Michigan State is heading into a brutal West Coast test with the injury report already stacked against it.
The Spartans travel to face No. 9 UCLA this weekend, and the Wednesday availability report came with 17 Michigan State players listed. Eleven are already ruled out, while six more are questionable, leaving the Spartans to lean on depth and the familiar “next man up” approach yet again.
The biggest hit on the defensive side is the secondary. Michigan State will be without all four of its top cornerbacks for a second straight game.
Tre Bell, Charles Brantley, Tyran Chappell and Keshawn Williams all missed last week’s game against Northwestern, when the Spartans managed to keep things tight against a ranked opponent in front of their home crowd. That same group will be asked to hold up again, only this time in a much tougher setting against a top-10 team.
Linebacker Jordan Hall is also out. Hall, the only Michigan State senior to spend his entire career in East Lansing, has been dealing with injuries all season and is already set to miss Saturday’s game.
Brady Pretzlaff, his running mate and the Spartans’ other starting linebacker, moved from out to questionable after missing last week. His return would matter a lot for Joe Rossi’s defense, especially after Michigan State missed more than 30 tackles across its last two games and still lost those contests by a combined four points.
On offense, all eyes are on Alessio Milivojevic. The quarterback is questionable after taking several heavy hits against Northwestern, and with backup Cam Fancher already ruled out for the second week in a row, Michigan State could be forced to go deeper into the depth chart and turn to Kayd Coffman if Milivojevic can’t go. Milivojevic has a good chance to suit up, but his status is one to watch right up until kickoff.
The Spartans’ leading rusher, Jaziun Patterson, is also on the report for the first time this season. After handling the workload of a bell-cow back, Patterson may simply be feeling the wear and tear. Michigan State does not expect him to miss the game, but his availability bears watching.
Starting left tackle Ben Murawski, who sat out last week, is another questionable name and appears to be a true toss-up. The rest of the questionable group includes running back Darrin Jones Jr. and linebacker Caleb Wheatland.
Michigan State’s question marks come on top of an already long list of absences: Cam Edwards, Cam Fancher, Tre Bell, Charles Brantley, Jordan Hall, Charles Taplin, Keshawn Williams, Tyran Chappell, Jay Coyne, Tristan Comer and Joe Caudill are all out, leaving the Spartans with a thin margin for error before they even step onto the field against UCLA.
In Other News...
Tom Izzo Sent A Clear Message To MSU Fans In Loss
Tom Izzo spent part of Michigan States exhibition loss doing something that rarely comes with a scoreboard: trying to calm the building down. During UConns visit to the Breslin Center on Oct. 20, the crowd turned hostile toward Huskies coach Dan Hurley, and Izzo made it clear he wanted the chants to stop while the two sides played a game that carried real early-season buzz despite being an exhibition. No. 5 UConn left East Lansing with a 78-70 win over No. 6 Michigan State, but the night also carried the kind of edge that comes with two highly ranked programs meeting in front of a fired-up crowd.
Afterward, both coaches kept the focus on respect. Izzo and Hurley each praised the others team and coaching, which fit the tone of a matchup that had plenty of intensity without crossing the line into a full-blown showdown. For Michigan State, the result mattered less than the reminder that the Spartans are already in the kind of high-profile games where the environment can tilt fast, and Izzo seemed intent on making sure the message from the home side was about basketball, not the crowd. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan State Heads To UCLA With A Sudden QB Problem
Michigan State is heading into its trip to UCLA with its quarterback picture suddenly in flux, and that is not the kind of issue a team wants to be sorting out on the road. Starter Alessio Milivojevic is listed as questionable because of an unspecified injury, while backup Cam Fancher is already out, leaving the Spartans to consider other options behind center as the week moves on.
If Milivojevic cannot go, Michigan State may have to turn to true freshman Kayd Coffman or second-year quarterback Leo Hannan. Coffman arrives with only limited game experience but came in as a highly rated recruit in the 2026 class, which at least gives the Spartans some long-term upside even as they try to piece together the short-term answer for a crucial Big Ten matchup. [Read more 🡒]
Jeremy Fears Jr Just Gave Michigan State Fans Real Reason To Dream
The Associated Press preseason All-America team gave Michigan State another jolt of national attention, and it came with Jeremy Fears Jr. at the center of it. The Spartans guard was named preseason Player of the Year for 2026-27 and came close to being a unanimous All-American, a sign of how quickly his stock has risen entering the new season. It is the kind of recognition that carries beyond Lansing, especially for a program that always measures itself against the national picture.
The AP list was built around five returning players from last season, with Thomas Haugh, Tyler Tanner, David Mirkovic and Motiejus Krivas joining Fears on the team. For Michigan State, the bigger takeaway is what Fears placement says about the ceiling of this roster and the attention that comes with it. Preseason honors do not decide anything, but they do sharpen expectations, and this one gives Spartan fans plenty of reason to believe the conversation around their team could be bigger than usual. [Read more 🡒]