Michigan State Football 2015 – Better, worse or about the same?

Michigan State will be entering the 2015 college football season with quite possibly head coach Mark Dantonio’s best team.

MSU offense: better, worse or about the same? Why?

The 2015 Spartan offense is likely to take a step back this season, They lose RB Jeremy Langford (4th round), WR Tony Lippett (5th round) and WR Keith Mumpher (5th round) to the NFL draft. All were major skill players and contributors to a good 2014 Michigan State offense.

The two biggest WR’s coming back are Aaron Burbridge and Macgarrett Kings who are annually under achievers to be kind, and the running back position is unsettled at the present time.

The Spartans do return two potential NFL first round picks in the 2016 draft in LT Jack Conklin and QB Connor Cook.

In addition to Conklin, two other starters return along the offensive line, so they will be talented and experienced in the trenches and at the QB position, but with the skill positions not being settled, that is concerning news at best.

MSU defense: better worse or about the same? Why?

The Michigan State defense will be better in 2015.

This group will not be better than the 2013 Rose Bowl unit, but they will be better than the 2014 defense. The Spartan D was down last year from the previous season, finishing 4th in the B1G in total defense (315.8 yards per game) & 3rd in scoring defense (21.5 points per game).

With perhaps the best DL IN THE NATION and an upgrade at MLB with Riley Bullough the questions come at CB.

However that is not as concerning considering the Spartans have had two 1^st round CB’s selected in the past two NFL drafts in Darqueze Dennard in 2014 to the Bengals and Trae Waynes this year to the Vikings.

You buying or selling this team in 2015? (How many games they winning this year? Playoffs?)

I don’t see this team beating OSU and that would be to ONLY win the Big Ten East.

I think Oregon at home is a very good game, and while the Spartans have blemishes, the Ducks are loaded needing only to fix the hole left at QB with Marcus Mariota leaving via the NFL draft to the Titans.

The only other legitimate threat to MSU is a late season night game in Lincoln against a great coach in Mike Riley and a team that by that time should be grasping what he is doing.

Right now I would say they have one game I totally see as a loss in OSU and two others (Oregon, Nebraska) that are concerning, so assuming they go one and one there, let’s declare 10-2 and they are headed back to the Rose Bowl.

That would be a very solid and good season.

Hondo S. Carpenter Sr of Spartan Nation provided the information for our Michgan State Football 2015 Spring recap. For more Spartan football information, commentary and analysis, you can follow Hondo on Twitter @Spartan_Nation.