Nick Marsh took Boston College matchup personally after missing 2024 game

Michigan State receiver Nick Marsh took the Boston College matchup on Saturday personally after missing it in 2024.

During Saturday’s double overtime win for Michigan State football, wide receiver Nick Marsh recorded his first multi-career touchdown game. Through two games, Marsh has already tied his 2024 season total of three touchdowns, but those three came in 11 games last year.

The energy is different with this program, and Marsh was quick to note that this year. This 2025 team is more committed to the program and each other, and it showed with the gritty 42-40 victory.

“It is a different team. It is not the same team as last year,” Marsh said. “I feel like Coach Smith has this saying, ‘the more committed we are, the more connected we become.’ This year, we have been so committed to winning and becoming a team, and it’s shown.”

One of the biggest differences in this year’s matchup against the Eagles was that Marsh actually got to play. Last year, he missed the contest with a leg injury. He was fully healthy on Saturday, and made it his mission to show BC what they missed last year. The sophomore took this game personally. The Eagles de-railed the season last year, and that would not happen again.

“My whole thought process going into the game was that they didn’t have a taste of Nick Marsh,” Marsh revealed. “So I was ready. I felt like we had a pretty decent season leading up to last year(‘s game against the Eagles), we had a three-game win streak. It was real personal. I felt like that was the downfall of our season last year. I took it personal. I felt like we were on a streak, and I wasn’t going to let that get in the way this time.”

The win was gritty, especially with quarterback Aidan Chiles suffering an injury right before overtime. Not even Marsh knew if the star quarterback would be back for the extra football. That said, if Chiles was ready, so was his second-year receiver.

“To be honest, I didn’t know if he was coming back or not,” Marsh admitted. “The other team scored, I see him get back out of his chair, and I said, ‘oh, (expletive). It’s time to go.’ If he’s ready to go, I’m ready to go.”

Chiles found Marsh twice in the endzone (or dragging players into it) during the game among his four touchdown passes, and part of that was from the receiver’s demand at halftime.

“I had a conversation with coach,” the sophomore told the media. “I felt like there was a lot of man (coverage). I felt like they couldn’t guard me. So I told coach when we got to the locker room, I’m like, ‘look coach, let’s take a shot.’ And he trusted me with that, we got back out there, took a shot.”

The River Rouge product did admit that his request was much more of a demand, too.

“It was a little more demanding, actually,” Marsh expanded. “I told him, ‘coach, I got one-one-one coverage. Give me the damn ball.’”

In overtime, Marsh admitted being the receiver to come down with the two-point play would be nice, but he was just ready for the Spartans to end the contest. He trusted his teammates and was just ready to celebrate the victory.

“Did I want to personally score? You know, (expletive) the ball has to get in my hands then,” Marsh answered. “I trust my teammates, we practice it a lot, for execution. Once we got in that huddle, I told Aidan, ‘take us home,’ I was tired. I’m like ‘Aidan, I’m ready to go home, man, take us home.’”

The team fought their own adversity, and came out victorious. This game was starred for a reason for the Spartans, and Marsh said it reveals the character of the team.

“This game, for us, is very important,” Marsh agreed. “It tested our brotherhood, our strength as a team, it tested how can we handle adversity. Going into overtime, going into double overtime, just keep fighting, keep straining. That shows a lot about us.”

One set of challenges the team had to face was winning the second half, something the program had not done against an FBS squad in Smith’s 12 prior opportunities. That said, there was no panic in the locker room, everyone was ready to go out there, execute, and win the new game in the second half.

“Erase the first half,” Marsh said of the locker room discussion. “We had a pretty decent first half, didn’t finish as strong as we wanted to, so the conversation when we got back to the locker room was ‘let’s go back out here. The score is 0-0.’”