Michigan State football got some bad injury news on Friday afternoon as it was reported that starting safety Nikai Martinez would be out for a second straight game to start the season.
The absence of Martinez will surely be felt by the Michigan State secondary which will be going up against a team that passed the ball for 458 yards and five touchdowns in the season opener against Fordham. Obviously that's not the toughest of opponents, but any time you have over 400 passing yards, you're doing something right offensively.
Shortly after the Martinez news broke, Pete Thamel shared a positive injury update regarding Michigan State's kicking situation.
It looks like the Spartans will be getting Martin Connington back for the Boston College game.
MSU will likely get one of its injured kickers back, as redshirt freshman Martin Connington is expected to return after missing the opener. He may be limited. MSU used kicker Blake Sislo in the opener, a Division II transfer who didn't play football at all in 2024.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) September 5, 2025
While this isn't the biggest news of the day, it's important for the Spartans to get one of their two starting-caliber kickers back because we saw in Week 1 how not having a legit placekicker can hurt. Michigan State attempted one field goal and Ryan Eckley missed a 46-yarder wide left.
Michigan State will need quality placekicking against Boston College.
Not having an FBS-level placekicker against Western Michigan didn't hurt too much (just three points), but against a team like Boston College, a field goal could legitimately decide the game.
Connington was ranked the No. 5 kicker in the country in high school by Kohl's Kicking and he was originally committed to Jonathan Smith at Oregon State before flipping to the Spartans when the head coach accepted the job in East Lansing. He didn't see any action in 2024 and redshirted.
It sounds like he's going to get his first collegiate action under the lights on Saturday.