Michigan State vs. Eastern Michigan: 11 things to watch Saturday

EAST LANSING — Michigan State plays Eastern Michigan at noon Saturday at Spartan Stadium. The game is on Big Ten Network.

The Spartans are 1-0 after beating Grambling State 56-7 in the home opener. Eastern Michigan is 1-1. The Eagles beat Sacramento State and lost to San Jose State.

This is the second straight home game and the second straight noon kickoff. Michigan State plays at Notre Dame the following week.

Here is what happened last Saturday, in numbers, and then 11 things to watch this Saturday.

Michigan State had 618 total yards and 31 first downs. It converted 7 of 10 third downs, turned the ball over zero times, allowed zero sacks and was flagged one time, for holding. It punted once.

Grambling had 147 yards and five first downs. All five first downs came on the game’s opening drive. The Tigers converted 1 of 10 third downs and punted seven times.

Quarterback Leo Hannan completed 19 of 23 passes for 250 yards and two touchdowns in his first career start. Running back Cam Edwards carried 16 times for 147 yards and two touchdowns. The defense recorded 18 tackles for loss.

Michigan State reported no injuries, no suspensions and no changes to player roles.

1Noah Kim at quarterback for Eastern Michigan

Eastern Michigan’s starting quarterback is Noah Kim, a seventh-year graduate student playing on an NCAA waiver. He is No. 1.

Kim was Michigan State’s starting quarterback in 2023. He transferred to Coastal Carolina after that season and then to Eastern Michigan.

Nobody currently on Michigan State’s coaching staff was employed by the program in 2023. Head coach Nick Mansour said Sunday that he has never met Kim.

Kim is a captain at Eastern Michigan. Expect him to be introduced with the visiting team and expect a reaction from the crowd. What kind is not predictable.

From a football standpoint, the relevant fact is experience. Kim has more career college starts than any player on Michigan State’s roster. Defenses that rely on disguise generally get less out of it against quarterbacks who have seen a lot of football.

2Chris Creighton

Eastern Michigan’s head coach is Chris Creighton, who has held the job since 2014. That is the longest tenure of any head coach Michigan State will face this season.

Creighton took over a program that had one winning season in the previous 20 years and took it to multiple bowl games. He is widely respected in the profession.

Eastern Michigan teams under Creighton are typically well-organized, do not beat themselves with penalties, and are comfortable in close games. Expect a team that knows what it is doing.

Eastern Michigan’s offense also lists two backup quarterbacks, Brogan McCaughey and Jace Stuckey, and four running backs who have carried the ball this season: Joey Mattord, Malachi James, XaVior Tyus and Braydon Bennett.

Its top receivers are Benson Prosper, a senior from Hollywood, Florida; Antonio Floyd, a junior from Atlanta; Mekhi Fox, a senior from Pasadena; and Quinn Fracassi, a senior from Howell.

3Whether Michigan State treats this like a trap game

This is the second consecutive opponent Michigan State is expected to beat comfortably, and the Notre Dame game is the following week.

MAC programs have beaten Big Ten programs. It happened in this state last Saturday in the other direction: Michigan needed until the end to beat Western Michigan 17-9. That game was played about 100 miles from here on the same afternoon Michigan State was winning by 49.

Mansour was asked about looking ahead on Sunday and gave a short answer.

“I’m not worried about it this week and I might be wrong about that,” he said. “Ask me Thursday. If practice is bad Tuesday I’ll have a different answer for you.”

Watch the first quarter. That is where a team that is not ready shows it.

4Leo Hannan’s second start

Hannan threw 23 passes last week. That is a low number for a game in which his team scored 56 points, and it reflects both the score and a run game that averaged more than seven yards a carry.

Watch how many times he throws Saturday and where. Last week he attempted one deep pass, completed it for 43 yards to Braylon Collier, and did not attempt another.

He also ran six times for 24 yards, and four of those runs produced first downs. None were designed runs. All came after the pocket held and nobody was open.

Eastern Michigan’s defense includes three players in at least their fifth year of college football: defensive lineman Makhi Gilbert, linebacker Zach Mowchan and defensive back Bryce Llewellyn, all captains.

5What the defense looks like without an option offense to prepare for

Michigan State did not play the defense it has described all year. Against Grambling’s option offense, the Spartans used three different fronts, including a five-man front in short yardage.

Eastern Michigan does not run the option. There is no reason to carry three fronts into this game.

Watch for the 4-2-5 that the staff has described since December. It has not been on the field for a meaningful number of snaps.

Watch the linebacker rotation. Chris Piwowarczyk, a walk-on, started last week ahead of Cam Stodghill for reasons specific to defending the option. Stodghill is the lighter and faster of the two and fits the base defense.

Watch the first defensive series specifically. Grambling scored a touchdown on its opening drive last week, on a 30-yard run, and Michigan State did not allow another first down for the rest of the game. Whether the defense starts clean this time is the simplest available measure of whether the correction stuck.

Also watch the defensive tackles. Derrick Simmons, a sophomore who moved inside from edge this offseason, was pushed off the ball repeatedly on that opening drive. Ben Roberts, Eli Coenen and Adam Fontana are the others listed at the position.

6Cam Edwards

Edwards had 147 yards on 16 carries, an average of 9.1, with a long of 33 and two touchdowns. He is the best player on the roster and last week did nothing to change that.

Watch his carry count. Sixteen is a manageable number and there is a full season after this one, starting at Notre Dame in Week 3.

Also watch short yardage. Michigan State ran three times from inside the 4-yard line in the second quarter last week, did not score on any of them, and did not hand the ball to Edwards on any of them. Two were quarterback sneaks.

Mansour was asked about that on Sunday and did not defend it much.

“I didn’t like the look and I went a different way and it didn’t work,” he said. “That one’s pretty simple.”

7The offensive line

Michigan State allowed no sacks last week and was flagged once.

Left tackle Ben Murawski and left guard Nick Sharpe graded out best. Right tackle Conner Moore was steady. Right guard Luka Vincic gave up several pressures and was the weakest of the five.

Center Rustin Young, a 6-foot-7 tackle playing his first game at the position, was beaten twice on blocks in the first quarter and was better after that. There were no bad snaps and no penalties on the interior.

Watch short yardage again. That is the only place the group had a clear failure last week.

8The receivers

KK Smith led Michigan State with seven catches for 105 yards and added 30 rushing yards on jet motion. That was the most productive receiving day of his career.

Crishon McCray had five catches for 45 yards and two touchdowns and returned five punts for 78 yards, an average of 15.6.

Braylon Collier had four catches for 66 yards. Tight end Brennan Paracheck had four for 56.

Rowan Merlino caught one pass, a five-yard throw he ran 54 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter.

Watch whether Smith gets the same usage against a defense that is not primarily worried about the run.

9Alessio Milivojevic and the fourth quarter

Backup quarterback Alessio Milivojevic played the fourth quarter and completed 4 of 5 passes for 100 yards and two touchdowns against Grambling’s reserves.

He lost the starting job to Hannan in August.

Mansour said Sunday that the quarterback position is unchanged and that Hannan is the starter.

Expect Milivojevic to play again if the score allows. Michigan State has two scholarship quarterbacks.

10Eastern Michigan players from Michigan

Several Eastern Michigan starters and contributors are from this state.

Running back Joey Mattord is from Hartland. Running back XaVior Tyus is from Portage. Receiver Quinn Fracassi is from Howell. Defensive back Jason Marshall is from Trenton.

Eastern Michigan’s campus is in Ypsilanti, about 65 miles from Spartan Stadium.

Michigan State’s linebackers combined for seven tackles for loss last week. Brady Pretzlaff had three, Jordan Hall had two and Piwowarczyk had two.

Strong safety Nikai Martinez led the team with nine tackles. Cornerback Andrew Brinson IV had two pass breakups and a tackle for loss. Free safety Michael Richard had two pass breakups.

Cornerback Charles Brantley allowed both of Grambling’s completions, each on third down and each on a contested throw. Grambling did not throw at him after the first quarter.

Michigan State has not announced any change at cornerback.

11Other notes

Kicker Liam Boyd made all eight extra points last week and did not attempt a field goal. He has not attempted a field goal this season.

Punter Rhys Dakin punted once, for 52 yards.

Michigan State’s only penalty last week was a holding call.

Michigan State is 1-0 and 0-0 in the Big Ten. Every Big Ten team is 1-0 except Illinois and Purdue, which are 0-1, and USC, which is 2-0.

Michigan State is not ranked and did not receive votes in this week’s poll.

No Michigan State player received a national or Big Ten weekly award.

Tickets remain available through the athletic department. Last week’s game was not a sellout.

Both teams will be in their standard uniforms. Michigan State has not announced an alternate.