Elijah Tau-Tolliver Emerges as MSU’s Bright Spot After PSU Loss
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The Michigan State Spartans are officially out of chances to turn the 2025 season around after their rough loss to the Penn State Nittany Lions, the final score being 28-10.
While fans are becoming apathetic because of the loss, and many assume a complete reset will need to take place for the team to enter elite territory again, there are still some good players left on MSU's roster.
One of the brightest examples, especially after Penn State, is Elijah Tau-Tolliver, a Freshman who handled a massive workload and was one of the few working pieces in the team’s offense.
What Elijah Tau-Tolliver Did Well Against Penn State
- If Tau-Tolliver is to continue being a key player with the Spartans, then he needs to keep on doing a lot of his work well, specifically what he was able to pull off in the quality of his game.
- After all, he only had six carries to work with across the full game, yet he was able to squeeze out 79 yards and a score, about an astonishing 13 yards per carry.
- He also caught the ball eight times for 73 yards, taking much more than half of the team's receiving yards and nearly half of the receptions.
- His quality, especially with how young he is, has been a huge bright spot for the Spartans, and even though fans don't have much to look forward to now with the team's state, he is providing promise for years in the future.
- Tau-Tolliver also had to deal with immense offensive line struggles, in which his quarterback was sacked five times and pressured on 21 occasions.
- If he performed so well with such low-quality O-Line play, then he can only get better as the line gets better, but he, of course, is not perfect and still has some glaring issues.
What Needs To Change With Elijah Tau-Tolliver
- Tau-Tolliver's biggest issues all surround discipline, where he has drawn multiple penalties for unsportsmanlike conduct against separate teams.
- Whether it be against the Michigan Wolverines, the Nittany Lions, or any other team, such penalties cannot continue to take place.
- If he cannot clean those up, then the team will only suffer more than it already has been, but hopefully, said issues can be sorted out by next season when the team enters the year with a clean slate.
Elijah Tau-Tolliver has immense potential as evidenced by his play against the Nittany Lions, and he is hope amongst the bleak, so if he can keep what's good and get rid of his penalty issues, then MSU has something really special for the foreseeable future.
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Nathan Berry is a senior at NCCS and was raised a Michigan State Spartan fan. With a great interest in sports and writing, journalism is a great avenue to pursue both.