Michigan State football faces ex-MSU QB Katin Houser and Illinois next

MADISON, WI – Here are three things to watch as Michigan State football prepares for homecoming Saturday, Oct. 10, against Illinois after losing at Wisconsin, 31-3, in Week 5 at Camp Randall Stadium.

Back in the house

The last time Katin Houser was in Spartan Stadium, he was wearing green and white. He's now leading Illinois.

Coach Mel Tucker’s top quarterback recruit, a four-star high school prospect, flipped his commitment to MSU from Boise State and joined the program in 2022. Houser got seven starts as a redshirt freshman in 2023 – beating Nebraska and Indiana – and appeared in 11 games total. The former four-star recruit went 112-for-191 passing for 1,130 yards and six passing touchdowns while throwing five interceptions with two rushing scores.

The last time he took a snap, it was during arguably the Spartans’ most lackluster performance in the post-Mark Dantonio era – a 38-0 loss to Penn State at Ford Field, with the coach who brought him to MSU already fired and the interim coach who gave him the starting quarterback job (Harlon Barnett) on his way out the door. A number of his teammates already had entered the portal amid all the strife, and Houser wasn’t far behind.

After the 2023 season and the hiring of Jonathan Smith, Houser transferred to East Carolina.

In two seasons with the Pirates, the 6-foot-3, 225-pound Houser started 19 of his 21 games, throwing for 5,306 yards and completing 64% of his passes with 37 touchdowns and 17 interceptions. He also ran for 13 touchdowns. Last season, Houser led ECU to an 8-4 record and a berth in the Go Bowling Military Bowl by throwing for 3,300 yards with 19 touchdowns, six interceptions and a 65.9% completion percentage and scoring nine rushing TDs.

Before the Pirates played Pitt in the postseason, Houser announced his transfer back to the Big Ten with coach Bret Bielema and the Illini.

Now a fifth-year senior, Houser finished 21 of 37 with two touchdowns and an interception and ran eight times for 42 yards Saturday in a 24-17 home loss to Purdue. For the season, he has completed 65.8% of his passes for 1,246 yards with 11 touchdowns to three interceptions while taking six sacks. Houser also has 106 rushing yards on 25 attempts with a touchdown.

Houser is the second of three former MSU starting quarterbacks the Spartans will face in East Lansing. They beat Noah Kim and Eastern Michigan on Sept. 12, 35-7, and will welcome Aidan Chiles and Northwestern on Oct. 17.

Bret Bielema vs Pat Fitzgerald

MSU coach Pat Fitzgerald and Illinois’ Bret Bielema are familiar foes, albeit in different places.

The two joined the Big Ten head coaching fraternity the same year in 2006, when Fitzgerald ascended from an assistant to the top spot at Northwestern after the death of Randy Walker. Bielema took over at Wisconsin after the retirement of his mentor Barry Alvarez.

The two only met on the field three times before Bielema left the Badgers for Arkansas after knocking off Fitzgerald's Wildcats twice in Madison by a combined 111-32 score (41-9 in 2006 and 70-23 in 2010). Fitzgerald beat Bielema in 2009, 33-31, in Evanston, Illinois.

Bielema beat Fitzgerald both times he faced Fitzgerald at Northwestern since he took the job in 2021 by a combined score of 88-17 (47-14 in 2021 and 41-3 in 2022) before Fitzgerald was fired there prior to the 2023 season.

Now in his sixth season in Champaign, Bielema is 39-29 overall and 23-24 in Big Ten play. He has taken Illinois to three bowl appearances, including wins in the Citrus and Music City bowls the past two years after guiding the Illini to 19 games combined an above-.500 record in conference play during those two seasons. His 10-3 finish in 2004 was Illinois' first double-digit win season since 2001 and just the fifth in program history.

Bielema is 1-1 against MSU since taking over the Illini, with both games at Illinois. The Spartans won, 38-16, at Memorial Stadium in 2024, and Bielema beat MSU in 2022, 23-15. As coach of Wisconsin, Bielema went 3-4 against MSU from 2007-12.

Coming home again

Saturday will be MSU's 110th homecoming, and the Spartans are 71-35-3 all time in those games (homecoming games were not held in 1915, 1943 and 2020).

Last season, however, MSU suffered a soul-crushing 38-13 loss to UCLA on homecoming (Oct. 11, 2025) as part of an eight-game losing streak that ultimately cost Smith his job. His first team pulled off a homecoming upset of Iowa in 2024, 32-20, which has since been vacated due to NCAA violations that stemmed from Tucker's tenure.

The Spartans’ 2011 win over Bielema’s Badgers was a homecoming game and also the last time he visited Spartan Stadium.

Next up: Fighting Illini

Matchup: Michigan State (2-3, 0-2 Big Ten) vs Illinois (2-3, 0-2).

Kickoff: 3:30 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 10; Spartan Stadium, East Lansing.

TV/radio: FS1, WJR-AM (760).

Line: Illini by 3½.

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State football faces ex-MSU QB Katin Houser and Illinois next