5. Tackles
Tackles is another fun stat to predict as there are plenty of players you could pick from. The hope is that nobody in the secondary will lead the team in tackles as that likely means the defense hasn’t improved like we hoped.
So that leaves us with the defensive line and linebackers. While it is possible for someone on the defensive line to lead the way, I’m going to go with a linebacker, and a transfer linebacker for that matter.
Transfer Wayne Matthews III is coming to Michigan State from Old Dominion and just had an extremely impressive season as he racked up 135 tackles last season. He also was the No. 4 ranked linebacker in the transfer portal according to 247Sports and has been named to some preseason All-Big Ten teams as well.
Prediction: With a step up in competition compared to what he saw at Old Dominion, I don’t think Matthews will surpass the same total he had last year. But I think he’ll be very close. So I predict a very impressive 115 tackles from Matthews and an All-Big Ten season as well.