A late special-teams breakdown undid Michigan State on Saturday, and it handed Pat Fitzgerald a victory at the very end.
After Liam Boyd’s 33-yard field-goal try was blocked with a minute left, Aidan Chiles marched Northwestern 64 yards in eight plays and Jackson Kleather drilled a 34-yard field goal with 2 seconds remaining to lift the Wildcats past MSU, 24-21, on Oct. 17 in East Lansing.
It was a bitter finish for the Spartans, who had fought back to tie the game at 21-all when Chiles scored on a 1-yard run and then hit Alex Honig on a 2-point throw with 4:18 to play. But the final sequence belonged to Northwestern, and it came after the Wildcats had already survived a blocked kick earlier in the game.
Chiles, back in Spartan Stadium, spent much of the afternoon under pressure. Michigan State sacked him five times, and he finished 18-for-27 for 226 yards while carrying 16 times for 25 yards, with 35 lost on sacks. Still, when the game was on the line, he delivered the kind of late drive he often couldn’t produce during his MSU run.
Michigan State’s own offense got solid production from Alessio Milivojevic, who replaced Chiles at quarterback in East Lansing and threw two touchdown passes while adding another score on the ground. He went 19-for-30 for 216 yards. Jaziun Patterson also chipped in 72 rushing yards on 15 carries.
The Spartans were already short-handed on defense. They played without starting linebackers Jordan Hall and Brady Pretzlaff, starting cornerbacks Tre Bell and Tyran Chappell, plus two key reserves in corner Charles Brantley and linebacker Caleb Wheatland.
Even so, the defense came up with a chance to seal it late. With less than four minutes remaining and Northwestern at its own 28-yard line, David Braun went for a fake punt, and MSU stopped it with pressure from Trey Lisle and a pass breakup by DeJae White. The Spartans then advanced to the Wildcats’ 15 and forced Braun to burn all of his timeouts.
That advantage disappeared when Boyd’s kick was blocked. From there, Chiles took over. He completed throws of 21, 12 and 17 yards to move Northwestern into Michigan State territory, then Caleb Komolafe’s 14-yard run pushed the ball to the Spartans’ 16 before Chiles spiked it to set up Kleather’s winner.
MSU still had some individual performances worth noting. Defensive tackle Ben Roberts and defensive end Anelu Lafaele were disruptive throughout, with Roberts finishing with eight tackles and two sacks and Lafaele adding two sacks of his own. Linebackers Dion Crawford and Cam Stodghill combined for 25 tackles and three pass breakups.
There was also a spark from Chrishon McCray. He broke off a 41-yard punt return after a strong block by Lisle, then later took a deep post from Milivojevic and soared over a Northwestern defensive back for a 53-yard touchdown with 11:48 left, giving Michigan State a 21-13 lead that looked like it might hold.
Instead, the loss pushed the Spartans deeper into a difficult hole. Their losing streak continues, and the path to a bowl berth now requires winning four of the final five games.
Next comes a trip west to California to face UCLA, which entered Saturday at 5-0 and 3-0 under first-year coach Bob Chesney. Kickoff in Pasadena is set for either 3 or 3:30 p.m., and it will be Michigan State’s first visit to the Rose Bowl since a win over Stanford there on Jan. 1, 2014.
The Bruins went into Saturday night’s game after Big Ten blowouts of Purdue, 52-38, and Maryland, 54-3, plus a 17-15 road win at Oregon. They entered the weekend averaging 39.2 points per game, good for 19th in the Football Bowl Subdivision.
UCLA, though, lost starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava for the season to a leg injury against Oregon. Ty Dieffenbach stepped in, and Madden Iamaleava, Nico’s younger brother, is also in the mix at quarterback for the Badgers game.
After that, MSU has a bye week before returning for Fitzgerald’s first game against rival Michigan in Ann Arbor on Nov. 7. Kickoff and TV details for that one are still to be determined.
In Other News...
Michigan State Has 3 Big Roster Questions Against UConn
Michigan State gets a useful early measuring stick when it hosts UConn at Breslin Center in a preseason exhibition, and the Spartans have a few roster questions worth watching long before the games count. Freshman center Ethan Taylor, sophomore Cam Ward and freshman two-guard Jasiah Jervis all stand out as players who could shape how this team looks once the 2026-27 season arrives, with each bringing a different kind of intrigue after what they have already shown.
For Tom Izzo, this is less about the final score than about what the rotation starts to reveal. Taylors presence inside, Wards sophomore leap and Jervis fit on the perimeter all give Michigan State something to evaluate against a high-level opponent, and UConn should provide a real stress test for where those pieces stand. The Spartans will leave the exhibition with answers, but probably not all of them. [Read more 🡒]
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What makes the performance matter is that it did not feel like a one-game outlier so much as another sign of a room that is being developed the right way. The staff has been encouraged by the progress up front, and with that mix of experience and growth, Michigan State may be closer to having the defensive line it has been trying to build for a while. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan State Has One Costly Problem It Can't Keep Wasting
Alessio Milivojevic gave Michigan State a little bit of everything in the loss to Northwestern, and that has become part of the problem for a team trying to stop the slide. Pat Fitzgerald pointed to the quarterbacks touchdown passes as proof the offense can still find answers, but he also noted the missed opportunities that left the Spartans with too much wasted potential in a game they needed to squeeze for everything it was worth.
Now comes UCLA, a matchup that adds another layer of uncertainty with backup Ty Dieffenbach having recently started because of an injury to the Bruins starter. Fitzgerald offered his read on both quarterbacks as Michigan State turns the page, but the larger issue remains the same: the Spartans cannot keep letting usable chances slip away and expect a losing streak to sort itself out. [Read more 🡒]