It’s the old guard against the new guard Saturday night at Spartan Stadium.

Iowa is coached by Kirk Ferentz, the longest-tenured coach in the Big Ten, who took over in 1998 and last week picked up his 200th win with the Hawkeyes, second all-time among Big Ten coaches behind Woody Hayes’ 205. Michigan State is coached by first-year head coach Jonathan Smith, who has three wins as a Big Ten coach.

The two men met for the first time late this spring, but their mutual respect goes back a lot longer.

“I’ve known about his career and admired him from afar, both as a player — I’ve always got a little affinity for guys that walk on, he walked on at Oregon State and led them to an awful lot of success as a player — and then his coaching career has been very, very impressive,” Ferentz said this week. “And some of the people that he’s worked with, I have a tremendous amount of respect for: Mike Riley, Coach (Chris) Petersen. He’s been around a lot of good people and has done a great job at Oregon State when he went back there.

“Now, I think you’re looking at the same thing at Michigan State.”

Michigan State (3-3, 1-2 Big Ten) hosts Iowa (4-2, 2-1) at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, in what is a crossroads game, certainly for the Spartans, who have last three straight — after starting the season 3-0.

Michigan State entered the bye week with consecutive losses to Boston College, Ohio State and Oregon.

“They’re a good football team,” said Ferentz, 69. “It’s really kind of tough to judge them. You look at their record right now … you consider they’ve played arguably two of the best teams, if not the two best teams, not only in the conference, but in the country, their last two times out.

“So, it’s going to be a challenge for us. We’re well aware of that.”

Iowa, with former Western Michigan head coach Tim Lester as its new offensive coordinator, is coming off a dominating win over Washington for Ferentz’s milestone victory. This is the Hawkeyes’ first trip to East Lansing since 2017, and the last time they won at Spartan Stadium was in 2012. In 2008 in East Lansing, MSU beat Iowa, 16-13, for a signature win in Mark Dantonio’s second season as head coach.

Eight of Ferentz’s 200 wins at Iowa have come against Michigan State.

“I don’t know Kirk well, texts and things,” Smith, 45, said this week. “The kind of career he’s put together, you’ve gotta respect a guy to be in this business long-term, and the stories you hear, you hear former players talk about him.

“The utmost respect for him.”

Iowa brings with it its traditionally tough defense and an offense that is showing signs of life this year, after an abysmal performance on that side of the ball in 2023. The Hawkeyes are disciplined and physical.

The Spartans are physical, but not that disciplined. They’ve made too many mistakes, especially with turnovers, and especially with redshirt freshman quarterback Aidan Chiles.

Michigan State had a bye week to reflect, and get things fixed. It starts with Chiles, to be sure.

“He’s a very dangerous player,” Ferentz said of Chiles, who’s quite the opposite of Iowa’s quarterback, former Michigan Wolverine Cade McNamara, who isn’t flashy but is a decent game manager.

“Typically, you go up there, they’ve got a good team, a talented team, and that’s certainly the case.”