MSU’s Young Players Face Big Audition Against Iowa
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The Michigan State Spartans are looking to finish another lost season, as their penultimate game comes against the Iowa Hawkeyes this afternoon.
MSU is 3-7 and is trying to avoid going 3-9 and losing all nine Big Ten contests. Jonathan Smith has had a tough second season in East Lansing that may cost him his job.
Iowa is 6-4 and has one of the best defenses in the country, so points will be hard to come by for Smith’s struggling offense. Fans are hoping the season ends soon.
While the Spartans have several upperclassmen who are trying to finish their careers strong, Smith and his staff should look to the future in this game and next week against Maryland.
MSU won’t be playing for a bowl game, so the Spartans’ focus should be on getting game opportunities for the players who will be the team’s core contributors in the next few years.
The Spartan Youth
The Spartans are likely to start Alessio Milivojevic at quarterback, a redshirt freshman who has shown flashes of good play in relief of Aidan Chiles and in two starts. If the coaching staff is retained and Milivojevic stays, he has a chance to be the starter in 2026.
There is a dilemma there, as Chiles is still young and trying to show he is an NFL quarterback. It is tough to predict what the future holds, but if Milivojevic continues to play well, there will at least be competition at quarterback this offseason.
Playing on the offensive line as a young player is difficult, but the Spartans should continue to let players like Rustin Young and Rakeem Johnson get run up front. Iowa’s defensive line is talented, but some young linemen should receive trial by fire to improve for the future.
Young and Johnson are talented and have shown they have what it takes to be mainstays on the Spartan offensive line, but that should start to turn into consistent snaps, even against the best defensive linemen in the Big Ten.
MSU has played some of its young players in the secondary, including cornerback Aydan West, who has taken some blows from some of the conference’s best wide receivers. He has also looked good at times, proving he can be a top corner for the team in the future.
Iowa will certainly do a good job against the Spartans’ youth, but one game won’t determine whether those players can survive at the Big Ten level. The young Spartans should keep getting run, because they’re auditioning for the future.
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Carter Landis studied journalism at Michigan State University, where I graduated in May of 2022. He is currently a sports reporter for a local television station and is a writer covering the Michigan State Spartans