50 defining moments from the 2021 Michigan State football season: No. 28

With four weeks until the Michigan State football season opens, why not a touchdown against Michigan? There are five Kenneth Walker options from that game.

Welcome back to the 23rd volume of my Michigan State football series. Today marks exactly four weeks until the Spartans play Western Michigan to open their season. Looking back at 2021, why not a dynamic play against another in-state opponent? Kenneth Walker III carried the team against Michigan in 2021, and his shortest touchdown of the day gets highlighted today.

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. 28: Kenneth Walker’s 1-yard TD run vs. Michigan

This was Walker’s third touchdown of the day, his only occurring in the third quarter.

Why No. 28?

This play came immediately after a dynamic fourth down conversion that will get its own article later in this series. Payton Thorne hurried the offense to the goal line and Walker did just enough to cross the plane and score his third touchdown and cut the Michigan lead to 10, pending a two-point attempt. Walker barely broke the plane and Michigan fans used the call of a touchdown as part of their claim of the referees being against them.

Walker was the deciding factor against the College Football Playoff semi-finalists, as he ran all over the Wolverines. After a few early Thorne turnovers, it was obvious that the Michigan secondary held an advantage over the Spartans’ play-calling. Jay Johnson acted accordingly and set up Walker for success, letting K9 pick his way through the vaunted Michigan front-seven.

When watching this game, it is impossible to think that Walker should not have had an invite to New York. Despite running against an Aidan Hutchinson-anchored Michigan line, Walker left Aidan Hutchinson in the dust multiple times.

At this point, Michigan led 30-14 and appeared to be on cruise to put away the Spartans. Mike Sainristil was posing like the Paul Bunyan trophy in the Spartan endzone, and then the Spartan offense came alive. This play, while not a long touchdown run or a “wow” play, brought Michigan State football back into the game. The Spartans were not going to roll over for the Wolverines to beat, they punched back and would gain the upper hand for the rest of the game.

With all the information about this play, you might wonder how I can think of 27 plays better than it from this season. For that, I would like to point out the same facts of the situation. The Spartans were down by 16 points, with multiple stops and a whole quarter of play left. They needed this touchdown, but it was not a dynamic play, just a small dive to gain the final three feet before the goal line. Additionally, the fourth down conversion that set this play up is remembered much more than that of this small touchdown run.

This the first play against Michigan that gets highlighted in my series. Looking at my remaining list, it gets a lot more dynamic and exciting, as you will see in the upcoming weeks.

Statistically, this was Walker’s third of five touchdowns on the day. It was his shortest, being from only one yard. This play was part of the most rushing touchdowns in a single game against the Wolverines, as well as being the second most in a Spartan game.

Tomorrow, we come back to another rival. While not as hated as the Wolverines, is there anyone who dislikes the Land Grant Trophy? Or at least winning the matchup?