An entirely new season begins on Saturday evening as Michigan State and Nebraska will face off to open conference play and both will be looking to make an early statement.
Matt Rhule has his Cornhuskers cruising at 3-0 with wins over Ohio, Bowling Green, and North Dakota while Pat Fitzgerald has Michigan State sitting at 2-1 after a tough loss to Notre Dame in South Bend. Both teams are exceeding expectations so far this season but it will all come to a head on Saturday evening when the 5.5-point favorite Cornhuskers head to East Lansing for the Big Ten opener.
Michigan State may be a home underdog, but they’re not going to back down to the nation’s No. 1-graded quarterback, per PFF, and an offense that has been putting up video game-like numbers so far. They stepped up to Notre Dame and were rewarded with some national respect.
Fitzgerald wasn’t happy with the performance, though, and we’ll see just how he gets things corrected in a week’s time.
If the Spartans do pull off the upset, these three guys are going to need to play well.
Ben Roberts, DL
Ben Roberts has been receiving some legit NFL draft buzz after a strong start to his senior year at Michigan State and he’s been one of the main reasons that the defense has bounced back from a disappointing 2025 season. He’s been healthy (knock on wood) and we’re beginning to see just how effective he is when he’s at full strength.
Although he’s accounted for just five tackles this season, he has been disruptive up the middle and he was incredibly effective against Notre Dame and that offensive line.
If the Spartans want to limit Jamal Rule and Anthony Colandrea, Roberts needs to be disruptive up the middle again and close running lanes while taking on several blockers.
Chrishon McCray, WR
Chrishon McCray has been limited in each of the past two weeks after catching eight passes for 69 yards in the season opener and that’s something that needs to change as Big Ten play begins.
McCray is supposed to be Michigan State’s WR1, but he has really struggled over the past couple of weeks. Granted, Alessio Milivojevic has missed him on a couple of wide-open shots down the field which would have been walk-in touchdowns, but it’d be nice to see McCray become a bigger part of the offense against the Cornhuskers.
Nebraska has one of the best passing defenses in the country through three weeks and it’ll be up to McCray to change that. He needs to have a game much more like Week 1 rather than Week 3.
Cam Edwards, RB
This may seem like kind of a cop-out pick because Cam Edwards is the star on offense and he’s obviously going to be the main player not named Alessio that’s going to be responsible for leading Michigan State to an upset win, but after a disappointing showing at Notre Dame, he really needs to step up and get back on track.
If Michigan State is going to pull off the upset on Saturday afternoon, Edwards is going to have to rush for over 100 yards and wear that Nebraska defense down for Milivojevic to air it out.
Edwards and the offensive line will play a massive role in the upset effort on Saturday evening.
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