ATLANTA – Michigan State head coach Mel Tucker is looking for his first season with eleven wins or more since getting blown out by Alabama in the 2015 Cotton Bowl and first major bowl win since 2014, when Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi was the defensive coordinator for the Spartans.
Michigan State beat Pittsburgh in week three of the regular season and went on to an amazing 8-0 start to their season which came to an end the final week of October against Michigan. Beating Pittsburgh, a second time is going to be no easy task for the Spartans.
Pitt comes into the Peach Bowl as the ACC Champions and averages a total of forty-three points per game and 6.5 yards per play on offense. The Panthers were led by Kenny Pickett who has combined for 42 touchdowns and thrown for 4,318 yards this season with a 67% completed pass percentage. But news broke earlier this week that two of the Peach Bowl’s biggest stars would not be playing. Kenny Pickett nor Kenneth Walker III will play. Both star players have chosen to sit out the Peach Bowl as they both prepare to enter the NFL Draft.
Walker, a transfer from Wake Forest, had 18 touchdowns for 1,636 yards during the 2021 Season as a Spartan. Nick Patti is expected to start in place of Kenny Pickett at the kickoff of the Peach Bowl. The Spartans hold the all-time series record over the Panthers winning six of the last seven meetings when the two teams do meet.
While the Spartans are looking for their first major bowl game since 2014 the Panthers are also looking for their first season with 12 or more wins in a season, which has not happened since the undefeated season of 1976.
The Peach Bowl gets underway Thursday, December 30th at 7 p.m. EST live on ESPN from Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.