Michigan State Football Uses Canceled Game as Bye Week

The Spartans won't play this weekend – what will they do in the meantime?

East Lansing, MI – Michigan State football won't face Maryland on Saturday in College Park as determined by the university Thursday morning following a COVID-19 outbreak.

The cancelation forces MSU to switch up practice plans and transition to its next opponent, Northwestern, quicker than expected.

"We had a Zoom team meeting and made that announcement, and then we adjusted our schedule and really kind of switched to a bye week type schedule for this weekend. We laid that out for the players and told them the schedule for this weekend and into next week, and then we went back to work," Mel Tucker said during his radio show on Thursday. "Turned the page and looked towards Northwestern."

The first-year head coach pivoted, altering Michigan State's usual Thursday practice and Friday walk-through.

"We made today our day off," said Tucker. "We need to get healthy, a little rest, and recovery; we're trying to get some guys back ... we're going to introduce Northwestern tomorrow and have a walk-through, and then we'll have a good practice on Saturday ... then we'll have a recovery workout on Sunday, then we'll go back and start the week with a normal Monday practice."

The Spartans are coming off back-to-back blowout losses to Iowa and Indiana, where they scored a single touchdown. 

Now, MSU juggles a renewed quarterback competition and more questions than answers concerning Michigan State's roster.

"We've got to win this weekend; we really do. We've got to win it; we've to win it tomorrow, we've got to win it Saturday, we've got to win it Sunday and roll it into next week and continue to compete and get better," Tucker said.

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