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After another win last Saturday against Washington, Indiana sees itself 8-0, but another challenge presents itself this week, as the Hoosiers travel to East Lansing to take on the Michigan State Spartans.

Anything can happen on the road, and Michigan State is a respectable team, so IU can't overlook this one and pencil itself in as 9-0.

It is unknown who will start at quarterback for the Hoosiers, so I went with three keys that don't involve either Tayven Jackson or Kurtis Rourke.

With that being said, here are three keys to make sure Indiana avoids the upset and takes care of business on the road against the Spartans, which would improve the Hoosiers to 9-0, tying the program's record for wins in a season.

Spartan Stadium holds 75,000 plus seats meaning that, if the game is sold out, it would be the largest crowd that IU has played in so far, and by a pretty wide margin.

The Hoosiers have played two road games so far this year, at UCLA and at Northwestern, both not necessarily being traditional road enviornments.

The temporary Northwestern stadium held just 12 thousand, while only 47 thousand showed up to see Indiana at UCLA, many of those being Hoosier faithful. This means that Spartan Stadium possesses a challenge the Hoosiers have not faced all season long: a true Big Ten road game.

This may make things tricky on Curt Cignetti's squad, but by limiting the energy the fans have early on, this MSU crowd shouldn't be an issue.

Fans can only impact the game when they're into it, meaning that IU needs to not give the Spartan crowd something to cheer about. Whether its making a big play early, or just simply dominating in the trenches, Indiana needs to focus on not giving the crowd a reason to influence the game.

While it's easier said than done, I think that Cignetti will have his team prepared for any type of environment and that included the 75 thousand plus that will be cheering against the Hoosiers.

Michigan State is currently 3-1 at home but, if IU can tune out the noise, they could easily make that mark 3-2.

In Michigan State's eight games so far this season, the offense hasn't been the strongpoint, meaning that Indiana could expose this weakness on Saturday.

The Spartans rank 117th out of 134 in points per game, 91st in yards per game and 70th in yards per play, none of which are up to standards of a power 4 or Big Ten team.

This should result in the Indiana defense to overpower the MSU offense, as the IU defense ranks 8th, 9th and 12th in the same categories that I mentioned for the Spartan offense.

Aidan Chiles has been mediocre throughout the season, completing 61% of his passes, which is below average for not only a Big Ten starter, but a college quarterback in general.

For the running back room Kay'Ron Lynch-Adams and Nate Carter have almost equal caries throughout the year, but both are nothing special and should have a difficult time penetrating this Indiana front seven.

Nick Marsh and Montoire Foster Jr. are the leading receivers for MSU but, again, its really nothing special out of this Spartan offense.

This should all result in the Indiana defense having a field day and, if so, the Hoosiers should escape Spartan Stadium with a win.

This key is true of any game but, for this one, I feel as if this is especially important as, no matter who the quarterback is, protecting him is key.

If it's Tayven Jackson again, the offensive line needs to protect him as well as it did last Saturday because Jackson can be easily flustered as a younger, backup quarterback.

If it's Kurtis Rourke under center, protecting him becomes even more important, so that he won't re-injure his thumb.

Allowing the offensive line to control the game also affects the running game, which for this one is extremely important for the same reasons as to why protecting the QB is important.

Whether its Jackson or Rourke, the rushing game should be the focal point of the offensive attack, just like it was in the second half against Nebraska and all game vs. Washington.

For an offensive line that didn't allow a sack or tackle for loss all game against Washington, it shouldn't be a big ask to have them dominate once more against Michigan State but, regardless, this many be the most important key in order for Indiana to defeat MSU and improve to a program-best start at 9-0.

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