Michigan State freshman QB Kayd Coffman is facing test of a lifetime at No. 9 UCLA

Folks, the Kayd Coffman era is officially upon us.

Michigan State is expected to go with Coffman against No. 9 UCLA on the road on Saturday afternoon with Alessio Milivojevic apparently nursing an injury and unable to go.

This would be the true freshman’s first career start and it would come on the road against a top-10 opponent. There aren’t many more intimidating ways to begin a collegiate football career, but feet to the fire immediately will only help him improve. He’s going to see how he stacks up against one of the best teams in the country right away.

Coffman’s first career start is obviously coming at an interesting time with Michigan State coming off back-to-back heartbreaking losses and Milivojevic played pretty well in both games — at least well enough to give Michigan State a shot to win. Unfortunately, he must have been pretty banged up because he was questionable on the first injury report.

On Saturday, news broke that he’s likely out and so is Cam Fancher which means that the Spartans are turning to a brand-new quarterback looking to have his Connor Cook 2012 Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl moment.

In case you don’t remember, Andrew Maxwell was the starter all season and then Cook got a chance in that bowl game and never looked back. Coffman is trying to do the same here.

Unfortunately the true freshman is facing the No. 12 defense in the country.

Kayd Coffman has a chance to do the unthinkable

With Coffman likely starting, you just know that the UCLA defense is chomping at the bit to get after him early and often. He’s facing his first collegiate defense and it happens to be one of the best in the Big Ten and one of the nation’s biggest turnarounds in 2026.

But UCLA, too, is without its starting quarterback as Nico Iamaleava is out for the season. That doesn’t mean the Bruins are going to be any easier to beat, however.

Coffman has likely been getting first-team reps all week in preparation and he was a four-star recruit out of high school so the expectations and talent are there. He just needs to execute for four quarters and show something different than what we’ve seen from Milivojevic through seven games that hasn’t been working.

Milivojevic hasn’t been playing poorly lately (last bad game was Wisconsin), but it hasn’t translated to wins and something needed change.

I’m not saying this injury will produce positive results, but it may open Pat Fitzgerald’s eyes to what he has in his true freshman quarterback moving forward. Could this be the start of the Coffman era at Michigan State?

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