Michigan State Football: Grading the Spartans in non-conference play

Sep 12, 2015; East Lansing, MI, USA; Michigan State Spartans linebacker Darien Harris (45) gestures to the crowd between plays during the 1st half of a game at Spartan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mike Carter-USA TODAY Sports

Linebackers: A

This was expected to be a big year for a faster and linebacking unit that finally found its leader. Then, Ed Davis went down with a season-ending knee injury. Davis was expected to have a big year and catapult himself onto the national scene. Of course, that injury ended all of that and put a huge question mark of who would fill that spot.

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Jon Reschke and Chris Frey have stepped in nicely. Reschke has been able to make the switch quite nicely from inside linebacker to playing in space on the outside. Frey is a blitzing force on third down, able to quickly get downhill and cause havoc in the backfield.

Riley Bullough has been a revelation since winning the middle linebacker job. A lot is expected when you have that last name and play that position for Michigan State and Riley has been better, and then some. He has 3.0 sacks and 46 total tackles on the year, all while missing the first half of the Central Michigan game. He is the leader in the middle that the Spartans need.

Darien Harris stated in the offseason that he had lost weight in order to put on speed and was expecting to play more and think less. It has shown this season, as the mistakes that were made last year when patrolling the flat have been eliminated, his best game coming against Oregon where he had 12 tackles.

Next: Secondary