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Underwhelming season-opener margin nothing new for Michigan State

Notable numbers from Michigan State's 38-31 Friday night win over Utah State:

4-7: Michigan State's record against the spread in season-openers under Mark Dantonio (no line is available for the 2009 season-opener against Montana State). The Spartans are 11-1 overall in those games overall, but seven of those wins haven't covered the spread.

In Friday's game, the Spartans fell 16 1/2 points short of covering the 23 1/2-point spread. Only in the 2016 season-opener, in which the Spartans were favored by 38 against Furman and won by 15, did the Spartans perform worse against the spread in a season-opener under Dantonio.