruel twist on the schedule. It’s a change. Oregon already has a lot of advantages on the field, so we can see the Ducks being able to pick the score. Pick: Oregon -24
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