I'm curious to see how this game goes more from a coaching standpoint than anything. I expect Painter to throw for about 400 yards and the game won't be close, but how will the coaching be?

zzzzzzz

MSU football has become irrelevant

Well, Purdue was much like Michigan, rolling up some otherwise impressive numbers that didn't translate into much. Painter had a fairly good day with over 280 yards passing and 2 TD, no INT. It was actually a bit less than I expected, but still decent. But their running game did very little and they coughed up 2 lost fumbles - meaning they needed a late FG to lift them to victory.
For State, give them credit for decent defense against the odds. Purdue was averaging 472 total yards per game through their first 7 games. Yeah, they've done very little offensively against Wisconsin and Penn State the previous two weeks, but for State to hold them to 367 total and to have a 4th quarter lead wasn't expected. Credit State for showing up more than I expected.
That being said, there is no chance they win their last two to become bowl eligible, and even if they did I wouldn't expect many bowls to go out of their way to invite them.