Michigan St. cruises past Montana St., 44-3

By TIM MARTIN, AP Sports Writer Sep 5, 3:53 pm EDT

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EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP)—Kirk Cousins threw three touchdown passes and Keith Nichol tossed two as Michigan State cruised past Montana State, 44-3, Saturday.

The Spartans (1-0) overmatched their first-ever opponent from the Football Championship Subdivision, formerly known as Division I-AA.

Montana State (0-1) has lost four straight against Football Bowl Subdivision opponents since upsetting Colorado in 2006.

Cousins and Nichol are competing to replace Brian Hoyer, now a backup quarterback for the NFL’s New England Patriots. Cousins got the start Saturday and completed 10 of 17 passes for 183 yards.

Nichol played most of the second quarter and started the second half. He finished 9 of 18 for 135 yards.

Blair White had nine catches for 162 yards and two TDs for Michigan State.

Montana State struggled to move the ball against an aggressive, swarming Michigan State defense led by linebacker Greg Jones with 14 tackles. The Bobcats finished with just 160 yards of offense compared to 493 yards for Michigan State.

Montana State quarterback Mark Iddins completed 11 of 22 passes for 91 yards before giving way to backup Cody Kempt.

Michigan State rolled to a 28-0 halftime lead with both its quarterbacks playing key roles.

Cousins was 0-for-2 passing on his first series as Michigan State’s starting quarterback. But he settled down quickly and gave the Spartans a 7-0 lead midway through the first quarter with a 29-yard touchdown strike to a wide-open B.J. Cunningham.

Cousins found Blair White for a 15-yard TD on Michigan State’s next drive, putting Montana State in a 14-0 hole.

Nichol took over and promptly led the Spartans on another scoring drive to go up 21-0 midway through the second quarter. The drive was capped with a 26-yard TD toss to Dion Sims.

Nichol rolled right and connected on a 3-yard TD pass to Brian Linthicum putting Michigan State ahead 28-0 at the half.

Michigan State kicker Brett Swenson made two field goals to increase the lead to 34-0 midway through the third quarter.

Montana State’s best drive of the game came late in the third quarter, ending with a field goal by Jason Cunningham.

Montana State will receive at least $650,000 for traveling to East Lansing, enough to pay nearly a third of its annual football budget.

Updated Sep 5, 3:53 pm EDT
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Head to Head - Week 1

Team Total Yds Pass Yds Rush Yds First Downs 3rdD% Pen./Yds Turnovers Time of Poss.
Montana State 160 98 62 12 14.3% 7/55 0 29:19
Michigan State 493 318 175 29 53.8% 5/46 0 30:41
NCAAF

7 Comments

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  1. L
    7. Posted by L Sun Sep 6 7:16am EDT

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    Michigan State did what was expected of a Big Ten team facing a school from a lesser conference. Iowa and OSU were lucky not to have an "L" after yesterday. I'm glad that Uof M is playing better, it's good for the conference. It's interesting that the sport writers downplay that U of M was playing a weaker opponent while it's the first thing that pointed out.in this article. The Spartans had no turnovers, and no interceptions. There were several touchdown passes that showed the skill and accuracy of both Cousins and Nichol. What a great problem for Dantonio to have. The Spartans looked like a well prepped team that was picking up where they left off last year. I expect them to be in the thick of things again this year. Dantonio has done a great job of bringing consistency and team play to the program.
  2. <i>justinlueer</i>
    6. Posted by justinlueer Sun Sep 6 1:49am EDT

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    Montana State sucks really bad but MSU did blow them out so we dont know if MSU will have a good season or not.
  3. john
    5. Posted by john Sat Sep 5 11:42pm EDT

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    MSU will be underrated and stay under the radar the first half of the season. Notice how Michigan and Illinois made all the headlines this week and even today. The truth is both Michigan and Illinois will be lucky to finish 5th and 6th in the big ten.

    P.S. both Iowa and Ohio State should have lost today....both teams are ranked a little too high in the polls
  4. Charles M
    4. Posted by Charles M Sat Sep 5 8:46pm EDT

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    So why is there a quarterback dilemna? If you are lucky enough to have two guys good enough to start on most Big 10 teams, what's wrong with alternating them like we saw today? If you can do it with tailbacks whynot quarterbacks/ Go Green. Go White. Let's bring back the glory days of Biggie and Duffy.
  5. Robert
    3. Posted by Robert Sat Sep 5 5:06pm EDT

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    good win for state you cant win any till you win the first one what is going on to the east of us????
  6. j
    2. Posted by j Sat Sep 5 4:54pm EDT

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    good "W" . hope we can stay under the radar for a couple more weeks and nail down some important conference wins. buckeyes looked a little squeamish today. sure would have been a nice upset.
  7. the_ginslinger
    1. Posted by the_ginslinger Sat Sep 5 4:05pm EDT

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    EVERY win counts.
    GO GREEN!!!
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Top Performers

 Top Performers
 Montana St.
E. Akpla E. Akpla, WR
4 Rec, 38 yds
 Michigan St.
K. Cousins K. Cousins, QB
10-17, 183 yds
3 TDs

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NCAAF - Week 1

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