Why MSU's Soares Earning No. 1 Jersey Number Is Intriguing
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Only one player a year gets to wear No. 1 for Michigan State.
A tradition Pat Fitzgerald had at Northwestern that he's bringing over to MSU is having the team vote on who gets to wear the jersey number. It's perhaps the most historic number the Spartans have ever had, so it worked out pretty well.
"Everybody has played against the guy -- this is a general statement -- [the person] who wore No. 1 was usually the guy who thought he was No. 1, and I'm kind of anti-No. 1," Fitzgerald said during Big Ten Football Media Days on July 29. "I like the guy that cares about his teammates more than himself. I like the guy that cares about the program more than himself. The giving of yourself for the greater good; to me, that's family..."
"I think that's what jersey No. 1 represents: who 'The Spartan' is. We're gonna have that tradition started up this year. Our Unity Council nominates a group of names that we'll present to the team next week, and then a team will vote on who they believe the Spartan is."
Soares Earns Honor
Linebacker Jordan Hall seemed like the most likely candidate to be "The Spartan" when Fitzgerald announced the new tradition. After the whole team voted, it turned out NC State transfer Kenny Soares Jr. won the uniform. Fitzgerald said in a video posted by the team that eight different players had received votes, the most he'd seen in his career, but Soares got the most of them.
The honor going to a transfer felt like the interesting part to me. Soares appeared to have carved out a real leadership role on Michigan State's defense during the spring, but his essentially being the team's biggest leader comes as a bit of a surprise. On a team with 62 new players, though, a transfer making that much of an immediate impact does have some sense to it.
I'd imagine some other candidates who got votes would be Hall, Alessio Milivojevic, Ben Roberts, and Nikai Martinez. Even then, there are at least three other players there who are not listed and got at least one vote in their favor. The high number of unique votes suggests that MSU has a strong group of leaders spread across the team.
A player also probably doesn't get that kind of honor without producing on the practice field, as well. It would be tough to listen to a rush end's advice if he were getting pancaked every rep. Soares is set to be Michigan State's starter at the position this season, and this is certainly a sign he's made an impression on the turf up to this point.
Soares' Career Thus Far
One big fact that puts Soares' winning the honor into some perspective is that he's the only player on the team who has spent a season with Fitzgerald before. Soares began his career at Northwestern during the 2022 season, which was Fitzgerald's last in charge of the Wildcats. NU went 1-11 that year, but Soares is still the player who has been around Fitz the most.
Soares appeared in four total games that year to keep his redshirt. He stuck around Northwestern for the two years after that, following Fitzgerald's firing, appearing in 24 games and starting eight during that span.
Last season at NC State was a real breakout season, though. He finished second on the Wolfpack with 80 total tackles, appearing in all 13 of their games while starting the final eight of them at middle linebacker.
Soares entered the portal again this offseason and committed to Michigan State on Jan. 13. He was the fourth and last linebacker MSU had picked up at the time, following up Caleb Wheatland (Auburn), Dion Crawford (Buffalo), and Cam Stodghill (Albany). There are only so many snaps to go around, though, and when the spring football roster came out, Soares was interestingly listed as an EDGE.
Picking Soares to switch was interesting. He's got just 3.0 sacks across his career, whereas Crawford has 12.0, including an 8.5-sack 2024 season. The Spartans' pass rush has fallen far short of expectations in recent years, finishing 14th in the Big Ten in sacks per game (1.83) last fall.
Having Soares as the weakside defensive end should help a lot against the run, given all his experience as a linebacker. I'd expect to see Anelu Lafaele a lot during more-obvious passing downs.
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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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