Michigan State heads into the final week of fall camp with Pat Fitzgerald still sorting through a roster full of open questions, and a few of the biggest ones sit right on the depth chart.
There are battles everywhere, a few spots that still look unsettled, and enough buzz around certain players to make this first Spartan team under Fitzgerald one of the more intriguing Power Four groups heading into the season. Cam Edwards is carrying a lot of the spotlight, but the bigger picture is simpler: Michigan State still has decisions to make.
Here are three bold depth chart calls before the opener.
Bryson Williams is going to start.
That’s the first one, and it may not feel all that wild once the season gets rolling. Williams has been popping throughout camp, showing up in just about every highlight clip Michigan State has released. At 6-foot-2 and 225 pounds, the redshirt freshman gives defenders a problem just by existing, and he’s athletic enough to make the size matter.
The real opening for him is the lack of separation behind Chrishon McCray. Nobody has clearly claimed the second or third receiver role, and Williams looks like the guy who can seize it. He’s already ahead of Fredrick Moore and KK Smith in this projection, and the appeal is obvious: he’s the kind of player who can turn into a weekly highlight machine.
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Note: This is assuming Rod Bullard Jr. isn’t deemed eligible by the opener.
The quarterback backup job might end up belonging to Kayd Coffman.
That would be the boldest call of the three, especially with the expectation that FAU transfer Cam Fancher or redshirt freshman Leo Hannan would back up Alessio Milivojevic. But Coffman, the true freshman from East Kentwood, has a real shot to change that.
Fancher doesn’t have the arm to feel like a dependable QB2, and Hannan still brings upside, but Coffman has the full package and was one of the writer’s favorite recruits in the 2026 class. It’s a gut feeling, but the projection here is that Coffman climbs into the No. 2 spot and gets garbage-time snaps before the season is over.
Brady Pretzlaff is the linebacker to watch for a late push into the starting lineup.
The hype train is already rolling, and Joe Rossi did plenty to fuel it early in camp. He said the redshirt sophomore is further along now than he was before the season-ending injury last year, and he also noted that Pretzlaff is going to play a lot, with the exact spot still to be determined. That sounds an awful lot like someone who is already close to being a starter.
He isn’t locked into a starting job yet, and the obvious names in the mix include Cam Stodghill, Dion Crawford, and Caleb Wheatland alongside Jordan Hall. Still, the prediction here is that Pretzlaff eventually forces his way into a starting role and doesn’t give it back.
Pretzlaff looks like the future at linebacker.
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On the defensive line, Derrick Simmons has an opportunity of his own to keep climbing the depth chart, and that makes these next few practices especially important for a staff still trying to settle on reliable pieces. For a team looking to enter the season with some clarity, these camp battles are less about headline-grabbing drama than they are about who can show enough consistency to earn real snaps when the games count. [Read more 🡒]