Did Michigan State football turn a corner against Wisconsin?

Folks, Michigan State football won a game. It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t easy, but it’s a win.

The Spartans took down a struggling Wisconsin team after trailing for most of the first three quarters. Payton Thorne, Jayden Reed, Keon Coleman and the offense came to life in the fourth quarter and overtime to pick up a monster win and improve to 3-4 on the year.

No one expected to be 3-4 through seven games, but we also expected too much. After an 11-2 campaign and after losing the best player on the team and arguably the best in college football in the offseason, expectations should have been tempered. I did think the Spartans would take a step back to maybe 8-9 wins, but I didn’t think they would struggle to make a bowl.

But that’s just the reality right now.

Michigan State is not a good team this year and clearly the portal additions haven’t lived up to the expectations we all placed upon them and Mel Tucker is still working on improving the roster so this is just a big lump in the process of a rebuild.

But hey, Michigan State just won a game. Are the Spartans back?

Did Michigan State football turn a corner against Wisconsin?

This question has begged to be answered since last Saturday. Michigan State ended a four-game losing streak and finally got back into the win column against Wisconsin who was ranked to start the year as well and has also struggled. The Badgers were supposed to win the Big Ten West but that hasn’t panned out.

Michigan State proved to be the better team, however, and the Spartans looked like the team we expected at the beginning of the year in the fourth quarter and overtime.

The offense moved the ball, scored at will, and keyed in on the advantages it had: Reed and Coleman against whatever defensive back was covering them.

Reed and Thorne finally being healthy helped the offense. Those two looked like they were back to their old 2021 selves and the defense improved drastically against the Badgers. Heck, Xavier Henderson’s return was huge for the secondary and Jacob Slade’s presence on the line was also massive.

This could have been the confidence-booster this team needed to get back on track.

Did the Spartans turn a corner? It sure looked like it in the second half and overtime. We’ll see how this team builds on that in an emotional rivalry game against Michigan.