EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Michigan State's players don't need to hear a canned speech from their coaches about the importance of taking teams from the Mid-American Conference seriously.

All they have to do is remember the second game of last season.

A few too many missed tackles, a failure to recover a late onside kick and an offside penalty on a missed 47-yard field-goal attempt combined to keep a veteran Central Michigan squad alive against MSU. That last penalty gave Central the opportunity to kick what would be the winning field goal from 42 yards -- and the Chippewas were successful.

Although MSU beat Western Michigan, 49-14, later in the season, the sting of the 29-27 loss to Central was one of the defining moments of a disappointing 2009 for the Spartans.

The Spartans know how much momentum can be lost with an early-season loss. It's a lesson they say they'll take into Saturday's opener.

"Central Michigan was a very good team last year -- I don't want to take anything away from them, but it was horrible," junior quarterback Kirk Cousins said of the emotions he felt after last year's loss. "Especially when you walk off your own field in front of your own fans ... to leave like that knowing you didn't get the job done is really tough."

As with any opener, there are plenty of unknowns on both sides. MSU returns its strong passing attack, which averaged 269.4 yards per game, and All-America linebacker Greg Jones, who had a Big Ten-best 154 tackles. Running backs Larry Caper and Edwin Baker are back for their sophomore seasons, but the offensive line features three new starters.

Western lost two key pieces of its offense to graduation, and new quarterback Alex Carder will make his first college start on Saturday. The Broncos return many of their top receivers. Returning players combined for 2,840 yards (or 85.9 percent) of the team's 3,306 passing yards last season.

The Broncos struggled to stop the Spartans' passing game last season, but a greater sense of familiarity of Cousins and the MSU receivers could help the defense's game plan on Saturday.

Western might not have as much talent as a senior-laden Central Michigan team did last September, but at the beginning of the season, any team can be ripe for an upset.

"Last year, we didn't come ready to play," said MSU junior left guard Joel Foreman. "It goes to show that you can't overlook anyone. No matter who they are, or where they came from, you need to come out and play as hard as you can, just like you're playing Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State or whoever you're playing."

Coach Mark Dantonio couldn't escape the MAC question this week, considering this will be the only school from that conference MSU will play this season.

"I hold the MAC conference in very high regard," Dantonio said. "I've coached at that level, 1-AA level before, and I've coached as a graduate assistant at the MAC level. All you have to do is look around at an NFL roster to see how many players have come out of that conference. So they have our attention. They'll get our best shot."

With a favorable schedule that keeps MSU in the state for its first seven games, the Spartans know they need to avoid early losses if they hope to have a breakout season that some predict. The loss to Central last year was the beginning of a three-game losing streak, and the Spartans had to climb back from a 1-3 start to finish 6-6 in the regular season.

"It's something we have to avoid this year," Cousins said about early setbacks. "To have the special season that we want to have, we have to start out with a win -- a solid win this Saturday."

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