Michigan State gets a chance to reset the season on Saturday in East Lansing, and the setup is hard to ignore. It’s homecoming, Pat Fitzgerald is pushing the Spartans after the recent skid, and Illinois arrives fresh off its worst loss of the year.
That makes this a prime week for Michigan State to finally string together something positive, and there are a few reasons to think the Spartans can make a statement against Bret Bielema’s team.
The biggest one: the passing game finally wakes up.
Through five games, Michigan State still hasn’t had a 1,000-yard receiver, which is a jarring place to be with Chrishon McCray, Rod Bullard Jr., KK Smith and Fred Moore in the mix. The production just hasn’t matched the talent, and the offense has looked out of sync too often.
That changes here. McCray, the guy who was supposed to be the breakout star, finally delivers the kind of day Michigan State has been waiting for.
He finishes with eight catches for 111 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback matchup is another place where Michigan State can tilt the game.
Former Spartan Katin Houser has put together a strong season for Illinois, throwing for 1,246 yards and 11 touchdowns while completing 65.8% of his passes. Alessio Milivojevic, meanwhile, has been searching for rhythm.
He hasn’t thrown a touchdown since Week 2, and his season line sits at three touchdowns, three interceptions and 851 passing yards. But Saturday brings the bounce-back performance.
Milivojevic looks sharper, plays with more confidence and posts a season-high 272 passing yards with two touchdowns. Houser still has a solid line, but Michigan State gets the better of the duel: 230 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
And then comes the play that finishes it.
Michigan State has a chance to take control early, score on its first possession and put Illinois on the back foot right away. The Spartans and Illini played a different game in Champaign last year, but this one goes Michigan State’s way down the stretch. Charles Brantley comes up with a late interception off Houser to seal it, and Michigan State gets the win, 27-21.
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Mel Tuckers Northwestern Return Comes At A Big Moment For MSU
Mel Tucker is leaning on a familiar lesson as Michigan State continues its rebuild: a football program works best when everyone pulling in the same direction is actually pulling in the same direction. He pointed back to his time at Northwestern as an example of how important alignment is across the university leadership structure, and he framed that idea as part of the bigger job in front of him while the Spartans keep preparing for another important stretch.
Northwestern now brings a personal wrinkle, too. Tucker is set to face his former team and defensive coordinator David Braun, a matchup that adds a little extra weight to a game already carrying meaning for Michigan State. Tucker said he takes pride in what he was part of at Northwestern, but his attention remains on getting the Spartans where they need to go. [Read more 🡒]
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For a Michigan State program that has spent too much time searching for signs of life, Saturday offered a little of everything the fan base has been waiting to see. The Spartans dug out of a 16-point second-half hole against Illinois, with Alessio Milivojevic delivering one of the cleanest outings of his young tenure, completing 22 of 26 passes for 194 yards and two touchdowns. The offense had a better rhythm once the game tightened, and Nick Sheridans play-calling helped Michigan State find answers when it needed them most.
Still, the ending left the sort of sting that tends to linger, because the comeback only got the Spartans as far as overtime. After trading blows with Illinois into the extra session, Michigan State came up just short in a 38-37 loss when a two-point try failed, leaving plenty to sort through even as the team can point to real progress. Pat Fitzgeralds visible passion on the sideline matched the urgency of the moment, and for once the Spartans could at least take something concrete from the performance even if the final result refused to cooperate. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan States Most Puzzling Illinois Usage Change Came In A Huge Spot
Michigan States 38-37 overtime loss to Illinois was already going to be remembered for its late swings, but the personnel choices inside the game were just as eye-catching. With injuries thinning out the secondary and linebacker group, the Spartans had to shuffle roles on the fly, and that meant leaning on true freshman cornerbacks in important spots while sorting through a defense that was short-handed in the middle of the field.
Offensively, one of the stranger wrinkles came with tight end Carson Gulker, who actually lined up at quarterback and completed a pass, a small but telling sign of how much Michigan State was willing to dig into its bag. At the same time, running back Marvis Parrish, listed as the second back, saw limited involvement, leaving another subtle usage question hanging over a game the Spartans had every chance to steal. [Read more 🡒]