Michigan State vs. Wisconsin Game Preview

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Well, what a difference a week makes. In last week’s preview for Nebraska, I speculated that the Spartans could be in a lot of close Big Ten contests this year. This week, I’m left to wonder if Michigan State can win another game.

For the first time in four games with Pat Fitzgerald, we unfortunately saw what we became used to with MSU Football. Untimely penalties. Turnovers and sacks allowed. The inability to get a turnover or sack. Yes, we saw the turnover and sack situation at Notre Dame but at least MSU largely avoided the penalties.

And, of course, injuries. Including injuries to the best player on offense and defense. In the same game. Cam Edwards and Jordan Hall had already dealt with some things prior to the Nebraska game, and Hall had missed game two against Eastern Michigan.

Fitzgerald confirmed on Monday that Edwards is out for the season, sadly ending his college and MSU career way too early. Fitzgerald did not provide any other injury details and there may not be anything official until the first conference mandated availability report comes out later this evening.

In hindsight, even after seeing forms of progress through the first three games, it was probably unrealistic to expect that there wouldn’t be a regression at some point.

Was the Nebraska game just a very unfortunate one-off? Or is this really what it’s going to be like from here on out for MSU this year?

We’ll start to find out on Saturday when the Spartans go to Camp Randall Stadium to face the Wisconsin Badgers (12:30 PM ET, Big Ten Network). Let’s see what Michigan State will be up against when they take the field in Madison.

Wisconsin Overview

The Badgers will return home riding high after a 24-20 win against Penn State in Happy Valley. Wisconsin fell behind 17-0, which included a 51 yard Penn State pick-six, before battling all the way back for the win. Penn State was actually still in control late into the fourth quarter before giving up consecutive 75 and 85-yard touchdown drives in the last five minutes.

Wisconsin is 3-1 and 1-0 in the Big Ten after defeating Penn State and the Spartans and Badgers share two common opponents this season.

In their opener at Lambeau Field, Wisconsin fell 41-13 to Notre Dame. Similar to Michigan State’s performance at Notre Dame, the Badgers were in the thick of it with the Fighting Irish at halftime, but two quick Notre Dame touchdowns in the third quarter pretty much ended it. Also like the Spartans, Wisconsin couldn’t do much offensively against Notre Dame, managing just 284 total yards, including only 67 rushing yards on 2.2 yards per carry.

After Notre Dame, Wisconsin recovered to thump Western Illinois 36-9 and then Eastern Michigan 54-10. Both of those games were in Madison.

If there is some hope for the Spartans in Wisconsin, it might be that Wisconsin quarterback Colton Joseph may not be quite as dynamic as Nebraska’s signal caller Anthony Colandrea, who hurt MSU with his ability to run. Joseph was just 18-38 for 235 yards and 3 interceptions against Penn State. However, he also threw for two touchdowns, including a 72 yard game-winner to tight end Jacob Harris.

Joseph also had 13 carries for 39 yards and another TD against Penn State, compared to Colandrea’s 10 carries for 66 yards against the Spartans. If Joseph can come anywhere close to duplicating Colandrea’s performance, it will probably be another long day for Michigan State.

Regardless of what Joseph and the Wisconsin offense is able to do, Michigan State’s struggling offense will face another stiff challenge against the Badgers. Penn State managed just 233 total yards on Saturday, with Wisconsin really shutting down the passing game. Lions’ quarterback Rocco Becht was just 12-29 for 114 yards (3.9 yards per attempt) and an interception against the Badgers.

Alessio Milivojevic has made some nice plays but his best game this year still remains the opener against Toledo. Getting back on track against the Badger D looks like it could be tough.

Wisconsin Coaching

Luke Fickell is in his fourth full season as head coach at Wisconsin and the Penn State win may have done wonders to cool the hot seat he might have been occupying. Fickell is just 20-22 with the Badgers, including 11-17 in the Big Ten.

Fickell left Cincinnati after the 2022 regular season and his first game with Wisconsin was actually a win in the 2022 Guaranteed Rate Bowl. Fickell’s first full season leading the Badgers was 2023, where they went 7-6, including 5-4 in the Big Ten West division, with a season-ending loss in the ReliaQuest Bowl.

The 2023 season was Fickell’s high point thus far in Madison. From 2024 to 2025, Wisconsin went just 9-15 overall and 5-13 in the Big Ten. The Wisconsin administration has stuck with their man though and must be feeling at least reasonably well with the start to this season.

Fickell’s first head coaching job was at his alma mater, Ohio State where, after Jim Tressel’s resignation, he was in an interim role for the 2011 season. OSU went 6-7 with a Gator Bowl loss before Fickell ceded the head coaching job to Urban Meyer, while remaining on Meyer’s staff as the defensive coordinator. Fickell remained in this role through 2016 and was rewarded for his loyalty when the Buckeyes won the 2014 national championship.

Fickell left OSU but stayed in the state of Ohio when he was named Cincinnati’s head coach after the 2016 season. The 2017 Bearcats went just 4-8 before Fickell led them on a historic five-year run with a 53-10 record and two American Athletic Conference championships. The 2021 Bearcats went 13-0 in the regular season and made the College Football Playoff – the only non-power conference team to do so when the Playoff was comprised of only four teams.

With his success at Cincinnati, Fickell became a head coaching target for several programs, including Michigan State, but he signed a contract extension and remained in Cincinnati until the Badgers finally pried him away.

For whatever reason, Fickell decided to bring the Air Raid offense to Wisconsin, which has typically been a traditional run-heavy Big Ten program with strong offensive line play. When it clearly wasn’t working, Fickell made a change before the 2025 season, bringing in Jeff Grimes as offensive coordinator.

Grimes has never been a head coach but has held various offensive coaching roles since getting his start as a grad assistant at Rice in 1995. Wisconsin is his first Big Ten job. Grimes got his first coordinator role at BYU in 2018 and, since then, has coordinated the offenses at Baylor and Kansas before coming to Madison.

While Grimes calls the plays for Wisconsin’s offense, a very familiar name coordinates the Badger’s D. Mike Tressel is in his fourth year with Wisconsin after being on Michigan State’s staff from 2007-2020. Tressel was MSU’s co-DC / DC and linebackers coach from 2015-2019 but accepted a role coaching the Spartan safeties in 2020 when Mel Tucker took over (after MSU couldn’t lure Fickell away from Cincinnati) and brought in Scottie Hazelton to coordinate the defense.

Perhaps Tressel had had enough at MSU after 2020 and left to join Fickel in Cincinnati as the Bearcats’ DC before making the move with him to Madison.

Wisconsin Offense

Under Grimes, Wisconsin appears to be returning to their roots with a nearly even mix of running and passing plays.

Joseph has 987 passing yards through four games but is completing just 58.5% of his passes. With the three picks against Penn State, he’s up to 5 for the season, but he also has 7 passing TDs. In what may be another discouraging sign for the MSU defense, Joseph has been sacked just 3 times this season.

Another familiar name to MSU fans, Tyrell Henry, is Joseph’s top receiving target at Wisconsin. The 6-0, 184 lb senior had 24 catches for 195 yards and 3 TDs at Michigan State in 2023. This year at Wisconsin he’s been good for 24 catches, 307 yards, and a touchdown.

Harris, the senior tight end who caught the winning pass at Penn State is next with 11 catches for 203 yards. At 6-6, 265, he’s a huge target with good hands who could cause trouble for the Spartans.

Wisconsin’s rushing game is averaging 4.5 yards per carry and has improved since the difficult opener against Notre Dame. At Penn State, the Badgers produced 120 yards on the ground and averaged 4.3 YPC.

Senior running back Amu Sama III (5-11, 214) and junior Darrion Dupree (5-11, 218) are the Badger’s two main running threats. Sama is a transfer from Iowa State who has run for 190 yards this year on an impressive 6.8 yards per carry. A lot of this damage was done against Western Illinois, however, where Sama had 8 carries for 107 yards and his only touchdown. Against Notre Dame, Sama had 15 carries for 49 yards while only seeing 5 carries but gaining 34 yards at Penn State.

Wisconsin looked to Dupree a bit more at PSU, where he had 8 carries for 52 yards. For the season, he has 134 yards on 5.6 YPC.

The Badger’s third-leading rusher is Joseph, the quarterback, with 121 yards on 38 carries.

Wisconsin Defense

The Badger defense has been tough under Tressel. Notre Dame scored 41, but one of the Irish touchdowns came on an interception return. Wisconsin is giving up 275 yards per game and made things really tough for Penn State.

Although has often used the 4-2-5 base alignment previously, the Badgers look to be playing more 3-3-5 this year. They have a solid core of linebackers in sophomores Cooper Catalano (6-1, 232) and Mason Posa (6-3, 235), and senior Sebastian Cheeks (6-3, 243). Senior safety Matthew Jung has been good in the secondary while, up front, defensive linemen Hammond Russell IV had a sack and a half at Penn State.

Overall, however, Wisconsin has produced just 5 sacks on the season. If you’re glass half full, perhaps Milivojevic will have a bit more time to work his progressions on Saturday. Or, if we’re siding with negative, Wisconsin will pad their stats against MSU, who has given up a Big Ten worst 15 sacks through four games.

What to watch and keys to the game

MSU offensive line vs. Posa, Catalano, & Hammond IV. Who will be playing for MSU? Connor Moore went out against Nebraska and was in sweats on the sideline after halftime. Nebraska’s front created continuous penetration against MSU, forcing rushed throws and turnovers. Against Penn State, Wisconsin’s defense was strong against the run. Posa produced 12 tackles to go with Hammond’s 1.5 sacks. If MSU cannot generate push between the tackles, especially if Edwards is unavailable, the Spartans will face obvious passing situations where Wisconsin excels.

Depleted MSU D vs another dual-threat QB. Joseph has been up and down in the pass game but overcame mistakes and produced when needed at Penn State. Some his scrambles helped keep drives alive while finding Dupree (4 catches, 44 yards) out of the backfield also helped.

Can there be a short MSU passing game? It seems like this comes up in some form each week but, with the Spartans giving up sacks and potentially down some offensive linemen and Edwards, this becomes even more important. It may be tough against Wisconsin though. The Badgers have been good tackling in space and limiting gains on perimeter screens.

Can MSU generate any sort of run game? Jaziun Patterson came on for Edwards and ran hard against Nebraska. However, MSU and offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan may have to go deep into their bag of tricks in this one to generate some ball movement. It’s hard to see this philosophy paying off for an entire game.

Can we finally get a turnover or two? This seems like an absolute must if the Spartans are going to pull off a Big Ten road win. In addition to the three picks at Penn State, Joseph fumbled twice. The Badgers recovered both but, if the Spartans can get some bounces that didn’t go their way against Nebraska, maybe it would create an opening for the upset.

Big understatement here: given the trajectories of the two teams, it’s hard to see much of the above going in MSU’s favor on the road. But, maybe we weren’t necessarily expecting the last two games to go the way they did either. As we’ve seen, things can change in a hurry in college football.

What do you think, TOC? Is there anything the Spartans can do to pull off a shocker in Madison?

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