The Spartans certainly will have their hands full with the Broncos Friday night at Spartan Stadium. Boise State consistently is one of the nation’s top teams, and returns two offensive linemen from a group that allowed only eight sacks during 2011.

Junior defensive end William Gholston is aching to bust through that line of blue, but knows it will be difficult given Boise State’s tendency to throw multiple offensive sets at defenses and try to catch opponents off guard.

“When you look at the film, they run everything,” he said. “They’ve got three tight end formations, no empty formations, one one-back set, pro style formations, they have a multiple offense. Not in my time here at college (have I seen an offense that has that much going on).”

Show me what you got
On offense, the Spartans will have much to prove, especially with what amounts to essentially a brand new passing attack.

Junior quarterback Andrew Maxwell will be seeing his first career start against Boise State and the top six receivers listed on MSU’s depth chart have seen limited to no game experience.

Additionally, Maxwell has seen a lot from Boise State’s defense in watching film. Maxwell said the Broncos practice the same multiplicity on defense that their offense is renowned for. He said that versatility makes reading the defense that much more important Friday night.

“You want to gather as much information as possible pre-snap,” Maxwell said. “That speaks to the importance of keeping your head on a swivel when you’re under center, when you’re in the shotgun, just gathering as much information as possible, recognizing, trying to find keys, trying to find clues.”

Maxwell’s not the only one looking to prove himself on the field.

Junior wide receiver Bennie Fowler has been listening carefully to the talk surrounding the receiving corps — that the group was too young, too inexperienced to make an impact this season — and he wants to prove the doubters wrong.

“I think we had a great camp,” he said. “I think we started off strong, the receiver group worked very hard this summer to show there won’t be much of a drop off in the great players we lost.”

Encore
However, the Spartans return eight starters from one of the nation’s top defensive unit last year, one that allowed a Big-Ten best 277.4 yards per game.

And although the Broncos’ multiple sets are daunting, defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi is confident his players are prepared for anything Boise State will throw at them.

“We do what we do,” he said. “Nothing changes what we do. We tweak things a little bit, but that’s been our main philosophy.”

Narduzzi added the Spartans feel they are faster and stronger than the Broncos and look to use that to their advantage Friday night.

Looking to build on last year’s strong performance, the Spartans are more than eager to get the 2012 season started.

“This is the game that we set the tempo for the whole season,” Gholston said. “We have to make sure we do all the little things right, that we’ll be prepared in the next ongoing situation so we have a rolling downhill thing going on.”