2026 Michigan State University Football Schedule Primer, Part 1

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We have finished our analysis of the 2026 Michigan State football roster, and now it is time for us to take a quick look at the teams that will be challenging the Spartans this season. This is intended to be a brief look at things, as we will provide more in-depth previews each week throughout the season. We will break this into four columns, each covering three opponents. The next three in this series will come out tomorrow, Wednesday, and Thursday.

The first quarter of MSU’s schedule features a pair of MAC schools followed by a renewal of an old rivalry. 2026 begins, like many recent seasons for Michigan State, with a Friday night game under the lights of Spartan Stadium. This year, the opponent will be Toledo. The following weekend will be the first Saturday game as Eastern Michigan comes to town. In week 3, MSU goes on the road to South Bend to take on preseason 4th-ranked Notre Dame.

Here is the schedule for games 1-3:

September 4 @ 8 PM ET – Toledo

September 12 @ 3:30 PM ET – Eastern Michigan

September 19 @ 7:30 PM ET – @ Notre Dame

Here is some basic information about each of these three teams. Again, more in-depth previews will come out in the week of each game.

TOLEDO

The Toledo Rockets will be our first opponent of 2026, as the MAC school travels across the war-determined state line to Spartan Stadium for a Friday Night Lights game. The Rockets will also be under a new head coach this year, as they get the Mike Jacobs era underway. Jacobs is beginning his first head coaching gig at the Division 1 level; his previous stops include Mercer, Lenoir-Rhyne and Notre Dame College (Ohio) where he accumulated a record of 94-23. In 10 years as a head coach, his teams have won seven conference titles and have never had a losing season.

On the field, Toledo looks to be rolling with their 2025 3rd-string QB this year in John Alan Richter. Richter only attempted 25 attempts this year in three September game appearances off the bench, the last in which he sustained a season-ending injury. Richter will be a redshirt junior and has been with Toledo since 2022 when he redshirted. Due to only appearing in 3 games last year, that season also did not count toward his eligibility; the new 5-in-5 rule does not apply to him, and it’s not confusing at all.

Among skill positions, Terrell Crosby Jr is the highest producing WR from last year, though he was only fifth on the team in yards. In the backfield, Toledo also sees just its fifth highest rusher return from 2025 in Connor Walendzak. Those two combined for about 300 yards of total offense last year. To fill out all the lost production, Toledo has also replenished from the transfer portal. Their 2-deep across all the skill groups is full of guys who played elsewhere last season. It seems that even non-P4 programs are experiencing massive turnover each year.

It is more of the same on defense with 8 projected starters who transferred to Toledo this offseason. Each level of the defense has one returning player among the projected starting 11, none of whom were particularly high on the team stat sheets in tackles or any other category. With so many new players, not to mention a new coaching staff, it is virtually impossible to try extrapolating any data from 2025 to the 2026 team.

All that said, Toledo has a respectable football history, including a number of head coaches who were hired away to lead larger programs. Their most recent coach, Jason Candle, just was hired to UConn. Before him was Matt Campbell, who left for the Iowa State job and is now taking over at Penn State. Gary Pinkel used to coach the Rockets, and was on the sideline when they traveled to PSU and beat the Lions in 2000. Oh, and there is also a guy named Nick Saban whose first head coaching gig was at Toledo. From there, he went to be the defensive coordinator of the Cleveland Browns before coming back to the college ranks to lead MSU in 1995.

Aside from churning out coaches on their way to bigger jobs, Toledo has seen a good amount of success in the MAC. They have been the champions of that conference a dozen times including twice in the past decade. Last season, they finished second with a 6-2 record, 8-4 overall, before falling in the Boca Raton Bowl. (For those of you who don’t speak Spanish, “Boca Raton” translates as “Mouse Mouth”.) This is a team that has consistently been near the top of their conference, has gone to a bowl in each of the last five seasons, and has a healthy share of upsets over ranked opponents from power conferences. I am not expecting the opener against MSU to end up on that list, but it is a game against a team with a proud football history that our Spartans need to be ready for.

EASTERN MICHIGAN

Another week, another opponent with a short trip to East Lansing. Eastern Michigan’s stadium is just 69 miles from Spartan Stadium. The first Saturday game of the season will also mark the first of three games on this year’s schedule where the opposing team’s starting quarterback was a player originally recruited to MSU. The other two are Illinois (Katin Houser) and Northwestern (Aiden Chiles). The guy under center for the Eagles is Noah Kim from MSU’s 2020 class. If we play LSU in a bowl game, that would make it four, as they have Sam Leavitt.

Unlike our week 1 opponent, the Eagles have been trending downward over the past four years, going from 9-4 with a bowl win in 2022 to 6-7 to 5-7 to 4-8 last season. Their head coach, Chris Creighton, is entering his 13th year at the helm. He has led EMU to 6 bowl games in his 12 seasons in Ypsilanti. He had his first HC job in 1993 for, get this, the Limhamn Griffins, a professional football team in Sweden; he was also their quarterback. He’s kind of the Pete Rose of Swedish American Football. Since 1997, he has been a head coach on this side of the pond, and he is now one of four active FBS head coaches with at least 200 career wins.

Back to Noah Kim, he is entering year two as EMU’s starter. Last year, he had decent stats with 2,817 yards, 18 TDs against 11 INTs, and a completion percentage of 61.4. He also added 186 yards and 6 TDs on the ground. In a rare display of continuity, Kim will also have his two top WR targets from last season in Nick Devereaux (510 yards) and Harold Mack (333). In the backfield, seldom used Joey Mattord looks to fill the shoes of 1,000-yard rusher Dontae McMillan.

Here is something you are going to read and be certain that I am lying. Eastern Michigan is projected to have a starting defense featuring 11 players who all were in the program in 2025. Even more impressively, they are bringing back their three top tacklers from that team. DBs Bryce Llewellyn and Jason Marshall and LB Barry Manning are back to lead the Eagles in 2026.

The question for Eastern is if all this returning talent is going to take a step up from their 2025 performance. Last year’s defense was 10th out of 13 MAC teams in giving up 29.8 PPG and 11th with 416.3 YPG allowed. That is with eight games in conference and only one game against a P4 opponent. They lost to Kentucky in week 3, 48-23. Interestingly, that was the game in which Noah Kim threw a career-high 330 yards.

After an opener to iron out some kinks, I expect MSU to have an easier time in week 2 against this in-state opponent.

NOTRE DAME

Week 3 sees Michigan State leave Spartan Stadium for the first time as Pat Fitzgerald & company cross into northwest Indiana to the land of Touchdown Jesus for a battle with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, the preseason #4 team in the AP Poll. Based on name alone, not many in Spartan Nation are looking at this game with much hope.

CJ Carr returns at quarterback for the Irish. Last year he slung 2,741 yards and 24 TDs against just 6 INTs on a 66.6% completion rate. FanDuel currently has him as the favorite for the Heisman. The one positive for opposing defenses facing Carr is that he is not much of a threat to run with the ball, running for only 33 yards and less than a yard per carry in 2025.

Jordan Faison was ND’s leading receiver last year and he returns to try building on his 640-yard output last year. The Irish also bring in a pair of young transfers from last year’s Ohio State roster in Mylan Graham and Quincy Porter. The two only combined for 10 receptions for the Buckeyes as they were buried in the depth chart at the wide receiver factory that is Columbus, but they are expected to play big roles this year in South Bend.

Notre Dame saw their two top running backs selected in the first round of this past NFL Draft – Jeremiah Love to Arizona and Jadarian Price to Seattle. With them on to the pros, last year’s RB3 steps up to the plate. Aneyas Williams, now a junior, may have only totaled 224 yards last year, but that was good for a 9.3 average. He also scored 5 TDs on just 24 carries. As a team, they ran for over 2,400 yards a year ago, and they did that behind a line that is returning 3 starters from last year and a fourth who started in 2024 before missing 2025 with an injury. Expect big things from an experienced Irish offensive line.

On defense, Notre Dame brings back their top five tacklers, led by MLB Drayk Bowen. Their top three in INTs also return, led by CB Leonard Moore who picked off 5 passes last year. As a team, they had 21 INTs which largely contributed to their +13 turnover differential.

The 2025 season began with a pair of losses to ranked opponents, at #10 Miami and vs. #16 Texas A&M. After that, they won their final 10 games, including wins over #20 USC and at #22 Pittsburgh. Despite the 10-2 finish, the Irish were not given an invite to the CFP. They then decided not to accept an invite to any other bowl games. Head Coach Marcus Freeman is beginning his 5th year as Notre Dame head coach. His record is 43-12. It is going to take a massive effort, and maybe even some good luck or trickeration, for the Spartans to escape this contest with a win, but stranger things have happened.

What does TOC Nation think about our opening three games? Anyone predicting something other than a 2-1 record?

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