Michigan State football: Freshman DE garners praise in first start

On Saturday, in the footnotes of a 38-13 drubbing to UCLA, you will find a designation that four Spartans received their first career start with Michigan State football. For two of those players, it was their first ever start since their senior year of high school. For Michigan State defensive end Kekai Burnett, it came after 17 games with the program, where he only saw the field for all of five snaps as a true freshman.

Six games later, Burnett entered the starting lineup for the first time in place of an injured Jalen Thompson. With Thompson still nursing an injury, Burnett may be called upon this week. So far, the Hawaiian has shown flashes. Against USC, he provided a spark when defensive coordinator Joe Rossi threw in a flurry of substitutions to try to thwart the Trojans.

Kekai Burnett attracting praise from Michigan State football captain Quindarius Dunnigan

Burnett played in 21 defensive snaps in 2024 before last Saturday, but then blew that mark out of the water with his 32 snaps in the Homecoming contest alone. That was tied for third best among defensive linemen, with Alex VanSumeren and Ru’Quan Buckley beating that mark on the interior. Burnett finished the game tying his career high with two tackles on the day.

Burnett got the surprise start over Quindarius Dunnigan. Dunnigan is a team captain and seventh-year senior, who also started the season-opening Western Michigan contest over Thompson. The UCLA contest was no honorary start, either, with Burnett playing in nine more snaps than the MTSU transfer.

That said, Dunnigan had plenty of praise for the young player when speaking to the media on Wednesday. He talked about Burnett’s development from when he started with Michigan State football, and what is different for the second-year freshman now. Dunnigan also took the time to re-iterate his belief in the Spartans’ strength in numbers.

“Kekai, man, well first off, the first thing I saw when he came up here (to MSU) was that he could bend the edge, he could rush the passer,” Dunnigan said. “He had really (good) athletic ability, he’s grown so much mentally, though. Like it’s gotten to the point where we’re in indy (individual) drills and he’s talking about the different techniques himself.

“I’m extremely proud of Kekai, that he was able to pull through. Like we said, we have strength in numbers. We truly believe that, especially in the d-line room, any given person can play any given Saturday, and Kekai proved it.”