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Michigan State will be focusing on improvement Saturday without looking past visiting Prairie View A&M in a non-conference home game.

The Spartans (2-0, 1-0 Big Ten) are coming off a come-from-behind 27-24 victory last Saturday at Maryland and are aiming for their first 3-0 start since 2021 when they host the FCS Panthers.

“There’s no such thing as a trap game,” Michigan State coach Jonathan Smith said Monday when asked whether there’s concern about looking ahead to the Sept. 21 game at No. 24 Boston College. “These guys will have our full attention. We respect every opponent that we play.”

The Panthers (1-1, 0-1 SWAC) rallied three times and held on for a 37-31 road win over Northwestern State last Saturday. Prairie View totaled 468 yards of offense, including 280 passing yards from Cameron Peters, who also tossed two touchdowns.

Michigan State hopes to build off its 493-yard offensive performance against the Terrapins. Even though quarterback Aidan Chiles completed 24 of 39 passes for 363 yards and three touchdowns, Smith said there’s room for improvement, especially after Chiles threw three interceptions.

“His decision-making in this one, I didn’t think was improved from game one to game two,” Smith said of Chiles. “Couple of those interceptions, just inaccuracy. He’s got to get his feet set to do it. And again, this kid’s competitive. He’s battled. I thought he improved from week one to week two and look forward to seeing his growth throughout the year.”

Another area the Spartans hope to clean up is penalties. After totaling 12 penalties for 140 yards in the season opener, Michigan State had 10 for 100 yards against Maryland. The Spartans are tied for 129th of 133 FBS teams at 11 penalties per game and next-to-last at 120 yards penalized per game.

“The goal is not to play penalty-free,” Smith said. “I’m not asking them to do that. We need to fly around once in a while, but it needs to be in between the whistles, playing full speed and with great technique, but double digits back-to-back, not good enough.”

Prairie View also had problems with penalties in its two games, committing 21 for 213 yards. The Panthers had several late in the game that nearly cost them against Northwestern State.

–Field Level Media