Free Press sports writer Andrew Birkle picks the winners and losers from Michigan State football's Week 1 30-20 win against Toledo in East Lansing on Friday, Sept. 4, the first game of the Pat Fitzgerald era.
Winners
MSU RB Cam Edwards
You saw it right away.
We were all thinking it.
Fox Sports' Bruce Feldman said it during the halftime show:
"The first drive, I'm like, this could be their Kenneth Walker all over again!"
Carried away? Yup.
But also – we all saw it.
On the first drive of the game, Edwards carried the ball eight times for 34 yards, which included a 10-yard gash on MSU's first offensive play of the season, which saw him flying through the air, and a 2-yard touchdown run to cap
the drive.
Plain and simple, he has the juice.
Edwards did pull up injured on MSU's first drive of the second half, but came back in after missing 1½ drives. He got hurt again later, but fought through the injury and gave MSU some much-needed pass protection, even though he was clearly banged up, including falling on a huge third down in the fourth quarter.
He finished the game with 27 carries for 98 yards – it could've been a lot more if he hadn't been hurt – in his debut after transferring from UConn.
He's got a long way to go to even approach the 2021 season from Walker (in which he had 264 yards and four TDs in his debut against Fitzgerald's Northwestern), but Edwards did deliver on the offseason hype.
MSU LB Kenny Soares Jr.
In a summer with little information out of camp, Michigan State didn't hold back the rave reviews for Kenny Soares Jr., a transfer from North Carolina State (and Northwestern, under Fitzgerald, before that). Soares, the only player who had previously played for Fitzgerald, was voted as "The Spartan" and given the No. 1 jersey as an honor for his leadership skills.
It didn't take him long to make plays on the field, too.
On Toledo's third drive, Soares lined up like he was going to rush the QB, then dropped into coverage, tracked the ball and tipped it before juggling it and making a great catch for an interception. The Spartans need playmakers, and Soares showed in his first game in green and white that he can be one.
Just watch Kenny Soares on this entire play we really got a demon pic.twitter.com/eDsUCzmzrl
— Peach - CPT (@msupeach) September 5, 2026
Losers
Pat Fitzgerald's momentum
A win is a win. They all count the same.
Pick your cliché of choice, but this wasn't the debut any MSU fan spent eight months dreaming about.
After coming out firing on all cylinders, it looked like MSU might crush Toledo like a Big Ten team should against a MAC opponent. (Sorry, Rutgers.) But an inability to finish drives (more on that later) made this one precarious.
The Spartans fired Jonathan Smith because they needed a fresh start. Smith never got the buy-in from the MSU fanbase, with personality playing a big factor, but ultimately it came down to the Spartans coming up short in big moments when they had the chances to win.
Game 1 of the Fitzgerald regime felt way too similar at times, even if the Spartans ended up covering.
MSU's red-zone offense
Maybe the most underrated part of football is a team's ability to convert long drives into touchdowns when you get deep into opposing territory.
Edwards punched it in for a touchdown the first time the Spartans got the ball, but that was MSU's only touchdown of the first half, despite racking up 212 yards of total offense compared to Toledo's 80 (60 of which came on one play).
The second drive was killed by a running play that lost 4 yards on first down, a sack killed the fourth drive and holding penalties stopped the third and fifth drives of the first half.
MSU's O-line does look improved, in that the Spartans are at least moving the ball, but you can't leave that many points on the board against non-MAC opponents.
And even in this game, it nearly proved costly, as the Spartans kept the Rockets in the game until the fourth quarter, despite Toledo mustering, really, just two big plays.
MSU CB Charles Brantley
Brantley will probably be able to walk into Harper's and get a free beer for life because of the play he made to seal the win over Michigan during the magical 2021 season. But he might test that goodwill this year.
Brantley is back at MSU after playing the first four years of his career in East Lansing before transferring to Miami (Florida), not making much of an impact on the College Football Playoff runners-up.
MSU needs Brantley's experience, but the veteran corner was torched multiple times, including on the play that ended Toledo's first touchdown drive, for 60 yards.
The Spartans cannot avoid the loud mistakes from Brantley this year, and you have to wonder: If they keep happening, will Fitzgerald and defensive coordinator Joe Rossi give younger players a shot?
Andrew Birkle is an assistant sports editor for the Free Press. Contact him via email at abirkle@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Cam Edwards not Kenneth Walker, but he's MSU's big winner vs Toledo
