MSU Spartans news: Ex-Spartan DB thriving, tipoff times announced, Darqueze Dennard

This Michigan State football season has been a bit of a bummer so far and it’s not just because the Spartans have struggled much more than anticipated through five games, but it’s also due to the fact that former players seem to be thriving around the country.

Aidan Chiles is playing really well at Northwestern, Sam Leavitt has LSU cooking, Aydan West had a huge pick on Bryce Underwood in a win over Michigan last week, and Nick Marsh is doing Nick Marsh things at Indiana.

But one polarizing ex-Spartan who fans had split opinions on is thriving with his new program, much to the dismay of those who never wanted him to transfer in the first place.

Justin Denson Jr. came to Michigan State as a four-star prospect under Mel Tucker but never got enough of an opportunity during his time in East Lansing. He transferred to Purdue and it turns out that was the best decision of his young career thus far. Through the first month of the season, Denson Jr. has been one of the best defenders on the Boilermakers’ roster.

More salt in the wound for Spartan fans, especially with how thin the Michigan State secondary has been this season with the injuries piling up. Having Denson Jr. around may not have changed much, but a lot of fans saw a bright future in him and now he’s showing off at Purdue — because why not?

Good for him.

Michigan State basketball unveils 2026-27 tipoff times

On to some better MSU Spartans news, Michigan State hoops has unveiled its tipoff times for the entire 2026-27 season.

There are still some “TBD” times on the schedule like the Tennessee and Gonzaga games, but we know the entire schedule other than that, including tipoff times for Big Ten play.

There’s nothing overly surprising, but some games stand out as incredibly tough with later tipoff times on the road in hostile environments. Michigan State will go to Illinois on Feb. 5 for an 8 p.m. ET tip, it’ll head to Iowa 11 days later for a 9 p.m. ET tip, and a sneaky road game comes at the end of the season with a March 2 showdown in Evanston against Northwestern at 8:30 p.m. ET.

The West Coast swing against UCLA and USC will featured late games, too, but the rest of the schedule seems pretty manageable. Time to plan ahead.

Tom Izzo’s guys will be ready.

Darqueze Dennard, Taybor Pepper stop by practice

While everyone is down on the football team right now, Pat Fitzgerald figured it was a good time to bring some legends back to practice to speak to the team.

Fitzgerald brought in a special teams legend and one of the best defensive backs in program history to hang with the team on Tuesday and we’ll see if that provides a spark during the homecoming game against Illinois on Saturday.

Darqueze Dennard came and spoke to the defensive backs and Taybor Pepper hung out with the special teams guys. It’s good to see the culture in full effect. More of this, please.

It’ll be interesting to see what other Spartan legends make their way back to East Lansing this week for homecoming and if Fitzgerald invites any of them to practice.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow