EAST LANSING – By now, Michigan State football fans must have become used to the suffering. Since the summer of 2022, when their beloved Spartans began their downward spiral, MSU has fallen 35 times in 55 games. But this loss, a 24-21 defeat to Northwestern
on Saturday, may have been the cruelest one of all because the Spartans were on the cusp of the first breakthrough moment of Pat Fitzgerald’s tenure as coach.With 3:29 left in regulation and the score tied at 21, they had just retrieved the ball after the Wildcats ran a disastrous fake punt from their own 28-yard line. What compelled Northwestern coach David Braun to take this ridiculously absurd gamble is unclear. He later called the decision “horrible.” But for MSU it was a blessing, like
manna sent down from the heavens. Braun inexplicably had just gifted the Spartans a golden opportunity to take the lead with prime field position just beyond the red zone.
Jaziun Patterson ran once, then twice, then a third time, then once more. Time dribbled away minute by minute as Michigan State moved to Northwestern’s 13-yard line. An illegal snap penalty set MSU back 5 yards on third down. Disappointing as it may have been, it was far from devastating. On third-and-12, Patterson accepted his consecutive fifth handoff and moved forward three more yards. That set up a 33-yard field-goal attempt with 65 seconds left. The ball was snapped, Liam Boyd swung his leg and … and … blocked.
Just like that, MSU had been struck down again. It was a devasting turn of events. But somehow, someway, it was about to get worse. Only a sliver of time remained. Yet it was just enough for Northwestern quarterback Aidan Chiles to remind his former team that there seemingly is a pox on MSU’s house.
Chiles, who was the frontman for the Spartans’ offense for much of Jonathan’s Smith doomed two-year tenure in East Lansing, was in the early stages of a career revival at his new school. His performance was good by almost every metric and he ranked in the top 10 in efficiency rating, helping the surging Wildcats prevail in four of their first five games. But for the first 59 minutes Saturday, he had been held in check by an MSU defense missing its top two inside linebackers and a pair of starting cornerbacks. In fact, Chiles had only accounted for 176 passing yards when he led the offense back on the field following MSU's failed kick. The threat he posed had been mostly neutralized by a Spartans front that sacked him five times. But just like that, almost without warning, Chiles elevated his game to another level. He delivered a 21-yard throw to Caleb Komolafe and then zipped a 12-yard completion to Griffin Wilde.
In a blink of an eye, the Wildcats crossed midfield.
Chiles then took them even deeper into MSU territory with another 17-yard strike to Wilde. After Komolafe ripped off a 16-yard run, Northwestern had made it all the way inside the red zone. The Spartans were left dazed, trying to process what just happened. But they soon snapped back to reality when Chiles spiked the football as if he were driving a stake in the heart of the Spartans. His job done, Chiles retreated to the sideline with 5 seconds left and left the Spartans to perish. Kicker Jackson Kleather then finished them off with a 34-yard field goal.
“I’m trying to keep my emotions intact,” Chiles said afterwards. “But I’m excited. I’m just genuinely glad we came out and finished how we were supposed to.”
Chiles did all he could to suppress a smile. But he couldn’t.
Next door, MSU’s players wore glum expressions, trying to piece together how they let another winnable game slip through their fingers. Edge rusher Kenny Soares Jr. offered a simple explanation.
“We weren’t good enough,” he said.
Yet if they just made a few more plays, maybe they could have been. That’s why this defeat felt so crushing.
“Every loss stinks,” said quarterback Alessio Milivojevic, who accounted for three touchdowns and 233 total yards. “A close one like this stings a little more.”
The Spartans know the feeling all too well.
Just a week before, they fell, 38-37, in overtime to Illinois, when an ill-conceived trick play on a 2-point conversion attempt fizzled.
“I think you can see it – we’re a few plays away,” Milivojevic said. “We’re close.”
But victories, especially the kind that can galvanize a sagging program like this one, remain frustratingly out of reach.
The Spartans are 0-4 in Big Ten play and have won just nine times in their past 40 conference games. After rising to the top of the league last decade, they have been roadkill for most of this one, run over time and time again by the same teams they used to beat. When Fitzgerald took over last December, he had his work cut out for him. While an immediate revival never seemed to be in the cards, there was hope he’d at least be able to get MSU some results that would signal that the Spartans are moving in the right direction.
So far, he hasn’t.
“I mean I get paid to win, and we’re not winning,” Fitzgerald said. “So, it starts and ends with me.”
It must have been tough to acknowledge that truth, especially in this raw moment during the aftermath of a bitter defeat to his alma mater. Northwestern was where he made his name as an All-American linebacker and where he burnished his reputation as an overachieving coach during a 17-year tenure at the academic powerhouse. But it’s also where he lost his job in 2023 after he was fired during the fallout from a hazing scandal.
A win Saturday would have assuredly been sweet for Fitzgerald. It certainly would have provided some personal satisfaction. It definitely would have helped his daunting mission at MSU.
Yet in a minute’s time, his team went from the precipice of victory to the dark pit of defeat.
And so the suffering continues. It’s cruel. But unfortunately for MSU fans, it’s no longer unusual. It instead has become the norm, no matter who is in charge of their beloved Spartans.
Contact Rainer Sabin at rsabin@freepress.com. Follow him @RainerSabin on X.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State football's latest loss one of its cruelest yet
