Notre Dame Football: 5 reasons the Irish will beat Michigan State

Notre Dame football rounds out week four of the college football season in a rivalry game against Michigan State.

A year removed from a 2016 matchup that met its hype after what looked like a blowout quickly turned to a fruitless comeback bid, Notre Dame and Michigan State will meet again in one of week four’s headliners.

Both teams went into last year’s contest with hopes of eventual playoff runs, but neither came out of it quite ready for what was about to transpire. While both teams parted ways at that moment, they would later be joined together in similarly disastrous seasons.

The Irish would go on to drop six of their next nine while the Spartans, not to be outdone, dropped eight of nine. Keep in mind that Notre Dame and Michigan State entered this game ranked 18th and 12th in the country, respectively.

Now both of these programs will enter week four with hopes to prove that they have recovered from last year’s meltdowns. Notre Dame will head to East Lansing with a 2-1 record compared to Michigan State who sits at 2-0. The Irish’s only loss came to a respectable Georgia team that currently enjoys an 11th place ranking, setting this up to be a great display of both teams’ progress.

With the weekend quickly approaching, here are five reasons why the Irish could pull off an early season win on the road against the Spartans.