Expectations for Michigan State football heading into the 2025 season are already elevated from where they were ahead of Jonathan Smith's first campaign.
Heck, the expectations are already elevated from where they were the second the 2024 season ended with a blowout loss to Rutgers. The mood back in November was dark and it felt like Michigan State was stuck in mediocre purgatory, but things have swung back in the right direction, it seems.
And the preseason projections from some respected ratings systems agree.
Kelley Ford has some of the best preseason ratings every year, and they were just released on Sunday. Michigan State got some favorable ratings from Ford.
In fact, the Spartans were the fourth-biggest riser in the KFord ratings from the end of the 2024 season compared to the preseason numbers. The Spartans are up 7.0 points from the end of the 2024 season, behind only Southern Miss (led by former MSU coaching candidate Charles Huff), Florida State, and Tulsa.
Change in each team’s FBS KFord Rating from 2024 Final to 2025 Preseason
— Kelley Ford (@KFordRatings) August 17, 2025
Might just call this the @CoachHuff Effect pic.twitter.com/XzN98wg7l0
The ratings are a combination of offensive, defensive, and special teams ratings, also released on Sunday, and they're fairly high on the Spartans in two of those three categories.
KFord has Michigan State's special teams units ranked No. 31 nationally with a 79.2 rating (50 is the national average). The Spartans are No. 34 in the defensive ratings (76.7), but the offensive rating is much worse -- and shockingly bad -- as they sit at No. 102 with a 23.8 rating.
I will say, the offensive rating is horrendous and, in my opinion, far from correct. Michigan State is going to have one of the most improved offenses in the country.
Still, even with that poor offensive rating, Michigan State is projected to be one of the most improved teams in college football.
We'll take it.