2 Winners, 5 Losers From Michigan State Football Loss To Wisconsin

Michigan State football entered Camp Randall Stadium on Saturday looking to steal a victory to get momentum moving for the first year of the Pat Fitzgerald era.

The momentum was all against the Spartans, as they fell 31-3 in a game where they ultimately looked uncompetitive for the majority of the contest against Wisconsin.

With that, there were not many winners this week, and the loser category was filling up during the game.

Winners

K Liam Boyd

Boyd was called upon for the lone Spartan points of the afternoon, drilling a field goal in the final ten seconds of the first half to give the Spartans some momentum at the halftime break.

Boyd has been solid this season, with his misses coming from blocks.

CB Jeremiah Favorite

Favorite was called upon for his Spartan debut on Saturday, playing his first defensive snaps in front of a Homecoming Crowd in Wisconsin.

The corner had solid coverage and did not have the same struggles that Tre Bell had, with the true freshman replacing the veteran in the second quarter. Favorite did get his hands on a ball during a tip drill in his third snap, but could not corral it. Fitzgerald gave the freshman a shoutout after the game.

Losers

S Devin Vaught

It was another rough outing for Vaught during the Wisconsin matchup. He was on top of things in the run game, crashing down to make a play. However, a majority of Wisconsin’s nine completions saw Vaught out of position from biting on play action or lacking eye discipline.

The safety has struggled since Big Ten play began, in part from moving up from FCS school Maine.

DE Isaac Smith

Smith struggled heavily on Saturday, getting the start but making little impact. The second year Spartan could not generate much push, even when the Spartans managed to create pressure. On multiple passing downs, Smith would be locked with his man at the line of scrimmage while others were multiple yards into the backfield.

The Texas Tech transfer has done little to impress since his sack of CJ Carr in the Notre Dame matchup.

OT Ben Murawski

Murawski had another tough game on Saturday. The UConn transfer found himself getting beat in one-on-one matchups, giving Alessio Milivojevic pressure. The tackle was also renown for his run blocking with the Huskies, and the run game was held in check on Saturday, averaging less than three yards per carry.

QB Alessio Milivojevic

The Spartan quarterback struggled to get much going downfield, in part from his line and in part from his receivers. All three (himself, his line, and his pass catchers) split the blame here, but the end stat line of a sub-50 completion percentage and 103 yards is a brutal outing on 32 attempts.

Milivojevic has not had the season he wanted, and this last game saw the three passes go for over 10 yards even with yardage post-catch allowed. It was not a pretty game.

WR Fredrick Moore

It was a bad outing from the entire receiver corps, to be fair to Moore. However, Moore was target 12 times and only hauled in four catches for 23 yards. He had a catchable ball on fourth down that was not hauled in. The receiver has not had the same games that McCray and Bullard has had.

It has been a rough start to the season for Moore, and things do not look great for the receiver room currently. The starting three all have had issues with separation, and things could lead to a change in playing time if things remain the way they are.