3 Observations from MSU's Season Finale Victory over Maryland
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DETROIT — Michigan State avoided infamy on Saturday by defeating Maryland, 38-28, to pick up its first Big Ten win on its very last opportunity. The Spartans entered the game 0-8 during conference play, but the 1958 MSU team will still remain the only Spartan team to not win a conference game since Michigan State joined the Big Ten in 1953.
It was kind of a bittersweet night in Ford Field. The season didn't go as anybody planned, the future is still uncertain, but at least for that night, Michigan State was just able to get a win. As snow raged on outside the walls of the nice, toasty dome, here are a few things I noticed from the game:
Alante Brown’s Shining Moment
Somebody everyone should feel happy for is sixth-year wide receiver — but really special teams specialist — Alante Brown. He’s dealt with injuries throughout his college career. Maryland was Brown’s first appearance since the Boston College game, in fact, and he is dealing with personal off-the-field matters, too.
During his final game of his career — with three years at Nebraska, and three at MSU — Brown finally got his first career touchdown. Maryland had just cut the Spartans’ lead to three, and the Terrapins gave Brown a shot at returning one. It looked like someone in a pile of MSU and Maryland players would get him around the 30-yard line, but Brown somehow found a way through by shedding a few tackles and had nobody else in front of him. He took it 92 yards for the score.
Defense Rebounds in Fourth Quarter
Michigan State had not been playing very good defense in the fourth quarter lately. Joe Rossi’s unit has kind of collapsed at the end of competitive games in each of the last three games, all of which were competitive, against Minnesota, Penn State, and Iowa.
The Spartans came up big when it mattered most at the end of the Maryland game. They looked a little shell-shocked to start the second half, giving up three quick touchdowns to the Terrapins in a 21-point quarter, but UMD scored none in the final 15 minutes.
The big moment was after quarterback Alessio Milivojevic threw an interception in the fourth quarter. That and a 15-yard blindside block penalty during the play on MSU gave Maryland the ball near midfield with 3:22 remaining. After the Minnesota and Iowa games in particular, where the Spartans blew a late fourth-quarter lead, one could only wonder if this game would go in the same direction.
MSU’s secondary did their job. Maryland quarterback Malik Washington threw three straight incompletions to start the drive, and then linebacker Jordan Hall and corner Aydan West got home on a blitz for a sack on fourth down.
Empty Seats
Yeah, there was a lot of snow, as I said earlier, but let’s be honest here, Ford Field was probably going to look half-empty if I-96 was in pristine condition, too.
Reported attendance for the game was just 30,317 people. Last year’s season finale against Rutgers, which was outside and in similar conditions at Spartan Stadium, drew 50,038.
Credit should be given to the people who were there; they did provide a more lively atmosphere than what I personally expected. Maybe it was the dome helping keep noise in, but it got legitimately loud during Brown’s kickoff return, the fourth-down sack, and Omari Kelly’s touchdown that sealed the game.
Either way, it’s the smallest crowd at an MSU football game (2020 excluded), home, away, or neutral, since fewer than 25,000 saw the Spartans play at Rutgers in November 2019.
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A 2025 graduate from Michigan State University, Cotsonika brings a wealth of experience covering the Spartans from Rivals and On3 to his role as Michigan State Spartans Beat Writer on SI. At Michigan State, he was also a member of the world-renowned Spartan marching band for two seasons.
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