Michigan State’s biggest game of the season is starting to feel a lot less out of reach.
That’s a notable shift for a Spartans team that has spent much of the year dealing with injuries, especially on defense. A long list of players has been knocked out for stretches ranging from a couple of weeks to the entire season, and that has only made an already difficult season more complicated.
The bigger picture hasn’t helped either. MSU is in a rebuilding phase, and first-year head coach Pat Fitzgerald is trying to steer the program through it all. Coming into the year, that combination made it hard to see the Spartans doing much in the biggest spots, whether that meant contending in major games or even pushing toward a bowl.
The Michigan game always carried some hope, but not much of it. The rivalry was there.
The belief was thin. And for a while, the feeling was that MSU’s better chance might come in other matchups, like the upcoming game against Illinois.
Early in the season, Michigan looked clearly better. MSU’s lone bright spot came in a win that was one second away from becoming a loss against Western Michigan, while the Wolverines appeared to be operating on a different level. Then Michigan dropped out of the top 25, and the gap suddenly looked smaller.
Now, heading into week six, the outlook has changed again. What once seemed like a long shot is starting to look genuinely winnable.
That matters because the Spartans’ issues haven’t exactly disappeared. An injured defense is a tough thing to carry into a rivalry game, and MSU’s offense has still been the kind that lives off occasional big plays rather than steady production. Even so, the Wolverines are giving them more reason to believe.
Michigan’s offense has looked shaky, most recently in a 20-14 loss to the Minnesota Golden Gophers. The Wolverines struggled to get much of anything going, and star quarterback Bryce Underwood had a rough day with two picks.
Plenty can still change before the game is actually played. But right now, MSU doesn’t just look like it can hang around. It looks like it can compete for a win.
In Other News...
Michigan State Fans Will Have Mixed Feelings About This Former Spartan
Justin Denson Jr. is making his new stop at Purdue worth watching for anyone who followed his time at Michigan State. The former Spartan has settled in as a defender and has been turning in a strong stretch through the first month of the season, giving Purdue another useful piece while reminding Michigan State fans what he brought to the table before the transfer.
Back in East Lansing, the programs offseason rhythm keeps rolling in other ways. Michigan State basketball has already announced its 2026-27 tipoff times, though a few games still need to be finalized, and the football team also had some familiar faces around practice when former Spartans Darqueze Dennard and Taybor Pepper stopped by to talk with the players. It is the kind of week that ties the present to the past, even as one former Spartan continues to make noise elsewhere. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan State Offense Has A Problem It Must Fix This Week
Michigan State left its recent game with a familiar kind of frustration for an offense that came in expecting to move the ball more effectively. The plan was cautious by design, built around short passes and protecting the football, but it never produced the kind of rhythm or chunk gains that can turn steady drives into points. Instead, the Spartans spent too much time settling for controlled possessions that went nowhere, a problem that quickly showed up on the scoreboard.
Now the focus shifts to fixing the parts of the attack that stalled when the game got tight. Pat Fitzgerald and Nick Sheridan have pointed to the need for more aggressive execution without losing balance, and that is where the next challenge lies for Michigan State. It is one thing to call for improvement in the abstract, but quite another to turn that into a more complete offensive performance this week. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan State Gets A Painful Look At What Katin Houser Became
Katin Housers path back to the Big Ten has been a winding one, and it has brought him to Illinois as the teams starting quarterback just in time for a matchup with Michigan State, the program where he first got his start. After leaving East Lansing, Houser spent time at East Carolina before landing at Illinois, where he has settled in as a productive and steady presence under center.
This season, Houser has put together the kind of performance that forces an old team to take notice, ranking near the top of the Big Ten in passing yards and touchdowns. For Michigan State, the upcoming game is more than just another conference date. It is a reminder of what Houser has become, and of how much sharper he looks now than the quarterback they once had. [Read more 🡒]