EAST LANSING - Michigan State keeps showing the kind of resolve that makes you believe this season still has something left in it, even if the results haven’t caught up yet.
The Spartans were right there again Saturday, leading Northwestern 14-10 at halftime and drawing a kind of hard-earned applause from Spartan Stadium that hasn’t been common in years. But the final stretch turned cruel, and MSU fell 24-21 for its fifth straight loss. That made it the kind of defeat that hurts more because the game was there to be won.
Even in the disappointment, there was evidence of a team still fighting. Defensive tackle Ben Roberts turned in eight tackles and two sacks, and afterward he kept the message simple: “You just have to be able to flush it,” Roberts said.
“Play one play at a time. Next play, bad play, good play, it doesn't matter.
That's part of it. It's life.
You have to keep going. That's it.”
That mindset matters for a roster like this one, because this isn’t a normal college team anymore. Most of these players are older, more settled, and many are being paid.
Some are taking only a couple of online classes. A number of them are only here for this year.
In this version of college football, staying in the fight is part of the job description.
And over the last two weeks, Michigan State has done exactly that. The Spartans pushed Illinois to the wire before nearly getting over the hump against Northwestern. Those performances haven’t produced a win, but they have shown a team that isn’t folding.
That’s why there’s a real evaluation happening now, not a blame game. This season is about finding out what the program has, what it needs, and what can be built from here.
One of the biggest questions is at quarterback, where Alessio Milivojevic has to prove whether he can be the guy moving forward. Saturday gave both sides of that argument.
He had some tough, gritty stretches, but he also missed on several throws - especially two deep balls - that would have made the game much easier if he’d connected.
There were plenty of mistakes against Northwestern, and those kinds of errors usually get punished when the stakes rise. But there was also growth in all three phases, which is what makes the last two games feel encouraging in spite of the losses.
Michigan State has not lost its edge. If anything, the Spartans have looked better as the season has worn on, even while dropping their fifth straight.
That matters because this isn’t a team built for a long runway of development. Of the 22 starters on offense and defense Saturday, 11 are in their final season of eligibility.
Seven more are in their fourth year and have one season left. Only Milivojevic and offensive tackle Rakeem Johnson, both third-year players, tight end Jayden Savoury, who is in his second season, and freshman cornerback Jeremiah Favorite have more than two years of college football ahead of them.
There are younger players getting meaningful snaps, but this isn’t a roster that figures to grow together for a long stretch.
So the broader goals are simpler and more immediate in Year 1 under Pat Fitzgerald: establish proof of culture, prove the concept, and find a Big Ten win.
That’s why these next few weeks matter so much. The Spartans need to keep getting back up, week after week, until one of these close games finally turns their way.
Saturday made that clear, because for 58 minutes they did enough to win. The reward just slipped away.
The schedule at least gives them a shot to keep swinging. Next comes a trip to UCLA at the Rose Bowl, a place that still carries weight even if most of these players were too young to remember what it once meant on its own. UCLA beat Wisconsin 17-7 on Saturday night in Pasadena, and the Bruins are in their own transition under a new coach.
Bob Chesney, who replaced Indiana coach Curt Cignetti at James Madison, brought 11 JMU players with him to UCLA and added 28 staffers, giving the Bruins an immediate injection of talent and familiarity. Fitzgerald didn’t get that kind of head start at Michigan State after being out of college coaching for three seasons.
After UCLA, the Spartans head into a bye week and then the Michigan game, a rivalry that will help define Fitzgerald the way it has every MSU coach before him. It would have helped to catch Michigan before its quarterback change, but even now the Wolverines have shown they can be challenged.
If Michigan State is sitting at 2-7 by mid-November, the test becomes even bigger. Washington comes to East Lansing on Nov. 14, and Oregon follows on Friday night, Nov.
- Whether the Spartans can keep the same energy and fight by then is a real question, for the team and for the fan base.
That’s part of what made Saturday sting. MSU not only had the game in reach, but it also seemed poised to get the kind of breakthrough that can lift a team. Winning one of these would have given the Spartans something to carry for a week, something to build on.
Fitzgerald didn’t hide from the record.
“I get paid to win, and we're not winning, so it starts and ends with me,” Fitzgerald said.
He also pointed to the way his team responded.
“There's a lot of fight in this group. A lot of guys are getting their first opportunity, and I'm proud of them.
Like I said to them after the game: For a lot of the guys whose first opportunity happened today, they'll be better on Tuesday going through the experiences that they had, and we'll coach the you-know-what out of them. We've just got to find a way to get one more point.”
Michigan State is closer than it looked two weeks ago. The question now is whether that fight keeps showing up until the Spartans finally cash in.
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 🡒]
Michigan State May Finally Have The Defensive Front Fans Wanted
Michigan States defensive front looked more like the unit fans had been waiting for in the win over Northwestern, with several players drawing strong Pro Football Focus grades and the group showing the kind of disruption that had been missing at times earlier in the season. Under recently hired coach Winston DeLattiboudere, the line has taken noticeable steps forward, and the Spartans are seeing a blend of veteran presence and younger pieces start to come together.
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 🡒]