Notre Dame Football: Irish to Face Another Top Quarterback When MSU Visits

They just keep coming.  Notre Dame keeps running into the very best quarterbacks college football has to offer.

In the opener against USF, it was B.J. Daniels who managed his team to a 23-20 win over the Irish in South Bend. 

Daniels went 18-for-30 for for 128 yards and one touchdown.  Although not overwhelming statistics, he had zero turnovers.

On Saturday Daniels returned to "overwhelming" (28 for 39, 389 yards) while leading his team to a 37-7 rout of Balls State.

In the shocking loss to Michigan, for the second year in a row quarterback Denard Robinson put his team on his back to lead them to a win over the Irish.

Robinson's play can easily be described with two words: Heisman Trophy!

Now Notre Dame has to brace themselves for Michigan State's Kirk Cousins.  In case the name doesn't ring a bell, in Michigan State's 34-31 overtime win over the Irish last year, Cousins went 23-for-33 for 245 yards and two touchdowns.

The Spartans' senior signal-caller is off to an excellent start in 2011.  In two games, he's connected on 34-of-43 passing attempts (79 percent) for 405 yards and no picks.

Along with Daniels and Robinson, Cousins is a game manager.

And as the season progresses, the list of stellar quarterbacks Notre Dame will have to deal with gets more and more impressive;

Against Stanford and USC, they'll see entries 1 and 1A for the first pick in 2012's NFL Draft when they face Stanford's Andrew Luck and USC's Matt Barkley.

Against Maryland, the Irish will face sophomore sensation Danny O'Brien.  What about these numbers (31-of 48 for 348 yards) in Maryland's opening win over Miami?

O'Brien was Freshman of the Year in the ACC in 2010.

THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING

For Saturday's home game against MSU, the point spread has the Irish as a five-point favorite.

While there's a likelihood Notre Dame is going to snap out of their funk in a big way, will it be against MSU this weekend?

I thought MSU was going to be a three- to seven-point favorite. 

Notre Dame has been overvalued in their first two games.  Do the sports books know something about the MSU game we don't?