Michigan State Holiday Wish List 2018: Wish No. 9 for Spartan fans

Michigan State’s 25 wishes list continues today and will run for the next week. What is the No. 9 wish for all Spartan fans?

Here is wish No. 9 on our Michigan State fan wish list as we count down to wish No. 1.

Wish No. 1

Raequan Williams wins the Outland Award for Outstanding Interior Lineman, Kenny Willekes wins the Ted Hendricks Award for Defensive End of the Year and Joe Bachie wins the Dick Butkus Award for Outstanding Linebacker.

To have the defensive lineman, linebacker and defensive end in the entire country for 2019 would make this defense not only better than the 2013 defense for the Michigan State Spartans but the best defense in the entire nation in 2019.

For those who are thinking this is impossible and a highly unusual aspiration, remember we are strictly talking about wishes, not predictions. The definition of a wish according to Merriam-Webster is, “to have a desire for (something, such as something unattainable)”.

Now that we are in the single-digit of our wishes countdown, expect these upcoming wishes to be much more grandeur and highly unattainable but not impossible to come true.

Once again, I highly emphasize as we head closer to Wish No. 1, expected the wishes to get much more better in terms of wanting more than actually expecting them to come true. Now, let’s explain how this wish has a chance, yes a slight chance of coming true.

Raequan Williams would be the second Michigan State defensive lineman to receive the honor. The last and only Spartan to win the Outland Award for Outstanding Interior Lineman was way back in 1949 when Ed Bagdon received the honor.

Joe Bachie as well if he were to win would be the second Spartan linebacker to receive the award. The last and only Michigan State player to win the Dick Butkus Award for Outstanding Linebacker was Percy Snow, who won the award in 1989. No Spartan has won the Ted Hendricks Award for Defensive End of the Year.

Kenny Willekes had two sacks each in games versus Utah State and Maryland, both Spartan victories. He had a dominant game against Ohio State with 13 total tackles. He had 8.5 sacks on the season and was a leader for this season’s Spartan defense.

Williams did not have monster stats this season but he was double teamed at times and him taking on two blockers allowed Michigan State’s back-seven to stuff the run thus making the Spartan’s run defense the best in the nation statistically. He had a big-time sack again Indiana and played well against Purdue and Ohio State with six total tackles each game.

Bachie had an amazing game against Utah State with a game-saving interception to go along with 11 total tackles that game. He followed it up the next game with a sack and 10 total tackles against Arizona State. He also had 10 total tackles against Michigan and a season-high 12 tackles in the Spartans win versus Rutgers.

All three of these Spartans are juniors and I put the probability of Wish No. 9 on our wish list of coming true at five percent. Even though defensive individual awards are not as prominent and popular as offensive honors. If all three were to somehow win these awards, it would cement this Michigan State defense as possibly the best ever.

It doesn’t mean that all three will automatically ascend to being the best defensive players that the Big Ten has ever seen, but they would make history. However, this wish happening next season may not be likely at all but it does have a chance of coming true.