Pro Football Focus projects MSU to win 6 games, finish in top half of Big Ten

The experts at Pro Football Focus (PFF) are higher on the 2021 Spartans than most.

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The experts at Pro Football Focus (PFF) are higher on the 2021 Spartans than most — projecting Michigan State to finish in the upper half of the league this year.

PFF released their Big Ten preseason rankings on Friday and listed Michigan State as the No. 7 team in the league. PFF has the Spartans at a projected win total of 6.3 and give Michigan State a 4 percent chance of winning the Big Ten East Division.

Here’s a little bit of what was said about Michigan State in PFF’s preseason power rankings:

Michigan State is on track to get back to .500 in 2021 after a disappointing 2-5 season in the first year of the Mel Tucker era. There’s some excitement at the quarterback position due to the battle between Payton Thorne and Temple transfer Anthony Russo. Thorne logged one start as a redshirt freshman in 2020 and was quite impressive, earning a 79.5 passing grade and making four big-time throws. And Russo has an 80.0-plus season grade under his belt from 2018 with the Owls.

Click on the tweet below to see the complete Big Ten rankings and comments from PFF:

I don’t speak for all Spartans fans but I would personally be thrilled with a 6-6 record in year two of the Mel Tucker era. With all of the incoming transfers, I believe the Spartans will contend for a bowl appearance this season so this would be right on par with my personal expectations for the upcoming season.

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