Matt Fargo
Michigan St. at Georgia
Prediction: Georgia
I am a big fan of Michigan St. head coach Mark Dantonio and what he is doing to this program but his team is outmatched in this spot. I made reference in the Iowa/South Carolina matchup that the SEC had a down year and Georgia was part of that making the Big Ten the conference with the value. However, the two big opponents the Spartans faced, Ohio St. and Penn St., blew them out. They snuck by Iowa and Wisconsin and beat Northwestern by 17 points despite getting outgained by 162 total yards. The Bulldogs never recovered from their blowout loss against Florida as they snuck by both Auburn and Kentucky, although those games were on the road, and then lost to Georgia Tech in the season finale. The good news is that the time off from then until now can only help Georgia. The Bulldogs have a solid coach of their own in Mark Richt and he knows how to get the troops ready as they have won seven of their last eight non-BCS bowl games. Michigan St. struggled defensively against some of the tougher offenses and Georgia has the firepower to put up a lot of points with a first round draft pick at quarterback in Matthew Stafford and a great running back in Knowshon Moreno. Georgia is a solid 19-5 ATS in its last 24 non-conference road games while Michigan St. is just 2-10 ATS in its last 12 games after allowing more than 6.25 yppl in its last game. The Bulldogs bounce back and win this one going away. 5* Georgia Bulldogs