What Fall Camp Has Said About MSU Football's Upcoming Season
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EAST LANSING, Mich. -- There's a bit of an unexplainable feeling around the Michigan State football building right now.
Expectations for the program aren't high. Personally, I'm still expecting a 5-7 season. Players who have seen both "before Pat Fitzgerald" and "with Pat Fitzgerald" are all in unison about a few important things, though: the energy at practices is higher, the team is closer, and the expectation of winning is more built into the team's foundation. Here are a few things we've learned about the team itself, as MSU seeks out to surprise everybody else this fall.
Limitless Options on Offense
Fall camp has increased my optimism in the Spartans' offense. Nick Sheridan felt like a quality hire back in the winter, and how he uses the tools at his disposal this coming fall will be quite interesting to see.
The main thing I see all around the depth chart on offense, particularly at the skill positions, is both versatility and depth. Fitzgerald said on Monday that he anticipates as many as nine wide receivers could play, and that Michigan State will probably utilize a rotation there this year. Four or five tight ends could also realistically play this year, and four running backs are probably going to command carries.
MSU's offensive line also finally feels like it should be better this year. The program's decline has coincided with a decline in play from that unit, but the Spartans have some pretty proven players on their starting five, as well as some solid depth.
Running back Cam Edwards also seems primed to be a star. Fitzgerald says he's expecting him "to be the best running back in the country." Edwards ran for 1,240 yards and 15 touchdowns last year (both categories top 15 in the nation) at UConn.
Unique Tight End Room
This basically ties in with the first point, but you may be hard-pressed to find a tight end room quite as atypical as Michigan State's. Brian Wozniak's room seems to have at least one guy for every different situation. Jayden Savoury looks like an every-down guy, Brennan Parachek will be a receiving threat, Kai Rios is the best blocker in the group, and Carson Gulker can do pretty much anything he's asked to do.
Gulker is the especially peculiar player here. He's transferring from Division II dynasty Ferris State, where he was pretty dominant in almost everything offensively. Gulker was a quarterback at one point, and he's got a nice 16-touchdown-to-4-interception ratio for his career.
He can also go in at H-back and/or running back -- he's got a whopping 50 career rushing touchdowns, including a 31-score season in 2022. Gulker became a tight end/receiving threat for the first time last year, catching 34 passes for 548 yards and seven touchdowns. I tried to get a hint from Sheridan about how he'll use Gulker this fall; it was like asking a bank teller for the vault combination.
Savoury has still really stood out these past few weeks, though. He's got a great frame after gaining 13 pounds over the last year, some nice hands, and he was holding his own as a blocker in a 1-on-1 drill against the Spartans' rush ends. With him just being a redshirt freshman/second-year player, Savoury could be a massive part of this program's future.
Special Teams Emphasis
If Michigan State is truly able to turn it around this season, LeVar Woods and the team's special teams play are likely to be major reasons for that. Woods became one of the best, if not the best, special teams coordinators in college football while he was at Iowa. Fitzgerald pulling Woods away from his alma mater, where Woods had been on the staff since 2008, to run MSU's special teams and be the assistant head coach was a massive coup.
MSU actually has dedicated parts of its practices that focus on special teams. Woods is actually in the building coaching before Fitzgerald is.
"He starts every day," Fitzgerald said about Woods. "At 8 a.m., we start kick meetings, and he's got the team before I have the team. It's a little bit by design. I just believe he's got 'head coach' in his future... There are certain periods that I give him the whistle, I go to drills, and he runs the practice."
Since 2016, Iowa has led the entire FBS in special teams EPA (expected points added), according to CBS. Woods became the special teams coordinator in 2017, though he had assisted there for the Hawkeyes since 2012. Michigan State's special teams EPA ranks 101st in the country since 2016.
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A 2025 graduate from Michigan State University, Cotsonika brings a wealth of experience covering the Spartans from Rivals and On3 to his role as Michigan State Spartans Beat Writer on SI. At Michigan State, he was also a member of the world-renowned Spartan marching band for two seasons.
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