Michigan State Is Down Four Cornerbacks for Aidan Chiles

NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos...

Michigan State plays Northwestern on Saturday without four cornerbacks and three linebackers, and the hole that leaves in the back seven is the whole story of the week in East Lansing. Cornerbacks Tre Bell, Charles Brantley, Keshawn Williams and Tyran Chappell are all out, and linebackers Jordan Hall, Caleb Wheatland and Brady Pretzlaff are out with them. With the top four cornerbacks on the shelf, true freshmen K.J. Deriso and Jeremiah Favorite are in line for heavy snaps on the outside.

The Spartans listed 14 players as out on their availability report for the game, five of them starters. Left tackle Ben Murawski and backup quarterback Cam Fancher head the offensive absences, with fullback Jay Coyne, running back Darrin Jones Jr., offensive lineman Tristan Comer and tight end Joe Caudill also ruled out. Wide receiver Charles Taplin is the only Spartan listed as questionable.

Michigan State Injury Report Guts the Back Seven

Michigan State is 2-4 and 0-3 in Big Ten play and has lost four straight. Northwestern comes to Spartan Stadium at 4-1, 1-1 in the conference and ranked No. 25, with kickoff set for noon ET on Peacock. Three of the Spartans’ top four linebackers are unavailable along with their top four cornerbacks, which is a tall task against a ranked opponent in a game Michigan State needs to stop the slide.

Aidan Chiles Returns to Face the Michigan State Spartans

Wildcats quarterback Aidan Chiles started at Michigan State for the past two seasons before he left for Northwestern in January. He is thriving in his first season under first-year offensive coordinator Chip Kelly and head coach David Braun, completing 71.4% of his passes for 1,172 yards and nine touchdowns. He has not thrown an interception.

Chiles has also run for 73 yards and six touchdowns on 44 carries, an average of 1.7 yards a carry. Those six scores are the part of his game that should worry Michigan State most, because a thin back seven is exactly the kind of defense a quarterback can walk into the end zone against.

Pat Fitzgerald Needs the Whole Roster Ready

Spartans head coach Pat Fitzgerald, in his first season at Michigan State after running the Northwestern program, took up the injuries on his weekly radio show Wednesday night. “Defensively, we gotta get a lot of guys ready to play. We’ve unfortunately had a lot of injuries on that side of the ball,” he said, per Chris Solari of the Detroit Free Press.

Michigan State is trying to end that four-game losing streak on Saturday, Oct. 17, and it will try to do it with freshmen on the outside against the quarterback who ran its own offense a year ago.

More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos