MSU football: Video analysis of the Spartans’ 23-6 win over WMU
Lansing State Journal columnist Graham Couch and Detroit Free Press beat writer Chris Solari break down the Spartans’ 23-6 win over Western Michigan.
- Michigan State Spartans opened their 2025 football season with a 23-6 victory over Western Michigan.
- The Spartans’ defense delivered a near-shutout performance, allowing only a touchdown off an interception return.
- MSU’s offense showed early dominance with two 10-play scoring drives but struggled in the second half.
EAST LANSING – Of all the things Joe Rossi needed to fix, and there were plenty of items on his offseason goal sheet, he wanted Michigan State football’s defense to continue to prevent giving up big plays in the passing game.
It took one snap and throw for Western Michigan to do what few opponents could last year – complete a deep ball over the top of the secondary.
It took a few more plays after that for the Spartans to display their resolve and moxie with a fourth-down stop and turnover on downs. Eaton bounced back and dragged down Broncos quarterback Brady Jones on third and short. That set the tone for a dominating debut and, they hope, for the rest of the season.
“We’re always buckled up,” linebacker and captain Jordan Hall said. “Things don’t always go our way that we planned. But that’s the foundation of what our defense is. It’s being able to respond when things don’t go our way.”
Hall and MSU’s defense pitched a shutout, spoiled only an interception by backup quarterback Alessio Milivojevic returned for a touchdown in the final minutes of the 23-6 victory over Western Michigan to open the 2025 season Friday night, Aug. 29.
“The season opener is always a huge game,” defensive tackle Alex VanSumeren said. “Especially when you haven’t played for so long, it’s something you crave.
“Like, I crave it like an addict craves something. Just the competition, it’s what a lot of guys they love to do. And it’s what I love to do, I love to play football.”
‘Not a game of perfect’
All week, coach Jonathan Smith said football “is not a game of perfect.” And the Spartans showed that on both sides of the ball while at the same time putting a number of confidence-creating building blocks alongside that show of resiliency in pushing through the mistakes and missteps.
MSU held WMU to 217 yards total and 33 on the ground, limiting the Broncos to 3.8 yards per play and just 10 first downs. The Spartans got a safety in the third quarter with that run-stopping presence in the middle of the defensive line. They produced one turnover, an interception by Wayne Matthews III, and got four sacks from four different players with eight QB hurries from seven different defenders – other areas where Rossi said all preseason camp he wanted and needed to see growth.
“There was no panic defensively,” Smith said late Friday night. “We kind of regrouped. I think that ‘D’ staff, coach Rossi and that group, did a nice job changing the pressure and coverage.”
On offense, the game couldn’t have started any better. It also couldn’t have ended much worse.
The MSU offensive line looked dominant at the outset, putting together back-to-back time-consuming 10-play scoring drives to open the season. Sophomore running backs Makhi Frazier (103 yards and a 9-yard touchdown) and Brandon Tullis (52 yards and a 12-yard score) used their vision and power behind an offensive line that moved the Broncos backward early, though they also allowed four sacks of quarterback Aidan Chiles.
“It’s good, especially for Game 1,” Smith said. “We’re talking about just a small sample size. The first game is to see some of that. But it’s gonna be a long road, a long season. Finding ways to keep that going, it’s not always gonna be easy.”
Chiles delivered a beautiful back-foot throw to Nick Marsh for 7-yard touchdown under duress to cap the second possession, finishing 17-of-23 for 155 yards with a touchdown. He also lost a fumble on his fourth and final sack when Tullis reacted late to a free blitzer in pass protection, getting the wind knocked out of him on his final play.
Aidan Chiles likes what he sees
Yet despite getting shutout in the second half, the junior quarterback also liked what he saw overall from his group. The offense played penalty-free football into the third quarter but drew three false start flags in the second half while putting up just 131 yards (4.1 per play) after posting 205 in the first half (5.7 yards per play).
“The first half, energy and adrenaline came out shooting and firing,” Chiles said. “The second half, they made adjustments. … At the same time, we gotta just come out and execute. And we didn’t do our job, as simple as that.
“It’s frustrating, it’s disappointing. But at the end of the day, we got the win so I can’t really be mad. But at the end of the day, we gotta be better, we just gotta finish stronger.”
Along with keeping his players fresh by rotating at all three levels throughout, both the offense and special teams also contributed to Rossi’s defense being able to punish WMU deep into the game.
MSU dominated the time of possession (36:47-23:13) to keep the defense off the field for long stretches, while Ryan Eckley helped to give the Broncos brutal starting field position throughout the game with both his punts and in taking over kickoff duties. Eckley landed four of his six punts inside the 20, including one at the 2- and 1-yard lines, and two of his four kickoffs went for touchbacks. On the other two, MSU’s coverage unit stopped WMU return men behind the 25-yard line.
The challenge gets tougher next Saturday, Sept. 6. Boston College, which beat the Spartans last season, arrives for a 7:30 p.m. game (NBC) and with far more talent and former NFL coach/offensive guru Bill O’Brien coaching the Eagles.
But for one night, Hall and Co. liked what they did and saw.
“This is a good starting point for our defense,” Hall said. “Not allowing any points defensively is a big accomplishment, something that we’re gonna hold proud onto. Like I said, it’s a good starting point – there’s still a lot of mistakes that happened out there, a lot of ways that we can improve. …
“But I liked the way we responded in situations today. Some drives didn’t go our way, we had to bow up at the end of those drives and get it done. But I loved how we were able to do that.”
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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