Whitfield assured that his comment on Cook was not just because he was standing in Spartan Stadium, but because “when you actually watch him play, he is able to lead the team through the fist fights.”

“The cool thing about connor and I have to remind him, his efforts and his successes don’t always pop up on Sportscenter Top Ten,” Whitfield said. “But that is not really Brady and Manning’s style either. You don’t see them break 50 yard runs and hit a spin move on somebody — It’s pretty systematic. You know, 30 for 35 for 280 yards and two or three touchdowns kind of win and I think that is the genius of Connor Cook.”

This past May, Cook made a trip to San Diego to train with Whitfield.

“The line-share of his work is done right here in this town. Leading his offseason seven-on-seven program, leading those guys in the weight room early, but yeah he does come out there. When he comes to San Diego it is more engineering based, we’re getting under the hood per say.”

Whitfield said he is fascinated by all of the young quarterbacks that want to eventually play in the NFL, but do not attend colleges that help their chances. Michigan State, Whitfield said, helps quarterback’s chances.

“[Brian] Hoyer and [Kirk] Cousins are both starting which tells you It’s not really based on so much their hype, or momentum coming out of college, but it is a sustainable education they’ve learned here,” Whitfield said. Now you couple that with Connor being a better athlete I would think than both of those two, and he is going to match their experience by the time he comes out of here. He will be a three year starter, has played in some big heavyweight matches, he will be able to follow suit right behind those two I think.”

Whitfield said the training focused on Cook becoming smoother and bolted down to his mechanics. As for Oregon’s transfer-senior Vernon Adams Jr., Whitfield said he is playing in a system similar to his previous school’s, Eastern Washington University.

“[Adams] is still figuring his way around Oregon’s campus, but if he can settle in and get a chance to get that offense going, he is going to run up against this wall of Michigan State his second game. I mean normally you wouldn’t want to see these guys, you wouldn’t want to see them at all, but you definitely don’t want to see them week two. So I don’t think it’s going to be that high scoring — I don’t, probably somewhere in the 20’s or 30’s,” Whitfield said.

Whitfield was asked if he thought the game is going to be a back and forth, high scoring affair.

“It wasn’t really last year until it broke open like that in the third quarter,” Whitfield said. “And turnovers have a way of dictating that, the kicking game will dictate some of that, but I think the unit to watch tomorrow is Michigan State’s front seven.”

Whitfield said ball control by Michigan State will dictate the game, as well as the turnover ratio. He and Rece Davis, Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso, Desmond Howard and David Pollak will be broadcasting GameDay live from Munn Field at 9 a.m. Saturday morning.

The football game featuring No. 5-ranked MSU and No. 7-ranked Oregon will air on ABC at 8 p.m. ET.