SOUTH BEND, Ind. - Michigan State got Jordan Hall back Saturday night, and the senior linebacker wasted no time reminding Notre Dame what the Spartans had been missing.
Playing in full uniform with a bulky black brace on his injured right arm, Hall looked ready from the moment he finished warmups. Then he backed it up in a hurry.
After Michigan State surrendered a 61-yard completion on the opening snap and suddenly found Notre Dame at the MSU 14-yard line, Hall made the tackle on the next three plays and helped force a 25-yard field goal. By the time Notre Dame’s seventh snap was over, Hall already had six tackles.
That early burst set the tone for a defense that made the No. 3 team in the country work harder than expected in South Bend, even if the Spartans ultimately fell 27-10.
“I was just trying to play my part in getting the win today,” Hall said after the loss. “Came up short.
… Everybody had belief, and a lot of those tackles were made because somebody in front of me or behind me did something. I'd be remiss if I didn't give credit to some of those guys.”
Hall finished with 13 tackles, his third career game in double figures and his second-best total behind a 15-tackle performance against Boston College last season. It was the kind of return that made it obvious why Michigan State leaned so heavily on him as its most experienced returning defender and its leading tackler in 2025.
“He's an All-Big Ten-level player,” Fitzgerald said Saturday night. “He's gonna be a pro.
He's a captain. He's a war daddy.
I'm really, really, really proud of him. I mean, he is a hell of a player and a better person.
We need him. He played great.”
Hall had already believed he might be able to go by Wednesday after missing the 35-7 win over Eastern Michigan, his second college game missed. He had been managing pain since injuring his right arm on the second drive of the season-opening win over Toledo. He finished that 30-20 victory, but the arm was clearly an issue, and he sat out the next week.
“It pops up here and there in some awkward positions that I'm in,” Hall said. “The brace has helped me a lot. It'll be a progressive thing as we keep moving forward throughout the year.”
The brace didn’t stop him from flying around early, and it didn’t stop him from staying active even as Notre Dame’s offense wore on Michigan State. The Spartans battled through mistakes and missed chances to get within seven at halftime, trailing 17-10.
But Notre Dame’s 17-play drive in the third quarter changed the feel of the game. Michigan State kept the Irish out of the end zone and held them to a 35-yard field goal, but the long possession took its toll over the final 16 minutes as Notre Dame pulled away by multiple scores.
“It’s tough being on the field for that many plays,” Hall said. “As a defense, we gotta find a way to get off the field and get the ball back to our offense.
“... They got three, so you'd love to keep three points off the board.
But, a 17-play drive, I know a lot of teams that would give up six there. We gotta get off the field sooner, keep them out of field goal range, but I liked the way we fought all day.”
For Hall, the performance was more than just a strong individual stat line. Against a Notre Dame defense loaded with NFL talent, he was one of the few Spartans capable of making a major impact, and he showed exactly how much Michigan State had missed him the week before.
“Obviously, you want to win this game,” Hall said, “but I think our process and how we go about things, my idea is if it's not broke, don't fix it. That's a really good, competitive football team that we played.
There were some times where we had them on the ropes. I think, at the end of the day, we just gotta keep attacking our process.
… I don't expect myself to be any different (next week), the players, or any of the coaches.”
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Michigan State left South Bend with the kind of loss that can sting in more than one way, because the 27-10 final against Notre Dame did not look as competitive on the scoreboard as the Spartans would have hoped. Even so, there was at least one encouraging sign tucked inside a frustrating afternoon: the defense, with Jordan Hall leading the way, brought a gritty edge and held up better than the result suggested, even if missed tackles and penalties still showed up at bad times.
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Pat Fitzgeralds group still has a long way to go, and this was not the kind of result that changes the record book. Even so, the response from the fan base suggested something more important may have happened for a team trying to build momentum: a performance that, despite the loss, gave supporters a glimpse of a future they can get behind. [Read more 🡒]
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Michigan State left Notre Dame with a loss, but not without a few reasons to think there is something to build on. The Spartans fell 27-10, yet there were encouraging flashes from second-string quarterback Cam Fancher and linebacker Jordan Hall, who helped keep the game from slipping away too quickly and showed the kind of effort the staff will point to while sorting through the tape.
Kenneth Williams, Tre Bell and Charles Brantley were also part of the story, though not in the way Michigan State needed. The game turned on costly mistakes that blunted some of the positive signs and kept the Spartans from turning a competitive stretch into anything more lasting, leaving plenty of production to review and one obvious issue that overshadowed the rest. [Read more 🡒]