2026 Michigan State football schedule primer: games 7-9

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As kickoff against Toledo nears, our schedule primer continues as we get into the back half of the season with games 7-9. This is a fascinating series of games beginning with Northwestern, where Pat Fitzgerald will lead the Spartans against his former team. This will also mark Wildcat quarterback Aidan Chiles’ return to Spartan Stadium.

A trip to the Rose Bowl follows for a matchup with UCLA – a team that obliterated a lifeless MSU team on homecoming last year and accelerated the demise of Jonathan Smith’s tenure. Then there is a bye week before the rivalry game where the Spartans must go to Ann Arbor this year to face Michigan and their new coach, Kyle Whittingham.

Here is the the schedule for games 7-9:

October 17 – vs Northwestern

October 24 – @ UCLA

October 31 – BYE WEEK

November 7 – @ Michigan

Kickoff times and TV information is not available for any of these games, as of this writing.

Let’s take a closer look at each of these opponents.

NORTHWESTERN

The Wildcats are coming off a 7-6 season that ended with a 34-7 victory over Central Michigan in the Game Above Sports Bowl at Detroit’s Ford Field. Northwestern went 4-5 in the Big Ten where the wins came against UCLA, at Penn State, Purdue, and Minnesota (at Wrigley Field). They were generally competitive last season except for losses at Tulane (23-3), vs. Oregon (34-14), and at USC (38-17).

Michigan State and Northwestern haven’t met since the 2021 season-opener, a 38-21 MSU victory in Evanston where Kenneth Walker III introduced himself to the Big Ten.

This year, Northwestern has an early bye in week two so this will be their sixth game of the season. Before coming to East Lansing, they will host Ball State for Homecoming in what looks like it will be the second game at the new Ryan Field. The Wildcats will open the season at a temporary venue set up on the Lake Michigan shoreline before moving into their new digs to face Penn State on Friday October 2.

Northwestern’s schedule prior to MSU is as follows:

• Sept 5 – South Dakota State
• Sept 12 – BYE
• Sept 19 – Colorado
• Sept 25 – @ Indiana
• Oct 2 – Penn State
• Oct 10 – Ball State

The trip to East Lansing will be just Northwestern’s second away game but the first one, at Indiana, is certainly a formidable challenge. MSU, meanwhile, will be coming off a tough four game stretch of at Notre Dame, Nebraska, at Wisconsin, and Illinois. It’s possible Northwestern is a little more rested and in better shape coming into this one.

David Braun is beginning his fourth year as head coach at Northwestern. Fitzgerald hired Braun away from North Dakota State after the 2022 season to be the the Wildcats’ defensive coordinator but the two never coached a game together. In a story that has been well-documented, Fitzgerald was let go and Braun was named interim head coach before eventually getting the permanent job.

Braun went 8-5 in his first year in Evanston, with a victory over Utah in the Las Vegas Bowl, and was named the 2023 Big Ten Coach of the Year. The Wildcats came back to earth a bit, going 4-8 in 2024 before recovering to 7-6 last season.

Braun certainly appears to be a solid coach who continues Northwestern’s habit of outperforming expectations in the Big Ten. However, a bigger story for the Wildcats this year may be the addition of Chip Kelly as offensive coordinator. Kelly’s coaching career, at least as a head coach, may have peaked from 2009-2012 when he went 46-7 at Oregon and had the Ducks in the BCS championship game following the 2010 season. Kelly turned that run at Oregon into an NFL head coaching opportunity with the Philadelphia Eagles but was fired after three seasons.

After wearing out is welcome in Philly, and a dismal 2-14 season leading the San Francisco 49ers, Kelly eventually landed at UCLA. He produced a 35-34 record in six seasons and left just before 2024 spring practice to become the offensive coordinator at Ohio State. Kelly’s one year in Columbus was productive, as OSU won the national championship. Kelly turned that into another NFL gig, as OC of the Las Vegas Raiders, but got fired amidst a 2-9 start.

So, here he is Northwestern where Kelly’s ability to tutor Chiles and take advantage of the quarterback’s strengths will likely play a key role in any success the Wildcats have this season. If Northwestern feels like it isn’t working out with Chiles, they may look to redshirt junior Nicco Marchiol. The West Virginia transfer started the first four games of 2025 for the Mountaineers before going down for the season with a foot injury. Before the injury, Marchiol completed 67% of his passes for 720 yards, 2 TDs, and 2 picks.

This year, Northwestern seems to be projected to be in the bottom third of the Big Ten (generally around 14th place), slightly ahead of MSU’s projected finish. Right now, this looks like it has the makings of a competitive game but one the Spartans can win, and need to win, if they are going to make the climb back to respectability.

UCLA

After Fitzgerald hopefully gets his revenge against Northwestern and the Spartans ruin Chiles’ homecoming, it’s off to LA to face the Bruins, who feature a new head coach of their own.

The Bruins walloped MSU last year with an interim staff but UCLA went in a different direction at the end of a 3-9 season, bringing in Bob Chesney.

Chesney has been head coach since 2010 and has steadily worked his way to this – his first Power 4 job – with prior success at Salve Regina, Assumption, Holy Cross, and James Madison. Chesney followed Curt Cignetti at JMU, went 21-6 in two season with the Dukes, and made it to the College Football Playoff last season. Like Fitzgerald at MSU, Chesney aims to bring a smart, disciplined style of football to UCLA.

It certainly appears that UCLA is hoping for a Cignetti-like effect with Chesney. In May we compared Chesney’s early recruiting efforts and results at UCLA to Fitzgerald, Kyle Whittingham at Michigan, and Matt Campbell at Penn State. Chesney has worked the portal hard and, like the Spartans, UCLA will feature a lot of new faces this year. The Bruins’ spring roster indicated 58 returning players and 56 newcomers, including 43 transfers – 10 of which came with Chesney from JMU.

One familiar face, however, will be returning quarterback Nico Iamaleava. After transferring from Tennessee following the 2024 season, Iamaleava played in 11 games for the Bruins last year, starting all of them. He completed just over 64% of his passes for almost 2000 yards, with 13 TDs and 7 interceptions. Iamaleava was also UCLA’s leading rusher with 505 yards and 4 touchdowns on 112 carries (4.5 YPC).

Iamaleava is one of seven returners for UCLA on offense, to go with six on defense. Receiver Mikey Matthews, running backs Anthony Woods and Jaivian Thomas, and linemen Sam Yoon and Eugene Brooks return and are expected to start.

Believe it or not, UCLA struggled even more than MSU did last year in generating a pass rush, finishing last in the Big Ten in sacks and tackles for loss. Chesney looked to the portal to fix this, revamping the defensive line with six new additions – three each at the edge position and on the interior line. Tyson Ford, a former four star recruit at Notre Dame should offer help on the interior while another former Irish recruit, Aiden Gobaira, provides a pass rushing threat. JMU transfer Sahir West should also boost the Bruins’ pass rush.

UCLA will be coming off a home game against Wisconsin prior to hosting MSU. Overall, UCLA’s schedule to this point isn’t overly challenging other than a trip to Oregon on October 10. This follows the Bruins’ bye week so Michigan State will be game seven for UCLA.

Most preseason predictions have the Bruins somewhere between 10th and 13th in the conference this year and this looks like a tough one for the Spartans. Trips to the West Coast are already challenging and this will be Michigan State’s eighth game in a row, adding a possible fatigue factor to the equation.

MICHIGAN

After the bye week finally arrives, MSU resumes play at Michigan. Unlike his predecessor, Fitzgerald has stated unequivocally that he understands the importance of this game. Regardless of their record or how the season has gone to this point, Michigan State should be ready to play their best game of the season in game nine. But will it be enough to get a victory in Ann Arbor?

The Spartans haven’t beaten Michigan since the instant-classic 2021 game and haven’t won in Ann Arbor since 2020, when the Big House stands were nearly empty due to Covid. Still, Michigan State had plenty of chances to leave Michigan Stadium victoriously in 2024 but gave up the lead just before halftime and didn’t recover.

This year, Michigan will be coming off a road trip to Rutgers before hosting the Spartans. This comes after consecutive home games against Penn State and Indiana.

Longtime Utah coach Kyle Whittingham takes over at Michigan after the firing of Sherrone Moore. The dismissal came very late in the hiring cycle so the Wolverines were probably fortunate to get Whittingham, who had previously announced that the 2025 season would be his last at Utah.

Utah went 10-2 with Whittingham in his last season in Salt Lake City. He departed for Michigan prior to the Utes’ bowl game. This followed a couple of down years, by Utah standards, where the Utes were 8-5 in 2023 and 5-7 in 2024. Whittingham had been in charge at Utah since 2025, going 177-88 overall. The high point of his tenure may have been back-to-back Rose Bowls following the 2021 and 2022 seasons.

In addition to the coaching change, an intriguing story for UM this year has to involve quarterback Bryce Underwood. Michigan flipped the consensus number one prospect from the 2025 recruiting class from his LSU commitment and Underwood started all 13 games in his true freshman season. The results, however, were mixed.

Underwood completed just over 60% of his passes for nearly 2500 yards but his TD:INT ratio was just 11:9. Underwood also struggled to gain traction in Michigan’s biggest games last year. He went 9-24 for 142 yards in a week two loss at Oklahoma and just 8-18 for just 63 yards and an interception as the Wolverines fell 27-9 to Ohio State at home. In Michigan’s Citrus Bowl loss to Texas, Underwood was 23-42 for 199 yards with 2 TDs and 3 INTs.

After Underwood struggled in Michigan’s spring game, there was some speculation that Whittingham might make a change for 2026 but it doesn’t look like that will happen. Underwood was in the midst of learning a new system in the spring and Whittingham and offensive coordinator Jason Beck plan to develop and feature the quarterback’s dual-threat abilities.

Besides Underwood, Michigan returns several starters from last year’s team and brings in a few key transfer portal additions.

On defense, key players return at every level. In the back end, safety Rod Moore and cornerbacks Zyaire Hill and Zeke Berry are back. Up front, Michigan brings back tackles Trey Pierce and Enow Etta join edge rusher Cameron Brandt while linebackers Nathaniel Owusu-Boateng, Troy Bowles, and Chase Taylor are expected to contribute in the middle of the Wolverines’ defense.

Defensive end John Henry Daley, defensive lineman Jonah Lea’ea, and cornerback Smith Snowden arrive from Utah to bolster what should be an already strong defense.

Several playmakers return to Michigan’s offense, including receivers Andrew Marsh and Channing Goodwin, tight ends Hogan Hansen and Zack Marshall and running back Jordan Marshall. In addition to the returners, UM has brought in even more skilled position players including Taylor Tatum (RB – Oklahoma), JJ Buchanan (WR – Utah), and Jaime Ffrench (WR – Texas).

On the offensive line, right tackle Andrew Sprague is on the Outland Trophy watch list but Michigan may still be sorting out the rest of the rotation up front.

While they seem to be overrated from time to time, Michigan is projected to be in the top third of the conference this year, fighting with USC, Penn State, and Washington for spot number four behind Ohio State, Oregon, and Indiana. Whittingham, however, has proven to be a consistent winner and he’ll have plenty of solid pieces to work with at Michigan. Also, while the Michigan State – Michigan game is one-of-a-kind, Whittingham has plenty of experience with Utah – BYU and the intensity here probably won’t shock him.

Obviously, this will be a massive test for MSU. Fitzgerald has clearly stated his ambitions for Spartan football and no one in the MSU program will be satisfied with just making a game of it in Ann Arbor. Maybe it will come down to whose second-year starting quarterback can be better and I certainly would not be surprised by a very hard-fought, down-to-the-wire battle. Realistically, however, despite Fitzgerald’s ambition’s for a quick “rebirth”, actually scoring a victory in this game would likely mean he is WAY ahead of schedule.

What do you think, TOC? What will the Spartans’ record be in games seven, eight, and nine?

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