Ladies and gentlemen, let me be the first to welcome you to game week. Only five more sleeps until your 2025 squad takes on the Western Michigan Broncos under the Friday Night Lights of Spartan Stadium. In the meantime, let us turn our focus to weeks 7-9 of this year’s slate, which features two crucial road trips on either end of arguably the most important battle for Paul Bunyan since 2021’s epic showdown. Part Three of this year’s primer will include:
October 18- @ Indiana
October 25- vs michigan
November 1- @ Minnesota
Indiana
Coming off of a homecoming matchup versus UCLA, Michigan State will travel to Bloomington, IN to take on Coach Curt Cignetti’s Hoosiers. As the college football world well knows, Indiana is riding high off one of the most exciting seasons in recent memory. In 2024, the first year Head Coach from James Madison brewed up the perfect combination of transfer portal acquisitions and fiery bravado to will the Hoosiers to their first double-digit win season in their 127-year history. En route to their debut appearance in the College Football Playoff, Indiana defeated MSU last season to the tune of a 47-10 trouncing. Despite the Spartans getting out to a 10-0 lead, Quarterback Kurtis Rourke was able to stand in the pocket and deliver time and time again, throwing for 4 touchdowns and 263 yards, while his offensive line dominated, allowing zero sacks and seemingly no QB pressures.
With Rourke and other key contributors taking their talents to the NFL, IU is left with a projected 8 returning starters on both sides of the ball. Notably, three of these starters will return to the same offensive line that gave the MSU pass rush such trouble last November. Behind center, Cal transfer Fernando Mendoza will be next in line to take over. With 3,004 passing yards and 16 touchdowns in 2024, Cignetti looks to once again hit big on a portal QB. Defensively, returning standouts Mikail Kamara off the edge and Aiden Fisher in the middle at linebacker will hope to anchor a defense with otherwise new faces all around.
The big question is whether or not Cignetti’s system will prove to be sustainable. In a year with a less favorable schedule, Coach Cig will need to hit on nearly all of his transfers across the board to repeat the success of last year’s team. Vegas has set the line for Hoosier wins at 8.5, and many experts are predicting a return to Earth for last year’s high achieving Indiana football team. For Michigan State’s sake; Indiana will be coming off of a long road trip to Oregon in the previous week, and already will have been tested by Illinois and on the road at Iowa. This battle for the Old Brass Spittoon will prove to be a massive road test, and an important measuring stick for the 2025 Spartans.
michigan
Even though the saying goes, “know your enemy,” I think a lot of MSU fans would love to hear a little bit less about that team down the road. If somehow you were able to avoid all of the media’s coverage of the Cheaters wolverines this offseason, the biggest story is the NCAA’s investigation of the Connor Stallions scandal. Here’s the 411: the NCAA finally dropped their punishment. The result? No postseason ban, no vacated wins; just show-cause penalties for Jim Harbaugh and Stallions, recruiting restrictions, and a medley of monetary fines. In terms of this season, a convenient, self-imposed two-game suspension for Head Coach Sherrone Moore will be served in Weeks 3 and 4, for games against powerhouses in Central Michigan and Nebraska. The weasels walk away again with a slap on the wrist.
Now, to the football. 2025 will deliver some more drama surrounding the quarterback position in ann arbor. Last year’s carousel of Jack Tuttle, Davis Warren, and Alex Orji at QB proved ineffective, leading the uofm offense to an atrocious 131st in the nation in passing offense. Second year Head Coach Sherrone Moore will have a complete upheaval on his hands this season. Bryce Underwood, former number one overall recruit in the nation has already made a name for himself, rubbing fans the wrong way for his morally questionable last-second decommitment from LSU for an NIL money hike. (Sounds like the perfect fit!) The 18-year old will be competing with two veteran transfers, starting with Mikey Keene, transfer from Fresno State and UCF, who reunites with new Offensive Coordinator Chip Lindsey. His familiarity in the system will give him a great chance to earn starts in the early going, but expect to see a lot of the true freshman this fall. Finally, journeyman Jake Garcia has transferred in from East Carolina, where he lost the starting spot to none other than former Spartan Katin Houser.
Aside from QBs, the rest of the michigan offense loses talent across the board that will be replaced by transfers and unproven depth pieces. The offensive line loses two starters to the NFL and one more to graduation, leaving multiple spots up for grabs this year. In terms of weapons for Underwood and company, uofm loses Tight End Colston Loveland and Wide Receiver Tyler Morris, 2024’s top two leading receivers, to the Chicago Bears and Indiana Hoosiers, respectively.
Defensively, feared run-stoppers Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant have departed, along with lockdown cornerback Will Johnson. However, michigan seems to have reloaded, with transfers from the likes of Clemson and Alabama shoring up the defensive line, returning leading tackler Ernest Hausman back in the middle of it all, and depth in the secondary that includes Michigan State graduate (and fan favorite) Jaden Mangham.
In terms of the matchup, we all know the story. Last year, the Spartans gave valiant effort behind strong performances from Nick Marsh and Nate Carter, even outperforming the weasels statistically in nearly every category, yet ended up on the wrong end of a 17-24 loss.
The big question for 2025: can Jonathan Smith make Colston Loveland his Mike Hart, use their arrogance and hatred as fuel, and harness the energy of the rivalry to bring Paul Bunyan home on October 25th in Spartan Stadium? After experiencing the back and forth last year, the staff should now far better understand how much this game means. If there is one way to win over the Spartan faithful it would be to, well, send those cheating weasels packing with a big fat L in week 10. I don’t mind the saying: “know your enemy,” but I much prefer: “pride comes before the fall.”
Minnesota
The Spartans will then open the month of November with a trip to Minneapolis and a date with P.J. Fleck’s Golden Gophers. The 44-year old Fleck is entering his eighth season at the helm for Minnesota, and has won a bowl game in every year, except for his first season in 2017 and the Covid year in 2020. While certainly benefiting from the weaker years of the Big Ten West, there is no denying the reputation the former Western Michigan HC has built at Minnesota. The Gophers are a consistently solid football team, never to be taken lightly, as shown in the scare they gave number 4 ranked Penn State last season, nearly pulling off the home upset.
As far as this season goes, Minnesota will be facing a schedule in which they currently are favored by two touchdowns or more in only 2 games (Buffalo and Northwestern State) and on the flip side are only underdogs by 14 points or more in 2 games (Ohio State and Oregon). This leaves a lot of room for toss ups, close games, and nail biters. A year ago, the Golden Gophers were 3-4 in one possession affairs, leaving a lot to be desired in their 7-5 regular season record. Minnesota will have to improve in close games down the stretch if they want to make any noise in the expanded Big Ten of 2025.
Personnel wise, let’s switch things up and start on the defensive side of the ball. After losing defensive coordinator Joe Rossi to Michigan State prior to the 2024 season, the Gophers will once again replace their DC. Corey Heatherman has departed for warmer weather at the University of Miami (FL), and 33 year old former safeties coach Danny Collins will take the reins. Coach Collins will return a strong defensive line, headed by last season’s TFL leader in Anthony Smith, and bolstered by two lower level standouts from the portal in Rushawn Lawrence and Steven Curtis. The safeties room will be another strength, as the explosive Koi Perich is back after an All-Big Ten First Team appearance a year ago. The rest of the defense is a bit more of a question mark, especially with young and unproven cornerbacks on the outside. Expect a lot of zone coverage, nickel looks, and two-high safeties for the Golden Gophers under Danny Collins this season.
Last season, transfer Quarterback Max Brosmer was able to serve as a one-year free agent to not only lead the Minnesota offense, but also to mentor then redshirt freshman Drake Lindsey. Now, it is the young buck’s time to shine, and he has been turning heads through spring ball and now fall camp. Even if Lindsey is all that Gopher fans have hoped for and more, he will need a better showing from an offensive line that graded very poorly a year ago. Multiple power 4 transfers will hope to improve the offense up front, and will be blocking for Detroit native Darius Taylor, who rushed for just under 1,000 yards last year. Taylor also picked up the most receiving yards out of the backfield amongst Big Ten running backs, which should serve as a major help and safety valve for the young Drake Lindsey. With an improved O-line, Taylor could be poised for a breakout season.
Other targets for Lindsey will include Javon Tracy, a former All-MAC wide receiver from Miami (OH), Logan Loya in the slot by way of UCLA, and returning standout Le’Meke Brockington who started 11 games for Minnesota in 2024. At face value, this Gopher WR room seems very similar to the group we have in East Lansing; a veteran returner leading some key transfer portal additions in order to replace several departures. Minnesota will additionally retain their starting Tight End and red zone weapon in Jameson Geers, now a redshirt senior, who grabbed 28 catches for 290 yards and 4 touchdowns.
As is seemingly always the case for P.J. Fleck coached teams, you can expect Minnesota to have a high floor this season. When the Spartans make the trip up on November 1st, the Gophers could realistically have a record anywhere between 7-1 and 3-5. While there are very few sure things on Minnesota’s schedule, for Michigan State this game will surely define a lot about the 2025 squad. Regardless of win or loss, State will be coming off of an intense, heated rivalry matchup and will need to get up and get focused once again for a tough road game against a team that is never an easy out. Can the MSU defensive line get pressure on the young quarterback, and can the Spartan offense grind out a gritty Big Ten road win?
Weeks 7-9 for MSU Football will be gut check time. What kind of a team are we? What kind of a culture has Jonathan Smith built? Can we compete in today’s Big Ten? All questions that these three games will give definite answers to.
