• Malik McDowell

EAST LANSING - The highly touted Michigan State Spartans are coming off of arguably their most successful season on record. This years team returns a number of familiar faces as the Spartans begin their quest to get into the first ever college football playoff, and bring a national championship to East Lansing faithful.

The Michigan State Spartans kicked off their season with a bang. Amassing over 550 yards of offense in their 45-7 rout of Jacksonville State. On top of the offensive showcase we also saw six freshman from this years highly touted recruiting class.

One of those being the polarizing defensive line recruit Malik McDowell from Southfield, Michigan. It took quite a while for the young man to convince his Mother who initially wouldn't sign off on his letter of intent that he was capable of playing and avoiding the pitfalls of a young student athlete.

On the other side of the ball, redshirt freshman Damien Terry made his debut in the second half and had mixed results, going one 1 for 3 for 13 yards and racking up 21 yards on the ground. While Terry is not expected to beat out Connor Cook, MSU has made it clear this young man is a part of the future in East Lansing.

After the game, Coach Narduzzi spoke about the importance of getting these young players on the field.

"I think we played maybe six freshman on defense and maybe even 4 true freshman. It's good to get guys on the field in a game situation. Like I said we haven't been able to do that for our guys in the past so it will be a good tape evaluation for these guys."

Narduzzi's defense played lights out. Holding the Gamecocks to just seven points and managing to intercept the ball three times in the contest.

Fan did have to hold their breath a few times as several players went down with minor injuries. Some of them being key parts to the team such as Connor Cook, and Jeremy Langford. Cook, had a strong opener despite the shot taken after a long bomb to Tony Lippett. Going 12-13 for 285 yards in just the first half.

One of those touchdowns came to Junior Wideout AJ Troup who has been battling injuries the majority of his career. The touchdown was his first scored as a Spartan. Senior running back Nick Hill also scored two touchdowns in his relief work for the banged up Langford.

Sparty travels to Autzen Stadium to take on the #3 ranked Oregon Ducks September 6th.