By Jeremy Harness

 

PASADENA – During Monday morning’s press conference, Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio said that he and his team were tired of talking about the game and were ready to just play it. Well, after a week of hype and preparation, it is, in fact, time for Dantonio’s No. 4 Spartans to face No. 5 Stanford in the 100^th Rose Bowl.

 

These two teams are just about a mirror image of each other, as while both have playmakers at the receiver position, they center their offensive attacks on the success of their running game and their ability to win the game in the trenches.

 

Also key for these teams is their ability to stick with what makes them what they as a team, and they have suffered defeats when they deviate from that in any way. For instance, Stanford got away from their running game against Utah and ended up dropping their first game of the season. Meanwhile, Michigan State committed four pass interference penalties and had a trick play backfire in its only loss of the season, at the hands of Notre Dame.

 

With that said, here are the keys to victory for each team:

 

STANFORD

The Cardinal must control the line of scrimmage on both offense and defense, a method that has carried them into their second straight Rose Bowl. That task appears to have gotten a bit easier with the suspension of Michigan State All-American linebacker Max Bullough.

 

The key to their rushing attack is the extra offensive lineman that are employed in their “jumbo” package, which they continue to have great success, particularly in big games.

 

Stanford has got to take care of the football. The Cardinal enter the game with a turnover ratio of minus-0.08 compared to Michigan State’s plus-1.08, and turnovers played a big role in both losses this year. In its loss at Utah in October, they lost two fumbles while the Utes had only one turnover while USC intercepted quarterback Kevin Hogan twice while forcing another fumble while the Trojans turned the ball over only once in its upset win in November.

 

MICHIGAN STATE

Stanford is equipped with perhaps the most dynamic playmaker in college football in Ty Montgomery, who has broken several big plays at wide receiver as well as a kick returner. On offense, expect Michigan State to assign corner Darqueze Dennard, who won this year’s Jim Thorpe Award (awarded to the nation’s best defensive back) to Montgomery for at least the majority of the game, if not all of it.

 

Spartans head coach Mark Dantonio said earlier in the week that they’re not going to shy away from Montgomery in any way on special teams, so don’t expect to see any corner kicks. However, it will be extremely wise for Michigan State to get quite a bit of hang time on their punts, in order to allow the gunners to get down there by the time he fields the punt.

 

In Bullough’s absence, the X-factor on defense may not be Dennard but rather firth-year senior linebacker Kyler Elsworth – who originally came to Michigan State as a 180-pound wrestler – as well as Darien Harris, both of which Dantonio has said will see significant time at that position against Stanford’s vaunted running game. The better those guys play, the better chance the Spartans have of taking the Rose Bowl trophy with them back to East Lansing.