Four games into the season, Michigan State head coach Jonathan Smith is faced with a tough decision: to redshirt or not to redshirt?
As you probably know, the NCAA rule permits freshmen to play in four games and still retain a redshirt, but the limit is four. If a freshman plays five games, that redshirt is automatically burned unless there’s an injury that would require a medical redshirt application.
It looks like Smith has made that decision before the fifth game of the season, and three or four guys will likely burn their redshirts this year.
According to Smith, Aydan West, Jack Wills, and Jayden Savoury will all likely play the remainder of the season, burning their redshirts. Derrick Simmons is a maybe, the staff is deciding his immediate future in the next few games.
Jonathan Smith: "Aydan West and Jack Wills, they are going. Savoury, we had thorough conversations, we plan on having him go. Simmons, we had conversations, we are deciding throughout the next few games if he will be redshirting. No one else is jumping up as one who won't RS."
— Emmett Matasovsky (@E_Matasovsky57) September 29, 2025
West burning his redshirt makes sense, because he’s that good, but I would like to see more of him throughout the season. This decision makes it sound like West will be playing more. He’s one of the top underclassmen on the team and he could be the future of the defensive backfield.
Wills is another obvious choice because he’s been the team’s long-snapper all season and that will continue as long as Kaden Schickel is out.
Savoury is a guy who has gotten a ton of praise this season, and the same goes for Simmons. Both guys have bright futures, and there’s probably a bigger need for Simmons to play, but Savoury has done enough to impress coaches and have that redshirt likely burned. Simmons may not play enough to justify burning his, though.
The rest of the freshman class will redshirt, however, according to Smith.