Okay. That was not a disaster.

Welcome back to Locked On Spartans. I am Will Hunter, joined as always by Shane Sheehan, and Shane, Michigan State has played an actual football game under Nick Mansour. The lights turned on. The team ran out. The headset was real. The former marching band member, scouting YouTuber, high school coach, football czar thing was no longer an offseason bit.

And they won 45-0.

I hate how much I enjoyed it. I want that on the record. I spent six months preparing emotionally for the funniest disaster in Big Ten history, and instead I got Cam Edwards looking like a real dude, Leo Hannan throwing touchdowns, a cornerback making eleven tackles, and the student section doing the “wait, are we allowed to have fun?” face.

So now I’m annoyed because I have to be reasonable.

Reasonable is the word. Because it was Grambling State. We are not doing “MSU is back.” We are not doing “Mansour proved everyone wrong.” But we can say this: the first public test was competence, and they passed it. You and I talked all week about how the worst outcome wasn’t losing. It was looking disorganized, looking confused, looking like the whole thing was too big and too weird.

They did not look like that after the first quarter.

That first quarter, though. Let’s not let them off the hook completely. Hannan fumbles and every person in Spartan Stadium had the same internal monologue. “Oh God, here we go. The internet is going to kill us.” You could feel it. It was like 72,000 people tried to swallow the same bowling ball.

And then the turning point was Grambling going for it on fourth-and-six early in the second quarter. They fail, and immediately Cam Edwards hits the long toss. That was the first real release. It was not a ten-play identity drive. It was just, “Our best player is better than your angle.”

Cam Edwards is the best player on the team. That was obvious in August, and it was obvious in one game. Eight carries, 91 yards, a touchdown, plus a couple catches. I know the competition. I do not care. The way he cuts, the way he gets north, the way he does not need the blocking to be perfect, that matters because the blocking is not always going to be perfect.

The interior offensive line is still the thing I’m watching. The box score is going to tell you 216 rushing yards. The tape is going to tell you there were still plays where Edwards and Jaziun Patterson had to create the solution themselves. That’s not an insult. It is just the reality of this roster.

And that’s why I’m not apologizing for being nervous. Because Notre Dame is still on the schedule. Wisconsin is still on the schedule. Michigan, Washington, Oregon, all of that is still sitting there. This was not a Big Ten proof of concept. This was a “can you complete basic tasks without lighting the building on fire?” proof of concept.

Let’s talk Hannan. Seventeen of twenty-two, 234 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions. Forty-three rushing yards. The fumble is the obvious blemish. But after the opening nerves, I thought he settled in better than I expected.

He looked like the upside argument. That’s the simplest way to say it. Not perfect. Not polished. But you saw the arm, you saw the mobility, you saw the ability to make the defense defend more grass. If you started Milivojevic, maybe you get stability. With Hannan, you get the possibility that the offense actually grows into something by November.

Milivojevic also went four-for-four with a touchdown late, which means the discourse gets to keep breathing.

Of course it does. Because Michigan State fans are not allowed peace. Alessio comes in against backups and looks calm, accurate, and mature, and now there are going to be men named Greg on message boards saying “I still think the locker room knows who the real QB is.”

The staff is not changing anything after Hannan’s start, nor should they. But the Milivojevic drive does matter because it tells you the room is healthier than the offseason fight made it sound. He was professional. He was ready. That helps.

Braylon Collier. We have to do it.

Three catches, 97 yards, touchdown. The 81-yarder is the first “who is that?” play of the season. He’s young, and I want to be careful, but he looked technically more advanced than a lot of young receivers who just run fast. He didn’t look like a gadget.

Also KK Smith. The stat line isn’t crazy. The plays were grown-up receiver plays. Sitting in zones, catching through contact, working from different alignments. That’s the stuff that actually helps a young quarterback.

Jayden Savoury was quieter than the offseason hype. That does not mean the idea is dead. It does mean Week 0 excitement probably ran ahead of where he is right now.

That’s fine. Not every fun idea has to become a breakout in the first game. But if you start the redshirt freshman tight end because he’s a mismatch, eventually he has to be a mismatch. I’m not worried yet. I’m just not doing the “Mansour found Travis Kelce in East Lansing” thing either.

Defensively, Charles Brantley having 11 tackles and two TFLs from outside corner is one of the weirdest lines I’ve seen in a while. Michael Richard flashed. Tre Bell showed why they like him inside. Cam Stodghill gets a blitz sack. Jordan Hall was Jordan Hall. They held Grambling to 2-for-14 on third down.

And they gave up 165 rushing yards, so Dave from The Mitt is going to act like the defense needs to be investigated by Congress.

Option context matters. But yes, the edge fits and perimeter discipline need to be better. Against Grambling, you survive it. Against better teams, one bad fit becomes seven points.

Final thought: I am not saying I believe. I am saying I am no longer pretending there was nothing interesting here. That’s where I’m at. I’m moving from “this is insane” to “this is insane and I will watch every second.”

That’s probably the honest place to end. Michigan State is 1-0. Eastern Michigan comes next. Notre Dame is already bleeding. The season did not become normal, but the first game gave everyone permission to be curious.