50 defining moments from the 2021 Michigan State football season: No. 42

Welcome to day 9 of this Michigan state football series. I’ve gone six days without mentioning a Kenneth Walker play, and it is time to break that streak.

Welcome back to day nine of the series. I’ve gone six days without mentioning a Kenneth Walker III play, and it is time to break that streak.

As mentioned yesterday, today’s play will also come from Michigan State’s homecoming game against Western Kentucky.

For those of you who missed yesterday’s article, please click here. If you would like to look at previous articles of this series, feel free to scroll through my writing profile.

No. 42: Kenneth Walker III’s 5-yard TD run vs. WKU

This play is also a five-yard touchdown scamper for Walker III from this game, not to be confused with moment No. 48.

Why No. 42?

This play occurred on the first Michigan State offensive drive of the game, as Jayden Reed left the offense on the sidelines, as I covered yesterday.

After Reed’s electric return, he provided another spark on this drive. This time, it was a 46-yard catch and run to flip the field after a Tyler Hunt penalty left the team in a second and long situation. Walker would quickly make sure that the defense remembered the Spartans’ potent running attack, running the ball into the end zone three plays later.

On this play, Walker simply made a cutback and had a free lane to run to the endzone, only needing to lower his shoulder and dive to break the plane. While not as dynamic as his touchdown covered a few days ago, this play was more impactful as it gave the Spartans a two-touchdown advantage early and made sure that the air raid offense of Western Kentucky would be forced to stay as a passing attack only.

To answer a question that might be posed, this play gets the nod ahead of Reed for a few reasons. To begin, this play showed the offense was up and running. A special teams spark does not always provide offense, as we have learned the hard way watching Michigan State football the last few years.

Secondly, this play occurred as part of K9’s 124-yard, three-touchdown homecoming night. Not only did this play act as part of Walker’s hat-trick, but it also was a very strong performance towards his campaign for the Doak Walker and Maxwell awards.

Statistically, this play was part of Walker’s dynamic season for the Spartans, being one of his 18 rushing touchdowns. This ranks in the top 10 in terms of all-time seasons for the Spartans. This was also one of his three games with three or more touchdowns with the Spartans, the others being Northwestern and Michigan.

If you want a hint for what tomorrow will bring, it will be very similar to today in terms of the player providing the moment.