Here we are, the Thursday before Friday's Michigan State football season opener, and excitement is in the air. This feels like Christmas Eve. The Spartans are preparing for another important season and second-year head coach Jonathan Smith is looking to deliver a gift to Michigan State fans that they haven't seen in three-plus years: a bowl berth.
But with every season, there's just as much pessimism as there is excitement.
There are some concerns surrounding Michigan State heading into the season, especially after falling apart down the stretch of the 2024 season, going just 1-4 in the final five games after a 4-3 start.
The team has a lot of work to do to prove that it belongs in the postseason, but not everything is sunshine and roses.
What are the biggest concerns for the Spartans entering the 2025 campaign?
1. The run game
To me, this is a massive conern.
The Spartans lose Nat Carter and Kay'Ron Lynch-Adams from a backfield that didn't even produce that much, but that was mostly because the offensive line struggled. Still, one of those backs made an NFL roster this preseason, and yet Michigan State didn't have a pulse in the run game last year.
Now, Michigan State has more uncertainty with two second-year backs leading the way in Makhi Frazier and Brandon Tullis, and a transfer from Sacramento State that we haven't heard much about.
This team needs a solid run game to take pressure off Aidan Chiles, but I'm starting to worry that the lack of experience at the FBS level is going to bite them.
2. The defensive backfield
For years, the weakness of Michigan State's roster has been the defensive backfield. The depth has improved drastically this year, but just because there are more options doesn't mean it's quality depth. That remains to be seen.
Michigan State has some dudes in the defensive backfield like Nikai Martinez, Joshua Eaton, Justin Denson Jr., Armorion Smith, Chance Rucker, and Malik Spencer, but is there enough proven experience surrounding them that will allow them to be great? These guys are all solid, but will they be good enough to turn the defensive backfield around after some major changes this past offseason (losing Charles Brantley and Demetrice Martin)?
I'm not so sure. I'm slightly worried about this group.
3. The kicking game
Michigan State is already down two kickers ahead of the first game, and while that's not the end of the world, if that's something that carries over into Big Ten play, it can become a major issue.
Games can be won and lost on special teams, and Michigan State fans have seen that firsthand over the years (don't even try to bring up the missed chip-shot field goal vs. Indiana in 2022). So if the Spartans are relying on a third-string kicker who has zero FBS experience, that could be a problem.
Smith said that Tarik Ahmetbasic is a game-time decision and Martin Connington will be out a couple of weeks, but he said Blake Sislo has been solid in fall camp. Does that make me feel better about going from Jonathan Kim to a third-string kicker? Absoluely not.