Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly says “you have to fight for every inch” when you face Michigan State and he expects another physical battle when the Irish face the Spartans Saturday night in East Lansing.

Kelly is 3-2 in five meetings against the Spartans while the head coach of the Irish. He’s 1-1 facing MSU in East Lansing, losing in overtime in 2010 and beating the Spartans during the 2012 undefeated regular season.

“I think what I remember my two times up there is it's loud, it's a raucous atmosphere,” Kelly said Tuesday. “They've had a week to prepare for us. They're going to come out with a lot of energy. They probably got the first 10 plays scripted since May. They're going to look like really good plays. We've got to sustain things for the first few minutes and just hang in there. When the game settles in, if you're doing really well, it starts to quiet down in that stadium. If you're not, it's really loud.”

Michigan State is 2-0 and coming off a bye. The Irish are 2-1 after a road win at Boston College last Saturday. BC isn’t the craziest atmosphere but Kelly says it has its benefits heading into East Lansing.

“I think playing at BC was a tune-up, if you will, for us, to enter into a louder, more boisterous atmosphere,” Kelly said. “I think with our guys being on the road for the first time last week, a lot of guys for the first time, it was a great kind of entry into going into an even more hostile environment, if you will, playing at Michigan State.”

Mark Dantonio is 4-4 all time against Notre Dame, including a 36-28 win in South Bend last September.

“This team looks a lot more similar to some of his earlier teams,” Kelly said. “Extremely disciplined, hard-nosed, play to the echo of the whistle. Just resembles a lot more of the teams that I had seen '10, '11, '12, '13. Those were supremely talented teams the last few years. This team reminds me of some of his earlier teams.”

“They're going to take care of the football on offense, they're going to play really good defense. That will have to be the case on Saturday. We can't turn the football over like we did against BC. We're going to have to play really good run defense, which we didn't last year. We're going to have to put some points on the board.”

Michigan State has opened the season with a 35-10 win over Bowling Green and a 28-14 victory over Western Michigan before a week off last Saturday. Quarterback Brian Lewerke is leading the Spartans in both rushing and passing through two games. He’s averaging 8.8 yards per carry, rushing for 150 yards on 17 rushes and two touchdowns. He’s also thrown four touchdowns and just one interception while completing 35-of-54 passes for 411 yards.

“I’ve been very impressed with Lewerke,” Kelly said. “Very poised, can run. If you fall asleep in zone option, he's going to pull it. He's capable of running out. He had a nice long run against Western Michigan. He's more than just a manager of the offense, he can throw it. Highly accurate. I think he has more than just escape-ability. He's fast. He can run.”

Over the last 15 meetings, the Notre Dame-Michigan State game has been decided by a possession or less 11 times.

Notre Dame and Michigan State have met nearly every year since 1948 with the exception of 1953, 1958, 1995-1996 and 2014-2015. The two teams are not scheduled to meet again until 2026.

“There's been such great history and tradition going back to the '66 game,” Kelly said. “I just think that history, tradition, proximity, all those things make for rivalry games. But more importantly, they're games that attract the attention within the Midwest. I think as games start to kind of lose that local flavor in terms of teams playing each other, this is one that I still think captures a lot of people's interest. I'm all for those kind of traditional matchups.”

The battle for the megaphone trophy will kickoff at 8:17 p.m. Saturday night at Spartan Stadium. It will be broadcast on FOX.