Asking a defensive staff to prepare for an uptempo offense like Oregon in just a week can be a tall order. You've got to find a way to replicate their tempo, their plays, figure out how you're going to sub, and then there's the all important issue of conditioning.
When Doug Gottlieb of CBS Sports asked about how the Spartans conditioned leading up to their match up with Oregon this past Saturday, Mark Dantonio explained how him and his staff asked their players to do three things on the field..
"We asked three things from the start. You had to get lined up, you had to adjust to different formations prior to the play, and that you had to play hard."
"Because of that, we had to sub it out. I think we played nine different defensive backs, eight defensive lineman, and six linebackers, so we were fresh. That's what we were able to do last year against Baylor as well and we've played a lot of uptempo offenses and we had experience versus Oregon last year, so we did at least a history there as far as how fast they would go."
Michigan State will take on Air Force at Spartan Stadium this weekend, followed by two more home games against Central Michigan and Purdue. The next true uptempo team they'll face is Indiana on October 24th.