Michigan State Football: Positional grades for Youngstown State win

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Michigan State linebacker Cal Haladay (27) triers to stop Youngstown State running back Jaleel McLaughlin (8) during the first half at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing on Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021. /

Linebackers: B

We saw a new linebacker step up last week and earn a starting job in Cal Haladay and another did this week in Jeff Pietrowski. Both played well against Youngstown State on Saturday.

Overall, this group was solid but not quite great as it struggled on third and fourth downs for the second straight week and there were still too many missed tackles.

Haladay got the surprise start again, finishing with seven tackles and a 0.5 tackles for loss along with a quarterback hurry. He looks like a budding star at linebacker and a pleasant surprise for Michigan State and Scottie Hazelton this season.

Quavaris Crouch was second on the team with seven tackles and a quarterback hurry as well, but I’d like to see more from him in terms of plays in the backfield. I think he has the potential to be an All-Big Ten linebacker, but he’s been quiet thus far.

Pietrowski had four tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, and a sack as he looked like a guy who could be in that regular rotation moving forward.

Chase Kline, Noah Harvey, and Ben VanSumeren also played well and we had a Ma’a Gaoteote sighting as well.

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