Michigan State football players discuss Caleb Gash’s explosive start to 2025

Michigan State football players discussed the breakout of special teams star Caleb Gash to start the 2025 season.

On Friday, Michigan State football got its season off to an explosive start. The opening kickoff of the season got returned by the Western Michigan Broncos, and redshirt sophomore defensive back Caleb Gash made sure that the return man regretted the decision.

Gash ran straight through the returner, delivering a punishing blow that got both his teammates and the crowd at Spartan Stadium fired up.

After a Spartan stop and then a touchdown on the opening drive of the season for the Michigan State offense, Gash delivered an encore on his second kickoff coverage of the game. That caused Michigan State alumni Matt Seybert to take to X (formerly Twitter), asking who wore the 15.

Alright who is 15, this dude is a psycho !!!

— Matt Seybert (@mattseybert82) August 29, 2025

Immediately after finding out, Seybert had seen enough. He was drafting Gash in the first round sheerly for kickoff coverage.

Caleb Gash, future first round draft pick strictly for kickoff coverage https://t.co/QxmvwyqUrG

— Matt Seybert (@mattseybert82) August 29, 2025

The responsibilities did not stop there for Gash, with him having a great block to help give Omari Kelly extra yards on a punt return. In a fitting manner, Gash’s block took the player he was blocking, himself, and Omari Kelly to the ground. After that play, it became apparent that Western’s special teams had put a target on No. 15, with the defensive back being hit by multiple guys each special teams rep.

Additionally, the Broncos did not return another kickoff the rest of the night.

Later in the week, Jonathan Smith named Gash a co-special teams player of the week. He shouted out his tone-setting abilities and other contributions on special teams.

“Setting the tone on kickoff, is actually on multiple phases, (this award is for) Caleb Gash,” Smith awarded, to a round of applause by his teammates.

Teammates discuss the “tone-setting” hit by the sophomore

Junior defensive end Jalen Thompson was asked about Gash’s play, and called it a “tone-setter” for the defense. The Spartan defense pitched a shutout on Friday night.

“Oh yeah, that motivated us. When we see stuff like that, you hear it, you see it, in film, in front of your face, it’s like ‘boom. Let’s go on defense,’ we are hyped up, got the whole defense jumping,” Thompson said. “It set the tone.”

Ryan Eckley talked about Gash’s big hit, and revealed his own history with the South Lyon product.

“Yeah, that’s my guy,” Eckley said. “I love Caleb. He’s a really fiery dude. He and I actually lived together about two years ago, him and Jay Coyne were two of my roommates. I was in there (the huddle) talking to them, getting them fired up, you know, it’s fun. I thought about putting some smelling salts in the helmet or something, getting them out there.”

Naturally, the follow-up became what Eckley told the defensive back before he landed those monster blows, and evidently, it was not very PG-friendly.

“I probably shouldn’t repeat it here,” Eckley said, inciting a round of laughter in the media room.