Michigan State Players Who Must Step Up vs. Indiana
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Michigan State (3-3 overall, 0-3 Big Ten) and head coach Jonathan Smith are going to need great performances from all three of its phases to have any real shot against No. 3 Indiana (6-0, 3-0) on Saturday.
The Hoosiers are ranked in the top 10 nationally on both offense and defense, whether one measures those units from yardage or points. Statistically, there is no glaring weakness that IU has shown yet.
Michigan State's offense is going to have to deal with a Hoosier defense that has intercepted nine passes already, 22 sacks, and 57 tackles for loss. MSU's defense will be up against Heisman-contending quarterback Fernando Mendoza, an elite wide receiver duo, and several other weapons that Indiana has.
On this episode of the Michigan State Spartans Insider Podcast, we break down which Spartan players will be the most busy on Saturday and go through many players that MSU needs to perform well.
Watch the MSU Spartans Insider Podcast here:
In addition, a partial transcript from Smith's press conference on Monday has been provided, where he discussed the UCLA loss and previewed this game against IU.
Jonathan Smith
SMITH: We got back into the building yesterday and took a deep dive on things and really talked a lot about the halfway point. Let's face it, six games in, 3-3 (record), and coming off a loss that was not good enough, obviously.
And it led, on the leadership of this team, discussion of what we want this thing to look like moving forward, any potential issues we might have, and it was great. A lot of accountability amongst the team, responsibility, coaches included.
I thought it was a really healthy day in regards to taking a deep look at where (we need to improve). Call it a lack of execution at times, and some of the guys trying to do too much, wanting to make a play for the team type thing and get outside the responsibility, and we got exposed multiple times through that.
And so guys (were) kind of owning up, talking about it, tweaked a little bit of how we looked at the video. Offensively, they watched it all as a unit, not just breaking down into your individual positions.
I thought that was healthy in regards to guys taking accountability. 'I could do this better...' And then they went back to work, a little bit shorter, but went back on the field and addressed it and tried to make some corrections that way because we do.
We've got to play better. You think about us as coaches, myself to start, we've got to get this team playing to their potential, and that was well short on Saturday.
And so we look at reasons why that takes place and then think about considerations of changes; schematically, how you approach it, practice, personnel, the whole thing.
So I thought it was a really good Sunday, and we got to be able to transition because we know where we're headed to work (in Indiana). Maybe the best team, one of the best teams in the country, playing really, really good football at their place. That'll be a serious, serious challenge that we've got to get ourselves prepared for.
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Previous Episode - The Tricky Future of Michigan State Football
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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