EAST LANSING – Here are three things to watch as Michigan State football hits the road on Saturday, Oct. 3, for a visit to Wisconsin after losing its Big Ten opener against Nebraska, 31-13, in Week 4 at Spartan Stadium.
Injuries becoming real problem
This is becoming a weekly wondering: Just how badly are the Spartans hurting?
The top layer of MSU’s depth chart already was operating with a razor-thin margin for error and injury, and it is being tested four games into the season. Linebacker Brady Pretzlaff already was out, and the Spartans lost five more starters on Saturday.
Two of the biggest injuries happened on the same play a little more than 5 minutes into the first quarter, with running back Cam Edwards getting upended after a screen pass and immediately grabbing his right
knee. He had to be carted to the locker room. Left guard Conner Moore came off the field looking woozy as trainers attended to Edwards, and he also did not return.
Cornerback Tyran Chappell was ruled out before the game and was wearing a walking boot and walking with crutches in the press box during the game. His fellow starter, Tre Bell, got hurt during warmups and was out. One of their replacements, NiJhay Burt, got hurt early in the second quarter and briefly left the field, tried to return and removed himself from the game after one play.
And with Pretzlaff already absent after getting hurt at Notre Dame, the Spartans’ linebacker corps got roughed up in the second half. Captain Jordan Hall appeared to twist his left foot as it got stuck in the turf on the first play of the third quarter, and he too had to be carted to the locker room and did not return. Their backups, Dion Crawford and Caleb Wheatland, both also suffered injuries that sent them to the sidelines, but both returned to the game.
Starting left tackle Ben Murawski also had to leave the game but returned. And veteran guard Luka Vincic, who missed almost all of last season with a knee injury, took over for Moore and had to leave the game briefly.
The Big Ten now allows teams to travel 80 players to road games, and coach Pat Fitzgerald is preaching a next-man-up approach. But many of his options for replacements are young players getting thrown into the fire with limited experience. Who is available and who isn’t – and for how long – will be a season-long situation to monitor and will alter MSU’s ability to try and end a four-year bowl drought.
Quarterback concerns
While both starting quarterback Alessio Milivojevic and backup/rotational substitution Cam Fancher are healthy, they struggled mightily against Nebraska – finding themselves on their backs and giving the ball away far too frequently.
Milivojevic fumbled twice, losing one, on two of the five sacks he absorbed. The sophomore also threw an interception on his final drive in the fourth quarter, a possession that padded his final passing totals with 74 of his 208 yards with the game already out of reach. He completed 62.8% of his passes against the Irish and Huskers (27-for-43, 331 yards) but has three interceptions and no touchdowns in that span.
Fancher, a sixth-year transfer mobile quarterback, got the offense moving before two Milivojevic sacks stalled a red-zone possession in the first quarter and turned into a long field goal. Fancher got a drive of his own in the second quarter, and it could not have gone worse. He got turned sideways and backwards under first-down pressure and lost 15 yards on the sack. The next play, he threw a weak, telegraphed pass to the left sideline for Fredrick Moore that was easily intercepted by Nebraska’s Owen Chambliss deep in MSU territory.
Milivojevic should have a long leash, with true freshman Kayd Coffman the No. 3 quarterback and redshirt freshman Leo Hannan the fourth option. But how long the offense can survive struggles while Milivojevic improves remains to be seen.
Fickle Fickell of fate
Remember Luke Fickell? Mark Dantonio’s handpicked replacement who spurned MSU at the altar in February 2020 to stay at Cincinnati?
He just had his biggest win in four seasons at Wisconsin, a 24-20 comeback win on the road Saturday at then-No. 14 Penn State. It couldn’t have come at a more critical juncture, with the 53-year-old essentially coaching for his job after missing a bowl game in each of the past two seasons by going a combined 9-15.
Fickell is 20-22 overall and 11-17 in Big Ten play with the Badgers after going 57-18 in six seasons in Cincinnati. This will be the first time MSU has faced him since 2011, when Dantonio led the Spartans over Ohio State, 10-7, when Fickell was interim head coach after Jim Tressel's firing.
MSU has not played Wisconsin since its 34-28 double overtime win on Oct. 15, 2022. That was under Mel Tucker, who got the job after Dantonio’s retirement following Fickell’s decision. The Spartans’ last trip to Madison in 2019 was a 38-0 blowout loss in Dantonio’s final season.
Next up: Badgers
Matchup: Michigan State (2-2, 0-1 Big Ten) at Wisconsin (3-1, 1-0).
Kickoff: 12:30 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 3; Camp Randall Stadium, Madison, Wisconsin.
TV/radio: Big Ten Network, WJR-AM (760).
Line: Badgers by 10½.
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State football has concerns at QB heading into Wisconsin game
