MSU’s trip into Big Ten play turned messy fast, and the Spartans spent most of Saturday night paying for it.
What had been a calling card under new leadership - a team built on discipline - came apart in the kinds of moments that swing games. MSU finished with five penalties to Nebraska’s seven, but the number alone doesn’t tell the story. The Spartans kept sabotaging their own chances, and Nebraska made them pay.
“Just a lack of focus and discipline, and that’s on me," head coach Pat Fitzgerald said. “We’ve been really good up to this point, and we lost our cool at times. I thought we overreacted at times.”
MSU entered the game with only 10 penalties, which ranked fourth fewest in the country. That made Saturday’s sloppiness stand out even more.
The Spartans had already shown a knack for hurting themselves in other ways this season, but penalties had not been one of them. Against Nebraska, that changed in a hurry.
One of the biggest swings came when MSU had a chance to block a punt. Instead, the penalty was accepted, Nebraska kept the ball, and the Cornhuskers rolled down the field. In just three plays, they moved from their own 39-yard line to the end zone, capped by a 44-yard touchdown strike to wide receiver Kwazi Gilmer.
MSU’s defense then came back on the field after the offense had already gone three-and-out. Senior quarterback Anthony Colandrea kept the Spartans off balance, using his arm on the move and his legs to create problems. Graduate cornerback Charles Brantley responded with a late hit on Colandrea, another avoidable mistake that tacked on 15 yards.
That penalty helped set up six more points for Nebraska, with running back Mekhi Nelson finishing off a 14-play, 74-yard drive with a four-yard touchdown.
“You can’t beat yourself,” Fitzgerald said. “Now it’s my responsibility to get fixed.
We turn the ball over, we have untimely penalties, yeah, we block a punt and we get called for holding. Those things you can’t do.”
Later in the second quarter, MSU looked like it might get off the field. Sophomore defensive lineman Mikeshun Beeler broke up a pass intended for Nelson, which would have forced third-and-14. Instead, graduate edge rusher Kenny Soares Jr. punched an opposing defender in the groin at the bottom of the pile, drawing unsportsmanlike conduct and handing Nebraska an automatic first down.
Soares, who wears the No. 1 Spartan jersey, is supposed to represent the program’s standard and the kind of character that comes with it. Instead, the penalty not only extended the drive but also clashed with the meaning of the preseason honor he received.
“I just got to be better,” Soares said. “I talked to my guys and told them that they didn’t get the best Kenny today and told them that tomorrow is a new day.”
By the time the final two MSU penalties arrived, the damage was already done. Nebraska had already built enough separation to make them meaningless, and the Cornhuskers closed out a 31-13 win.
For a team that entered the night built around the idea of discipline, the self-inflicted yardage in big moments was too much to overcome. In Big Ten games, those mistakes can hand away possessions and wreck momentum, and MSU is still trying to climb back toward the level it wants to reach.
“We were beating ourselves, and the guys kept battling,” Fitzgerald said. “We’ve just got to get them to play cleaner, play smarter and play with more discipline. You can’t do the things we’re doing right now and expect to win.”
MSU now heads to Madison, Wisconsin, where it will face the (3-1) Badgers at 12:30 p.m. on Oct. 3 at Camp Randall Stadium. The game will be broadcast on Big Ten Network.
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