The non-conference road games haven’t been kind to the Sun Devils. Their last such victory was in 2006 (at Colorado as a member of the Big-12) and you would have to go all the way back to 1997 (at Miami) to find the last time ASU prevailed over a ranked non-conference opponent away from the friendly confines of Tempe. How does Arizona State match up with the no. 18 Spartans? Let’s examine Saturday’s matchup.

Michigan State Offense

One of the most experienced quarterbacks in the Big Ten Conference this year, Pinnacle High School graduate Brian Lewerke looks to avenge the loss he and the Spartans suffered to Arizona State last year while also bouncing back from a junior season in 2018 that was largely impacted by injury.

Through his career, Lewerke has proven to be a versatile threat – he rushed for 559 yards and five scores as a sophomore in 2017 – but has shown some ball control issues at times.

So far in 2019, Lewerke has completed 44-of-69 passes for 506 yards with four touchdowns and one interception and has 35 net rush yards on eight carries. He threw for 192 yards with a touchdown against Tulsa in the opener and passed for 314 yards with three touchdowns and an interception last week against Western Michigan.

For his career at MSU including two games this season, Lewerke has 30 career appearances with 27 starts and has completed 505-of-882 passes (57.3%) for 5,720 yards with 34 touchdowns and 20 interceptions along with 927 career rushing yards on 243 carries with seven touchdowns. Despite being a quarterback all four years, he has also caught four passes for 32 yards with a touchdown.

Lewerke ranks in the program’s top-10 in most major passing categories and barring injury should finish no worse than fourth all-time at Michigan State in career passing yards and touchdown passes.

In his homecoming to the Phoenix area last September, Lewerke completed 27-of-39 passes for 314 yards with one touchdown and one crucial interception thrown in the end zone. He was also sacked twice and lost 12 yards on eight total rushes.

On a team with extensive veteran talent on both sides of the ball, one of the few new pieces to stand out thus far for the Spartans is redshirt freshman running back Elijah Collins, who played in a few games but retained a redshirt year in 2018.

After limited action against Tulsa in the opener (eight carries, 17 yards), Collins exploded last week with 17 carries for 192 yards against Western Michigan. He enters Saturday’s game listed as the starting running back for the Spartans.

Connor Heyward returns for 2019 after finishing as the team’s leading rusher last year and currently has 18 carries for 60 yards and four receptions for 35 yards with a touchdown through two games.

Last season in Tempe, Heyward rushed five times for 22 yards and caught four passes for 43 yards. Collins did not play last year against Arizona State. In 2018 as a whole, Heyward paced the Spartans with 118 carries for 557 yards with five touchdowns.

Michigan State graduated Honorable Mention All-Big Ten selection Felton Davis from last year’s lineup at wide receiver but is slated to start Cody White, Darrell Stewart and C.J. Hayes against ASU.

Stewart is the head-and-shoulders team receiving leader thus far with 16 catches for 241 yards and a touchdown. White is behind him in both receptions (seven) and receiving yards (81), adding a touchdown of his own. Hayes has three catches for 31 yards.

Last year against ASU, White tied what remains his career-high with nine receptions, totaling 113 yards with the team’s lone touchdown. Stewart had five receptions for 58 yards. Altogether in 2018, White had a team-high 555 yards on 42 receptions with two touchdowns while Stewart had a team-best 48 receptions for 413 yards with one score. Hayes had just one reception for 13 yards in six games in 2018.

Matt Dotson is noted as the starting tight end and ranks third on the team so far with five receptions for 38 yards with a touchdown. Last year, Dotson posted 14 receptions for 159 yards with a touchdown.

The Spartan offensive line figures to consist of a starting five of (left-to-right) tackle Kevin Jarvis, guard Luke Campbell, center Matt Allen, either Matt Carrick or Tyler Higby at guard and Jordan Reid at tackle.

Jarvis, Campbell, Allen, Carrick, and Reid have started the first two games of 2019 together. That starting five brings 65 total starts into Saturday’s game (including the first two of this year) with Campbell and Jarvis both bringing 19 career starts, Reid 16, Allen nine and Carrick two.

Michigan State Offense Summary

After a lackluster offense dipped MSU from a top-20 preseason ranking to a barely-above-.500 finish, head coach Mark Dantonio instituted quite the shakeup among his offensive coaching staff.

That shakeup this past offseason was…weird.

No one was fired, but the entire staff off offensive assistants was thrown into an industrial-sized Martini shaker and literally every coach was assigned a new responsibility and instead of the two co-coordinators that shared the role in 2018, one new coordinator was crowned for 2019.

For those scoring at home, the transitions went like this: Mark Staten went from coaching the offensive line to tight ends, Dave Warner switched from running backs to quarterbacks, Jim Bollman went from tight ends to offensive line and Brad Salem flipped from coaching quarterbacks to running backs and is now listed as the line Offensive Coordinator after Bollman and Warner shared the title in 2018.

When healthy, Lewerke is a versatile, seasoned quarterback that can make numerous plays with his arm or legs and has two viable threats in the passing game in White and Stewart. ASU undoubtedly will look to rattle the senior quarterback who has historically shown to have some turnover issues.

Collins provided a major spark last week and undoubtedly kicks up major intrigue for the future at the running back position, but can he keep it up against a solid Sun Devil defense?

Michigan State Defense

The fearsome Spartan defensive line features superstar end Kenny Willekes opposite Jacub Panasiuk with Mike Panasiuk at defensive tackle and Raequan Williams at nose tackle.

A Second-Team All-American last year, Willekes was named the Big Ten Conference Smith-Brown Defensive Lineman of the Year and a first-team all-conference selection in 2018, while Williams was a Third-Team All-Big Ten honoree and Mike Panasiuk earned Honorable Mention All-Big Ten accolades.

Willekes’ monster season last year statistically consisted of 78 tackles including 20.5 for loss with 8.5 sacks and 12 quarterback hurries. Williams had 53 tackles including 10.5 for loss with 2.0 sacks five pass breakups. So far through two games, Willekes has 12 tackles including 4.5 for loss with 3.5 sacks, three quarterback hurries, and two fumble recoveries while Williams has four tackles.

Against the Sun Devils last season, Willekes had two tackles including one for loss, while Williams had five tackles including two for loss.

Last year, Jacub Panasiuk had 31 tackles including 4.5 for loss with 2.0 sacks while Mike had 25 tackles including 6.0 for loss with 1.5 sacks. So far in 2019, Jacub has five tackles including 3.0 for loss with a sack and two forced fumbles while Mike has four tackles including 2.0 for loss.

A First-Team All-Big Ten member along with Willekes last year, highly productive MIKE linebacker Joe Bachie returns for his senior season in 2019 with Anjuan Simmons at STAR and Tyriq Thompson at SAM.

Last season, Bachie was Michigan State’s team leader with 102 total tackles including 8.5 for loss. Simmons added 32 tackles and Thompson had 31 last year. Bachie had 10 tackles with a sack against ASU.

It has been business as usual for Bachie so far in 2019 as he has a team-high 13 tackles entering Saturday’s game. Simmons has nine tackles including 2.5 for loss with a sack and an interception and Thompson has eight total tackles with an interception.

In the secondary, former Freshman All-American cornerback Josiah Scott returns after an injury-plagued 2018 season and is joined in the starting lineup by Josh Butler as well as free safety David Dowell and boundary safety Xavier Henderson.

Scott has returned to form thus far, ranking third on the team in tackles with 10, adding two pass breakups. Henderson has nine tackles and an interception; Dowell has seven tackles and Butler has five.

In 2018, Dowell was a Third-Team All-Big Ten honors recipient after totaling 59 tackles and two interceptions. Henderson chipped in 15 tackles and Butler had 10 tackles and three pass breakups. Scott had 13 tackles, two interceptions, and seven pass breakups in just five games after posting 30 tackles with 12 pass deflections and two interceptions as a true freshman in 2017.

Michigan State Defense Summary

Featuring seven seniors and several bonafide next level athletes, Michigan State’s defense is one of the nation’s elite and like last year, when the Spartans finished with the top rush defense at the FBS level (77.9 rushing yards allowed per game), MSU is atop the current national rankings against the run.

In game one against Tulsa, Michigan State had an otherworldly rush defensive output of -73 yards on 25 carries, followed by 67 yards permitted on 27 total carries by Western Michigan a week ago. In all, the Spartans have allowed a grand total of -6 rushing yards on 52 total carries, by far the top run defense so far at the FBS level.

As dominant as Michigan State’s defense was last year – and was against ASU in their September meeting – teams, very much including the Sun Devils were able to pass last year on the Spartan defense. Last season, Arizona State quarterback Manny Wilkins threw for a career-high 380 yards in a victorious effort for the Sun Devils in Tempe.

So far in 2019, Tulsa threw for 153 yards and a touchdown and Western Michigan passed for 285 yards and two scores.

However, the clear yet incredibly steep challenge for Arizona State in this year’s meeting is to what level ASU will be able to protect its backfield, as games one and two for the Sun Devils have surfaced serious offensive line concerns.

Michigan State Special Teams

A Third-Team All-Big Ten pick a year ago, kicker Matt Coghlin has continued his consistent play by hitting a perfect 7-for-7 on field goals this year with a long of 47 yards. Last year, Coghlin connected on 18-of-22 field goals with a long of 49 yards.

Punter Jake Hartbarger averages 46.5 yards on six punts so far in 2019 after suffering what proved to be a season-ending injury last season in Tempe against ASU. Prior to the injury. Hartbarger averaged 48.8 yards on six punts in two games.

In the return game, receivers Darrell Stewart and Julian Barnett are on kickoff duty with receiver Cody White returning punts.

So far in 2019, Stewart averages 20.5 yards on two kick returns while Barnett has returned one kick seven yards. White averages 7.7 yards on three punt returns.

Last season, Stewart returned four kickoffs for an average of 29.3 yards per, while White averaged 4.6 on five punt returns.

Overall Summary

The return bout following ASU’s thrilling 16-13 victory over Michigan State last year in Tempe, on the surface the Spartans have major advantages with their nationally prominent defense and their seasoned quarterback.

After last season, ASU is 2-1 all-time against Michigan State, also having won in Tempe in 1986 but the program’s only trip to East Lansing before this week resulted in a loss in 1985.

The gauntlet has been clearly thrown in the form of ASU’s need to rectify offensive line issues in order to leave East Lansing with a win and achieve its overall goals of 2019.

ASU will have to gain advantages in various momentum plays – turnover and penalty differential, field-flipping punts, etc. – to avoid the home team gaining an avalanche of mojo and fan support.

Like last year, Arizona State should be able to pass on the Spartans; however, the question remains to what degree will a much less experienced offensive line and the lack of veterans such as Manny Wilkins and N’Keal Harry impact ASU’s ability to repeat its near 400-yard passing performance from last year?

This game will almost certainly impact the confidence of the Sun Devil offensive line – and team as a whole – dramatically in one direction or another, which can have a tremendous ripple effect – again, in one way or another – as conference play begins next week.

Keys to a Sun Devil Victory

Play-calling Creativity: There’s no denying the concerns with the offensive line and the run game as a whole after two weeks for the Sun Devils and with the nation’s number one rush defense on deck this Saturday, the status quo simply will not work. It may be a tough task to ask a true freshman in his first collegiate road game behind a line with much to prove to operate a complex, creative offense, but the Sun Devils will need to implement different looks than weeks one and two in order to have a viable chance at again taking down the Spartans.

Field Position: In the punt game and turnover margin, ASU figures to have a decisive advantage to win Saturday. For the first category, matters very much are “so far, so good” with punter Michael Turk following a historic debut game with an excellent second game. Assuming ASU will have challenges making significant progress on offense, it is absolutely vital that he creates long fields for the Spartan offense. Likewise, ASU can do itself a tremendous favor by forcing turnovers on defense and must also avoid further shots fired to its own feet by not coughing up fumbles or tossing interceptions on offense.

Penalty Control: Last week, ASU saw points come off the board via penalty – a mistake that cannot be repeated this weekend. The Sun Devil offensive line cannot create greater distances to the first down markers and likewise, ASU’s defense cannot allow shortened fields for the Spartan offense. In what should be a rowdy Big Ten Conference environment, discipline is also mandatory in the shape of avoiding false starts and other procedural penalties as well as avoiding the over-exuberant desire to make a defensive impact that leads to late hits, targeting penalties and other acts of impermissible aggression.

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