The final days of fall camp are winding down, and with Toledo on deck next Friday, it’s time to put together a projected Michigan State offensive depth chart for Pat Fitzgerald’s first team in East Lansing.
A few names are easy to pin down. Alessio Milivojevic, Trent Fraley, Chrishon McCray and Cam Edwards all look like clear-cut starters. Beyond that, though, the rest of the offense still has plenty of moving parts.
At quarterback, Milivojevic is the straightforward choice. He took over for Aidan Chiles late in 2025 and played well enough to lock down the job heading into 2026, with the caveat that he now has to show that stretch was real.
The backup spot is a little different. FAU transfer Cam Fancher is the safer immediate option, while Kayd Coffman and Leo Hannan are the two names battling for the third-string role early on.
The running back picture starts with Cam Edwards, a 1,000-yard rusher from UConn who was one of the headlining additions from the transfer portal. Fitzgerald has already said he expects Edwards to have a huge season, and there’s a real path for him to play his way into All-Big Ten consideration in 2026.
Behind him, Marvis Parrish brings a different kind of juice after transferring from Western Kentucky. As a freshman, he averaged 5.4 yards per carry, finished with 779 total yards from scrimmage and scored three touchdowns.
He looks like the kind of back who can matter in the passing game too.
Receiver is where the projection gets trickier. Chrishon McCray and Rod Bullard Jr. feel like the safest starters after Bullard was granted another year of eligibility and immediately stepped into a projected first-team role.
The third spot is less settled, but Charles Taplin gets the nod here after drawing a lot of praise during camp. Bryson Williams is the sleeper to watch, though.
The backups list is crowded for a reason: Fredrick Moore, Bryson Williams, KK Smith and Braylon Collier all have the kind of talent that could push for starting jobs. Moore arrives from Michigan, Smith from Notre Dame, and Collier and Williams are both highly touted redshirt freshmen.
It’s a young group, but an intriguing one.
Tight end has a veteran anchor in Brennan Parachek, the steady option who has stuck around through two coaching changes and three different staffs. Still, Jayden Savoury is impossible to ignore.
His blocking still needs work, but he brings real downfield threat potential for Milivojevic and the offense, and the two could wind up sharing the role. Carson Gulker is another name to keep in mind, especially with the expectation that he takes on more of a Connor Heyward-style H-back job and handles a little bit of everything.
Up front, the projection is Ben Murawski at left tackle, Conner Moore at left guard, Trent Fraley at center, Nick Sharpe at right guard and Rakeem Johnson at right tackle. That group has the look of a much better unit. Murawski is a massive presence, Moore is one of the top returning linemen and can also slide out to tackle, Fraley was the top center in the FCS last year, Sharpe arrives from South Carolina, and Johnson is trying to build on a solid start to his Michigan State career.
The depth behind them is part of the reason there’s so much optimism. Rustin Young, Luka Vincic, Drew Nichols, AJ Dennis and Robert Wright Jr. all have a case to be in the mix, and Fitzgerald’s comments about nearly a dozen players competing for jobs suggest this group is deeper than it has been in a while. Young, Vincic and Wright Jr. are all players who could probably start somewhere, which tells you how much competition is sitting in the room.
In Other News...
Michigan State May Finally Be Breaking A Camp Problem Fans Know Too Well
Jordan Hall has seen enough Augusts at Michigan State to know when things feel different, and this one has stood out to the senior linebacker and team captain for the right reasons. Hall said this fall camp has been the healthiest he has experienced, pointing to a more methodical and careful approach under coach Pat Fitzgerald. After moving through three coaching staffs, Hall has a strong frame of reference for how camp usually goes, and he made clear this one has gone better than the injury-heavy summers Spartans fans have grown used to.
Fitzgeralds caution appears tied to more than just preference. Michigan State does not have the kind of depth that allows it to shrug off camp injuries, so a slower, more deliberate pace makes sense if the goal is to keep key players available when the season starts. Halls comments do not guarantee the problem has vanished, but they do suggest the Spartans are at least trying to break a familiar cycle, and that alone is worth watching as camp winds down. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan States New Defense Has One Problem Fans Cant Ignore
Michigan States new era under Pat Fitzgerald is starting with the kind of defensive reset that usually brings more questions than answers, but this group does have a few things going for it. The Spartans have blended returning veterans with transfers across the defensive line, linebacker, and secondary, and there is enough experience in the starting spots to suggest the unit should look more organized than it did a year ago. With the season opener against Toledo approaching, the early focus is less on schematic mystery and more on whether the front, the linebackers, and the back end can settle in quickly enough to support the rest of the team.
The concern is what happens after the first wave of starters. Michigan State has done a good job rebuilding the defense around veteran leadership, but depth still looks like the part of the roster most likely to be tested, especially if injuries start to pile up. For a defense that is counting on seasoned pieces to stabilize the transition, the margin for error could get thin in a hurry, and that is the one issue fans are likely to keep watching as the opener gets closer. [Read more 🡒]
Tom Izzos Long Fight On Eligibility Just Got New Life
The Big Tens latest move on eligibility has put a long-running issue back in the spotlight, and it lands in a way Michigan State fans know well. Conference officials announced a new rule aimed at football players who have signed professional contracts, been placed on probation rosters or declared for the NFL draft as underclassmen without withdrawing, cutting off a path that has stirred debate about how far college eligibility should stretch.
For Tom Izzo, who has long been vocal about professional athletes finding ways to exploit loopholes, the decision reads like a win for a position he has argued for publicly. The bigger question now is whether the conference will widen that approach beyond football, with basketball among the sports under consideration, which would make the ripple effect on college athletics even more significant. [Read more 🡒]