Believe it or not, it’s officially game week for the Michigan State football program. Head coach Jonathan Smith will lead his Spartans in the 2025 season opener versus Western Michigan on Friday, Aug. 29. The game is scheduled for 7 p.m. Eastern Time at Spartan Stadium and can be watched on FS1. It’s been an […]
Believe it or not, it’s officially game week for the Michigan State football program. Head coach Jonathan Smith will lead his Spartans in the 2025 season opener versus Western Michigan on Friday, Aug. 29. The game is scheduled for 7 p.m. Eastern Time at Spartan Stadium and can be watched on FS1.
It’s been an eventful offseason for Michigan State, as the Spartans rebuilt their roster through the transfer portal and the 2025 recruiting class, and also return several key players as well. After the long process of strength and conditioning training, spring ball, fall camp and everything in between, the Spartans will finally have a chance to show off their hard work. Meanwhile, fans will get their first opportunity to see what this year’s MSU team looks like under the lights on Friday night.
“Always an exciting time of year to get started,” Smith said on Monday. “Obviously a lot of work starting in January, all the way back, months of trying to improve, right? Bigger, stronger, faster in the weight room, spring ball, summer, all of that.”
After seeing strong support at last week’s “Meet the Spartans” event, Smith is looking forward to playing in front of roughly 75,000 fans at Spartan Stadium on Friday night and is expecting a raucous crowd, especially in the student section.
“Counting on a record-sized student section this coming Friday to add to our energy and creating a home-field advantage and looking forward to that,” Smith said.
The Michigan State players, coaches and staff members are excited to get the 2025 regular season going and are focused on the Broncos.
“I know our guys are ready to to go out there with all the work they’ve put in,” Smith said.
Smith discussed several topics ahead of the season opener on Friday.
More on Michigan State’s captains
Last week, Smith announced five team captains for the 2025 season: junior quarterback Aidan Chiles, seventh-year senior defensive end Quindarius Dunnigan, sixth-year senior linebacker Sam Edwards, redshirt senior center Matt Gulbin and junior linebacker Jordan Hall.
These players were voted as captains by their teammates, but the coaches also would have likely picked the same group of Spartans, according to Smith.
“Really proud of those five guys that will represent us,” Smith said about the captains. “Again, team vote, the team comes up with this, and I actually did some on the side with the coaches, just kind of get their feel where they would place it, and they had the same top-five. So, that just confirmed to me that Jordan Hall, Aidan Chiles, Matt Gulbin, Quindarius Dunnigan and Sam Edwards were the right choices for that.”
Of the group of captains, one name that may somewhat surprise fans is Edwards. The sixth-year senior linebacker has primarily played on special teams in his 29 career appearances. However, he is a team leader and it is evident that his teammates look up to him and gravitate toward him.
In fact, Smith noted the Edwards received more captain votes from his teammates than any other Spartan.
“I was really happy for him, proud of him, and I was glad because I do think, you talk about a kind of a glue guy for the whole operation,” Smith said about Edwards. “(He) can do multiple things, special teams-wise, but selfless. You should see the looks he gives out at practice. He could go out there in the game and function fine on defense, but (he’s) just got some guys in front of him. His influence within the locker room is real and that’s why he was the top vote-getter we had on the team.”
In addition to the five season-long captains, the Spartans will have an honorary captain each week, which is something Smith believes is important.
“We will do an honorary captain weekly,” Smith explained. “I’ve always believed in that in regards to, we’ve got a lot of guys that got votes (for captain spots), felt like they had influence or leadership on the team, things take place during the year, guys are doing great things, and we will continue to have that. You’ll find out later in the week on who that is for this week.”
A closer look at Western Michigan
Western Michigan is coached by Lance Taylor, who is in third season as the head man in Kalamazoo. The Broncos are coming off of a 6-7 season in 2024, which included an appearance in the Salute to Veterans Bowl (a loss to South Alabama).
Smith had a lot of praise for Taylor and the Western Michigan program.
“We’ve got a lot of respect for our first opponent,” Smith noted. “I mean, Western Michigan coming in here, Coach Taylor does a nice job. You look at his background … in his third year, got that team playing physical and tough.”
Western Michigan returns Taylor and offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Walt Bell, but has a new defensive coordinator and safeties coach in 2025 with the addition of Chris O’Leary to the staff. Of course, the Spartans have been grinding in the film room and watching tape of the Broncos from last season, as well as looking into what to expect from the newcomers on the team.
“Obviously, we’ve been digesting all of their last season, what that thing looks like,” Smith said about the Broncos. “We can go all the way to their first game last year at Wisconsin, went toe-to-toe, and so we’ve got a bunch of respect for them. (They’ve got) a big-time (running) back who can carry the ball against anybody. Offensively, (they) can make it physical. Defensively, there’s a little bit unknown with what that is exactly going to look like schematically, but I know those players play hard and play sound football.”
It’s unclear if Smith was referring to Michigan transfer running back Cole Cabana when he mentioned a “big-time (running) back,” but Taylor said on Monday that Cabana will miss Friday’s game versus Michigan State due to injury.
As for quarterback, Taylor announced on Monday that the Broncos will play both Broc Lowry and Brady Jones at the position on Friday against the Spartans.
Lowry transferred to Western Michigan ahead of the 2024 season after spending 2023 at Indiana. He played in 11 games for the Broncos last season, and recorded 21 passing yards, 133 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns. Jones, meanwhile, jumps up to the FBS level after spending two seasons at Riverside Community College in California. He threw for 4,456 yards and 44 touchdowns in 2024. He also broke the Riverside single-game record for passing yards in a game with 529 yards.
Since it was unknown going into the week of who WMU would start at quarterback, Smith noted that the Spartans have been preparing to play signal-callers.
“Preparing for both,” Smith said about Western Michigan’s quarterbacks. “We can look at junior college tape (for Jones) and we’ve done some of that. Obviously, there’s a little bit of tape of the other one (Lowry), and competition, so we’re trying to be prepared for both. Just, again, evaluating. I think both of them have unique skill sets. One of them may be a little bit more physical, athletic, can run (Lowry). The other one’s thrown the ball for thousands of yards (Jones), so we’re preparing for both.”
Additionally, Smith mentioned that having to prepare for a season opener in 2025 when your opponent now has multiple transfers that weren’t with the team last year is challenging and “quite a bit different” than it was perhaps even four or five years ago. He noted that the staff has had to track down film from Western Michigan players at their previous stops and study their tendencies. However, he also noted that Western Michigan will be in a similar boat trying to scout Michigan State because of all of the newcomers in East Lansing as well.
Injury updates:
On Monday, Smith also provided a few updates on where the Spartans stand regarding team health.
Smith previously mentioned that starting safety Nikai Martinez, a senior, was potentially in danger of missing the season-opening game of 2025 versus Western Michigan after missing the majority of fall camp due to an undisclosed injury. Martinez was able to get some practice time in on Monday, but will still be a game-time decision.
Meanwhile, the situation at kicker is tricky. As the Spartans look to replace Jonathan Kim, who exhausted his eligibility after the 2024 campaign, redshirt freshman Martin Connington is out for the Western Michigan game and potentially longer. Similar to Martinez, redshirt sophomore kicker Tarik Ahmetbasic will be a game-time call. If Ahmetbasic is out, redshirt senior Blake Sislo, a walk-on addition this season, will handle placekicking duties against WMU.
Sticking with special teams, Smith also noted that redshirt senior long snapper Kaden Schickel has been limited in fall camp after recovering from a season-ending injury in 2024. Schickel’s status for Friday is also uncertain. If he is unable to play, true freshman walk-on long snapper Jack Wills will enter the lineup. Smith feels Wills is ready for the challenge if he is needed.
In better news for the Spartans, starting tight end Jack Velling, a senior, is on track to play on Friday night versus the Broncos.
“I think Nikai will be a game-time decision,” Smith said about Martinez. “(He) actually took a few reps today, but that’ll be a game-time call on (Martinez). Tarik (Ahmetbasic’s) in that same boat in regards to a game-time decision. (He) hadn’t been able to do much last week. Toward the end of week, (he practiced) some. We’ll kind of see where that lands with (Ahmetbasic). Just kind of on the maybe larger name, Jack Velling’s looked fine the last, call it, week. (Velling) practiced today. (We) anticipate him being able to to go out there and go (against Western Michigan).
Smith noted that obviously the Spartans won’t put the injured kickers out there if they’re not healthy and can’t execute a kick, and that the staff is being cautious with the kickers throughout the practice week. However, if it comes down to it, Smith has a lot of confidence is Sislo if he needs to enter the game.
“To be honest with you, Blake has been solid through camp,” Smith said about Sislo. “I think statistically, his numbers, we were talking about it, are similar to the way we were kicking field goals statistically last camp with (Jonathan) Kim and all of that. So, we’ve got some confidence in him. And so, if there comes to a field goal made, if Tarik (Ahmetbasic’s) good to go, we’ll find out on Friday night, if not, Blake can bang it through.”
With that in mind, Smith did say the questions at kicker could influence some of the decision-making on fourth downs near or in the red zone.
Category: General Sports
