Michigan State football game score: Aidan Chiles and the Spartans scored on three of their first four possessions with a solid mix of pass and rush.
EAST LANSING — Consider this a checklist start for Michigan State football.
Want to see if the blocking improved to boost the run game? Check.
Need to see if Aidan Chiles can take the next step in his development? Check.
Could the defense show progress and tenacity? Check. And then some.
Sure, the opponent was Western Michigan and the teeth of the schedule begins next week against Boston College. But the Spartans gave Jonathan Smith and his second-year staff plenty of what they asked for in 23-6 win on Friday, Aug. 29, at Spartan Stadium.
MSU’s defense was a pick-six from backup quarterback Alessio Milivojevic away from its first shutout of an FBS-level team since a 52-0 win over Akron on Sept. 10, 2022. (Michigan State shut out FCS-level Prairie View A&M, 40-0, on Sept. 14, 2024.) The Spartans haven’t had a shutout in a season opener since 1989.
Chiles finished 17-for-23 for 155 yards and a TD, while running back Makhi Frazier ran 14 times for 103 yards and a score and fellow sophomore Brandon Tullis added 52 yards and a touchdown on seven attempts. The Spartans totaled 336 yards, including 181 on the ground after three kneel-downs to end the game.
Western Michigan seventh-year defensive back Tate Hallock, who spent his first four years at MSU, returned Milivojevic’s interception 32 yards for a TD with 2:51 to play for the Broncos’ only score.
The next test will be much tougher: A Power Four opponent, as MSU hosts the Eagles on Saturday, Sept. 6 (7:30 p.m., NBC). The Spartans lost at Boston College last year, 23-19, when they gave up a touchdown with 88 seconds to play. That ultimately cost Smith a bowl berth in his debut, and it is a game his players – especially Chiles – have eyed all offseason.
But for a season opener, MSU did exactly what it needed to do from the outset and played through the first-game hiccups along the way.
Fine line
Offensive line coach Jim Michalczik took a two-by-two approach to rotating his offensive linemen. It included a surprise starter, Western Carolina transfer Caleb Carter, and a surprising omission, Oregon State transfer Luka Vincic.
The Spartans used Carter at right guard and fellow transfer Conner Moore at right tackle in the opening lineup, opposite returning starters Stanton Ramil at left tackle and Gavin Broscious at left guard. Matt Gulbin, another transfer, was at center.
Gulbin was the only offensive lineman to remain static and not get replaced. Michalczik moved them around in pairs throughout, flipping the Moore-Carter tandem to the left side when bringing in Kristian Phillips at right guard and Ashton Lepo at right tackle. Then he brought back the Ramil-Broscious paring on the left side opposite Phillips and Lepo.
The first two results were stellar. MSU’s starters marched 74 yards – 57 of them on the ground – in 10 plays on the 5-minute, 42-second opening drive, capped by a 12-yard Tullis touchdown run. The second group did more of the same, this time allowing Chiles to use his arm and connecting on a 7-yard score to Nick Marsh to cap a 10-play, 75-yard drive in 5:59. The Spartans had 49 passing yards on that possession and totaled 67 yards on the ground and 66 through the air in going up 14-0.
The offense sputtered some after that, but the starters put together a third scoring drive just before halftime. MSU went 54 yards, thanks to Chiles ripping off a 32-yard run on third-and-2 to get to the WMU 3, with Frazier finishing it from there with 1:50 before break. The Spartans carried a 21-0 lead into the locker room and had 205 yards at halftime while not commiting a penalty.
It wasn’t perfect, though, as Chiles got sacked twice and hurried a few other times despite going 11-for-13 for 75 yards in the first half. Chiles was sharp and moving the ball in the fourth quarter, getting MSU deep into WMU territory again. But a second false start up front was followed by a free-blitzer sack, and Chiles fumbled the ball away. The Broncos had four sacks.
Defense shines
The defense did the rest and got plenty of balance from players while rotating at all four spots in the trenches.
Though new starting cornerback Josh Eaton gave up a 35-yard pass from Brady Jones to Talique Williams on the Broncos’ first play, the Spartans squelched that drive at the MSU 26 with a pass breakup by nickel back Ade Willie. They forced WMU to punt on their next four possessions, and linebacker Wayne Matthews III picked off a pass with 10 seconds left in the half to set the offense up deep in Broncos territory.
The Spartans allowed just 89 yards in the first half, 57 of them on WMU’s first drive.
Special effort
With kickers Tarik Ahmetbasic and Martin Connington out with undisclosed injuries, MSU turned to Blake Sislo – who never got game action in three years at Division II Davenport and was out of football last year – to handle the extra-point attempts. The fifth-year senior from Dexter was perfect on his three extra-point attempts.
But punter Ryan Eckley was brought on to handle field-goal kicking, missing from 46 yards out as time expired in the second quarter after Matthews’ interception. Eckley also pinned the Broncos inside the 20 three times, once at their own 2-yard line and once at their 1.
Contact Chris Solari: [email protected]. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: MSU game score: Aidan Chiles, RBs run Spartans past WMU, 23-6
Category: General Sports
