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V-Cast: Michigan State facing a must-win scenario against UCLA on Homecoming

On3 imageby: Paul Konyndyk10/08/25PKonyndyk
V-CastUCLA

EAST LANSING, Mich. – After back-to-back road losses to start Big Ten play, Michigan State returns home for a Homecoming match-up with UCLA. The Bruins are coming into this game after biggest upset of the college football season to date.

After shocking Penn State last weekend, UCLA appears to have successfully made a mid-season reset. Now, the Bruins will look to build upon the momentum generated in a win over the Nittany Lions by upsetting Michigan State at home.

After interviews on Wednesday, SpartanMag staffers Jim Comparoni and Paul Konyndyk checked in the from the George and Sally Perles Plaza with the latest V-Cast.

V-CAST TOPICS

Must Win Scenario: Michigan State squandered a golden opportunity to move to 5-1 on the season with a road win at Nebraska. The Spartans simply made too many mistakes to post an upset win over The Huskers. For the Spartans to break their Big Ten losing streak, Michigan State needs to be cleaner in all three phases of the game. On offense, the Spartans cannot afford a subpar rushing performance. In back-to-back games, inability to run the football effectively has created an unsustainable number of a third-and-long scenarios for quarterback Aidan Chiles, who is not getting the pass protection to be successful.

Outlook on the o-line: Michigan State needs better offensive line play. The Spartans need better run blocking and pass blocking not only against UCLA this weekend, but also in preparing for the challenging Big Ten schedule beyond. Last weekend at Nebraska, Michigan State went with a five-man offensive line of Conner Moore at left tackle, Gavin Broscious at right tackle, Matt Gulbin at center, Kristian Phillips at right guard, and Ashton Lepo at right tackle. The Spartans decided to go with Lepo at right tackle due to experience in a road game at a loud venue in Nebraska’s Memorial Stadium. Despite his experience, Lepo struggled against Nebraska. The Spartans struggled in pass protection, and run blocking was substandard. The question moving forward is whether the Spartans change up their lineup by playing Rustin Young at left tackle or Rakeem Johnson at right tackle. If Young were to play left tackle, Moore would presumably move back into the role of starting right tackle spot, which he played before Stanton Ramil was sidelined by injury. If Johnson were to start at right tackle, Moore would likely start at left tackle.

Putting it all together: Michigan State played well against Nebraska in all but a handful of defensive series. There were, however, a handful of sloppy defensive possessions by Michigan State, and defensive coordinator Joe Rossi indicated during interviews on Wednesday that he is hopeful that his defense can pitch its first complete game of the season. The performance level in practice gives Rossi confidence that Michigan State can harness a level of play that it has yet to achieve in games.

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