Michigan State Football: Kenny Willekes return bad news for Big Ten

Another major piece to Michigan State football’s 2019 Big Ten title puzzle returns as Kenny Willekes announced he’ll be back for his senior year.

A few years ago, Kenny Willekes even entertaining the idea of forgoing his senior season to enter the NFL draft would have been laughable. He was a lightly-recruited walk-on who was a relative nobody on the Michigan State roster.

Now, he’s an All-American and despite breaking his leg against Oregon in the Redbox Bowl, had the option to turn pro and pass up on a senior campaign with the Spartans.

Like Raequan Williams and Joe Bachie also decided to do, Willekes announced he’d be back for his senior year at Michigan State after winning the Big Ten Defensive Lineman of the Year award.

This is great news for all MSU fans and awful for the rest of the Big Ten as he dominated opposing offensive tackles all season long and tormented quarterbacks. He was a nightmare for the conference and has been for two years.

Willekes finished with a career year, posting 78 tackles, 20.5 for loss and eight sacks along with an interception and four pass deflections. He was a menace on the defensive line and returns to a unit that got better throughout the season and could be the best in the conference in 2019.

In his return letter to Spartan fans, he stated that he wanted another shot to return to the Big Ten title game with his teammates. It’s that type of attitude that could make the Spartans scary in 2019 — and not just on defense.

Michigan State now has an all-everything defense returning, led by Willekes, Williams and Bachie and are only losing Justin Layne, Andrew Dowell and Khari Willis. The 2019 season could be special.