Saturday’s game between Notre Dame and Michigan State (8 p.m., Ch. 7) will have a Macomb County angle.

For Notre Dame, Paul Longo – the 1976 Macomb County Player of the Year and a Stevenson graduate – serves as the team’s strength and conditioning coach.

For Michigan State, 40 percent of the starting offensive line comes from Macomb County.

John Stipek, a 6-foot-5, 285-pound senior from Dakota, starts at center; and Chris McDonald, a 6-5, 295-pound sophomore from Ford, starts at right guard for the Spartans.

McDonald will make his third career start when MSU takes the field at Spartan Stadium to face the Fighting Irish. He recorded three pancake blocks in his first start against Western Michigan two weeks ago.

Stipek, who started three games last season, has taken over as the full-time center this year.

Stipek began his collegiate career on the defensive line before switching to offense in 2007.

Now he is anchoring a unit that has shined in the first two games.

Michigan State is averaging 261.0 rushing yards per game – the second-best mark in the Big Ten and 11^th-best nationally.

Stipek takes his role seriously, as he recently told Brittany McCormick for msuspartans.com.

"Michigan State football to me is a privilege," (Stipek) said. "Throughout everything I've been through, if I had to do it all over again, I would have picked the same place, I still would have done the same thing. You can't take this place for granted. It's an outstanding establishment with an outstanding group of people. I couldn't be happier for where I'm at."