Michigan State's Nick Marsh, center, runs for a gain against Purdue during the first quarter on Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing. Nick King/Lansing State Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

How Michigan State Can Cause a Blowout vs. Western Michigan

Originally posted on Michigan State Spartans on SI
By Jacob Cotsonika | Last updated Aug 29, 2025 10:00 AM ET

Game day has finally arrived. The Michigan State Spartans are about to open their 2025 season against the Western Michigan Broncos at 7 p.m. on FS1, and for MSU fans to feel good about the season overall, they would like to see a not-so-close game in the fourth quarter this year.

Last season, MSU wasn't able to pull away from Florida Atlantic, who ended up going 3-9. MSU only scored two touchdowns and a safety, which helped give the Owls three opportunities to take the lead in the final 15 minutes. The Spartan defense was able to get stops on downs all three times to hold onto a 16-10 victory.

In order to try and avoid a nail-biter, or perhaps even worse, against another Group of Five team, here are three things MSU needs to do to blow out Western Michigan.

Win the Turnover Battle

Something that MSU will want to do to have a laid-back fourth quarter is to win the turnover battle.

Last year, the Spartans were minus-1 in the turnover battle in the season opener against FAU and were minus-8 across the whole season.

Michigan State turned it over three times in Week 1 via two Aidan Chiles interceptions and a Montorie Foster Jr. fumble. Chiles also tossed a pick on the very first play from scrimmage, which partially set the tone of the game.

The Spartan secondary also intercepted two passes, one from Angelo Grose and another from returning safety Nikai Martinez.

Score Early

This one's kind of a given, but it will be important for the Spartan offense to get off to a quick start, even though many parts about Western Michigan's defensive scheme are unknown.

Against FAU, MSU's offense wasn't able to find paydirt until the fifth drive of the game, turning it over twice in the first four drives. MSU scored on back-to-back drives there, but that was it for the day.

On Friday, a touchdown for MSU on the first or second drive could go a very long way for the unit's confidence and also help the home crowd get into things early.

Penalties

This will be another early-season trend from last fall that Michigan State will be trying to prevent.

In Week 1 last season, MSU was penalized 12 different times for 140 yards. MSU reached triple-digit penalty yardage in each of its first three contests in 2024, in fact.

Penalties were a problem for the Spartans all season, as they ranked 96th in the FBS for penalties per game (6.67) and 110th in penalty yards per game (63.3). If MSU wants to breeze past the Broncos on Friday night, it can't give WMU too many freebies.

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