Michigan St Spartans 2026 College Football Preview
Posted July 18, 2026
2025 Recap
Record – 4-8
ATS – 6-6
“Iceberg, right ahead!”
— Lookout Frederick Fleet, Titanic (1997)
The Spartans started out like a HOUSEAFIRE winning their first three games of the year, and it appeared as though the Michigan St. renaissance was upon us. Sadly, the team smashed into a metaphorical ICEBERG and watched the season go GLUG GLUG GLUG to the bottom of the Red Cedar River. They lost eight games in a row, but salvaged a bit of pride with a season-ending victory over Maryland.
Michigan St Spartans 2026 Outlook
OFFENSE
2025 By The Numbers (Big Ten):
- Scoring: 24.6 PPG (#12)
- Total Offense: 345.5 YPG (#13)
- Rushing: 122.8 YPG (#15)
- Passing: 222.7 YPG (#10)
- Sacks Allowed: 37 (#17)
The THROW GAME showed a bit of spark last year but the Spartans had a devil of a time trying to run the football. In fact, Michigan St. hasn’t averaged 125 YPG rushing since the 2021 season. That’s gotta change, yo.
Sophomore Alessio Milivojevic appears to be first in line for the starting QB gig and he showed some moxie in his freshman campaign (64%, 10-3 TD to INT). Veteran Cam Fancher was brought in for depth purposes, at least we hope so. If the Spartans need to roll with Fancher (27-23 career TD to INT), it’ll be a long season according to our Michigan St. INSIDERS. The top-three weapons at WR/TE from last year have departed including ultra-talented Nick Marsh, and this year’s crop looks a bit underwhelming. Holdover Chrishon McCray is a decent piece to build around, but they’ll need one of their transfers to step up such as Frederick Moore (Michigan) or KK Smith (Notre Dame).
The Spartans essentially start fresh at RB and we love the addition of All-MEGALOCKS Team member Cam Edwards, who’s coming off a YUUUGE season with UConn (1,240, 5.9, 15 TD), and note that he’s rapidly approaching the 3,000-yard career rushing mark. There’s good depth behind him and we expect the Spartans to do a much better job on the ground, as long as the offensive line isn’t a complete disaster again. Speaking of which, there’s a massive overhaul taking place up front and while we’re pleased to see some talented pieces join the room, we’ll have to see how quickly they gel. It appears as though they’re good to go at center with Trent Fraley (North Dakota St) and left tackle Ben Murawski (UConn) manning the key spots.
DEFENSE
2025 By The Numbers (Big Ten):
- Scoring: 29.5 PPG (#15)
- Total Defense: 378.7 YPG (#14)
- Rushing Defense: 147.3 YPG (#13)
- Passing Defense: 231.3 YPG (#17)
- Sacks: 22 (#15)
Things were a mess on this side of the football as well last year, but at least new HC Pat Fitzgerald has some proven defensive chops.
The defensive line is going to need a lot of work based on the current depth chart. They’ve got some decent size on the interior, including the impossibly thick Ben Roberts (6-2, 335), but there don’t appear to be any natural pass rushers in the unit. One guy that might surprise is former Weber St DE Keahnist Thompson, who turned heads during the spring.
Things look better in the middle layer with the return of leading tackler LB Jordan Hall, and there are several talented additions that make this the strength of the defense. We’re particularly interested to see how physical specimen Caleb Wheatland (Auburn) performs in the same group as Hall. That has the potential to be a productive duo.
The biggest worry on defense is clearly the secondary as they need to find a new batch of starters, but as the saying goes, maybe that’s a good thing? Michigan St was ranked #117 in the country in pass efficiency defense last year (23-5 TD to INT), and they’ll need the new faces such as senior NB/safety Michael Richard (Louisiana Tech, 22 career starts) to deliver right away.
SPECIAL TEAMS
There’s a complete reload on special teams, and that would often be a red flag. That said, THIS JUST IN — the Spartans hired one of the best special teams coaches in the universe in LeVar Woods, who did remarkable work at Iowa.
Schedule Analysis
Overall – Sparty should be able to bag a win in non-conference action (Eastern Michigan), but the opener vs Toledo (H) isn’t a gimme, and forget about trying to be competitive at Notre Dame. The Big Ten slate is very fair as they miss Ohio St, Indiana, and USC, and they get to deal with Oregon and Washington at home in East Lansing.
Potential ATS Trouble Spot – at UCLA (Oct 24)
Michigan St has to travel all the way out to the communist empire of Los Angeles to face an improved UCLA team, and note that this will be the Spartans’ eighth consecutive week on the gridiron. The bye week is up next.
Season Win Total
Market consensus – July 18
Over 4.5 +130
Under 4.5 -160
MEGALOCKS says:
No leanage.
The roster needs a lot of work, but there are six or seven winnable games on the docket. We could only think about the under, but not at that number.
Note – Our official list of season win total investments will be posted in the blog section of the website.
MEGAmazing Tidbits
Before the modern JACKED-UP Sparty we know today, MSU’s mascot was a terrifying papier-mâché head with a permanent scowl. Many students commented that it looked like “a melted Roman soldier.” Of course, we had to use a picture of the monstrosity as the featured image for our preview. It just had to be done.
Pat Fitzgerald was let go after some nasty hazing activities were uncovered at Northwestern. In the university’s final statement on the matter, they acknowledged that extensive legal discovery did not establish that Fitzgerald condoned, directed, or was ever directly reported to about the hazing. It’s good to know that in the year 2026, we’ve moved past feeding freshmen to a pride of LIONS as part of their initiation. “Dude, he’s getting ripped apart. That’s hilarious!”
Michigan St is just 3-17 on the road since the start of the 2022 season.
MEGALOCKS Forecast:
Enough is enough.
Michigan St has had four losing seasons in a row, but they’ve made an excellent hire in our estimation by bringing Pat Fitzgerald to town. The fans have been patient with the mess of recent seasons, but hope is on the horizon. Unfortunately, the roster needs a lot of work and it definitely looks like another losing campaign for the Spartans — better things are to come in 2027 and beyond.
Go Green! Go White!