Michigan State football: Stock Watch after Nebraska

Michigan State football was back after their bye week on Saturday. To start the game, it appeared that MSU was still on vacation, falling behind 14-0 with three special teams gaffes before the game was seven minutes old. However, the Spartans went and battled back, but then Nebraska finished strong.

Michigan State football fell 38-27 at Memorial Stadium. Who helped their stock and who hurt it on Saturday?

Stock Up: QB Alessio Milivojevic

Milivojevic more than doubled his career snaps on Saturday, being called upon after Aidan Chiles needed to check in to the injury tent in the first quarter. The redshirt freshman stepped up, completing his first two career passes, including a touchdown to Jack Velling for the quarterback’s first touchdown (to the correct team).

Milivojevic was called upon in the fourth quarter, too, after Chiles took another sack and the Spartans trailed by 17 in the final four minutes. The St. Francis (IL.) product responded with impressive accuracy and placement, alongside movement in the pocket. He threw some of the prettiest balls of the day, fitting in a seam to Velling, and a wheel route to Brandon Tullis. The quarterback finished the drive with his first rushing touchdown, a sneak.

Overall, he showed the world the quarterback that his teammates have been telling the media since this summer. He was nearly perfect on the day, going 6-of-7 for 71 yards.

Stock Down: RT Ashton Lepo

Ashton Lepo, the fulltime right tackle starter for Michigan State football in the 2024 season, got his first start of the season. It did not go well. Lepo gave up numerous pressures, including a sack that knocked Chiles out of the game in the first quarter.

Lepo put up the worst graded PFF performance of the year on offense for any player that had played ten snaps. It was brutal. This Nebraska team was not the Purple People Eaters, either. Their starting edges had less than 15 pressures on the year before the game began, combined. On Saturday, the edges had three sacks and nine pressures.

The redshirt junior also added a fifteen-yard penalty for an illegal blindside block on a rushing play, too.

Stock Up: EDGE Jalen Thompson

Jalen Thompson was able to finally get home on Saturday. After an early pressure against USC, the junior could not finish the job.

The Nebraska game was different. Thompson got home on a third down fumbled snap, but was not credited with a sack, with the play being scored a team rush. He took that personally, getting another sack in the second half that counted.

Stock Down: LT Conner Moore

Moore had his first FBS start at left tackle on Saturday. Much like Lepo’s play, it was a tough watch. Despite cutting his teeth at left tackle at Montana State, Moore has appeared off whenever tasked with left tackle duties at Michigan State.

The Cornhuskers beat Moore for a fourth down sack on Aidan Chiles that turned into six points, and effectively ended any hope of a Spartan victory.

Stock Up: TE Jack Velling

Velling did all of his damage with Milivojevic slinging the ball. The senior tight end looked like the player the Spartans were promised when landing him out of the portal in December 2023.

Velling caught Milivojevic’s first career touchdown pass, and that touchdown ensured that the tight end doubled his 2024 touchdown output by the fifth game of the 2025 season. In the fourth quarter drive, he worked himself open on a quarterback scramble drill, then had a fearless catch on a seam route. He finished with three catches for 37 yards.

Stock Down: Offensive Staff

This was a tough look on Michigan State football and their play calls. In a windy game (I would know, with pre-game field access), the deep shot “chuck and duck” strategy was not the move. Combine that with the starting tackle disaster, and the offense was atrocious.

Jonathan Smith was unaware of how bad the tackle situation looked during the game, but with the amount of staff these schools have, would the natural question be, “can someone grab a headset and tell Smith a player is not cutting it?”

From the press box and the TV broadcast, it was clear that Michigan State football was in trouble with their tackle situation in the first quarter. While I think I know some ball, the staff definitely saw much, much more than me, but made no move to switch.

Nebraska had one of the top ranked passing defenses in the country entering the game, and the staff only taking deep shots was questionable. Granted, some of that came from Aidan Chiles panicking in the pocket. Wait, that was caused by the tackle play. Once again, an offensive staff issue.

Stock Down: Special Teams

Another tough watch for the Spartans was special teams play on Saturday. The Spartans had a punt blocked for a touchdown, two false starts on punts, and allowed multiple big returns, with a touchdown return being whistled back. On their own kickoff return, two upperclassmen failed to communicate a fair catch and had a turnover.

All around, it was a disaster. Jack Wills had his “freshman moment” at the worst time, and the Spartan specialists were out schemed. Ryan Eckley had an injury scare after the blocked punt, but appeared fine during the rest of his punts throughout the game.

This was a disasterclass to the likes of a Ross Els game under Mel Tucker.

Stock Up: LB Jordan Hall

Hall was back after his controversial targeting call against USC, and the junior made his impact immediately. The Virginia native was blowing up plays, taking out blocks, and recorded the first interception of his career in the third quarter, picking off Dylan Raiola.

Post-game, the junior admitted he did not even see Raiola during the play, but recognized the route concept and was able to locate the ball coming directly for him. He also admitted that, after four interceptions in practice last week, getting one in the game felt quite rewarding.

Stock Down: QB Aidan Chiles

This one is hard to write. The box score says Chiles performed terribly, but it does not tell the story. The quarterback was hit hard from bad blocks, and was never quite right after the sack allowed by Lepo knocked Chiles out of the game for the first time.

The rest of the game after that hit, there were less than three on target passes thrown. However, Chiles recognized his own limitation in the third quarter, and put the team on his back with two rushing touchdowns, including a beautiful 16-yarder on fourth and four.

However, with a 2024-esque blocking effort in front of him, Chiles looked like 2024 AC2, and threw two interceptions and went 9-for-23 on the day passing, with under 90 yards.

Well, it got quite negative at the end there. The Spartans have a chance to rally on Saturday, hosting UCLA. The game will kick at noon EST.