Nick Faber’s Top Five Storylines to Watch for Michigan State Football in 2026

With just three weeks to go until the Spartans’ first contest of the 2026 season, the team is in full-go mode entering its first full week of practice.

A program that has seen some very high highs and very low lows over the past two decades now looks to reestablish itself as a feared football program.

That comes with the help of the 27th head coach in Michigan State history, Pat Fitzgerald, who was named head coach soon after the Spartans finished last season with one of the worst seasons in Michigan State history.

Now, after winning double-digit games just once since 2018, Fitzgerald is tasked with taking a team that lost more than half of its roster via the transfer portal this year, a returning quarterback with four career starts under his belt, and a group of young men ready to prove themselves, and turning them into a contender sooner rather than later.

The parity in college football has grown exponentially since NIL and the transfer portal were implemented, coming to a peak last year when the Indiana Hoosiers did something no one thought was possible by going undefeated and winning the national championship.

Now, the idea that any team can go from no wins to all the wins in just two years has entered every college football fan’s mind. As long as you get the right guys who buy into the right scheme, anything can happen.

For the Spartans to follow in the Hoosiers’ footsteps, there are five storylines that, to me, are the biggest and most important to follow all season long. If the Spartans can answer these storyline questions with positive results, they will be well on their way to becoming a top program once again.

The first storyline to watch all season long is obviously the shift at the top.

Michigan State fired former coach Jonathan Smith after going 1-8 in the conference last year. In his place came Pat Fitzgerald, who manned the Northwestern Wildcats for 17 seasons before being let go. Fitzgerald stayed in the game of football and is now returning to the Big Ten to help return the Spartans to the gritty, physical, take-no-prisoners attitude they once had when he had to face Michigan State once a year.

Fitzgerald has claimed that reinstalling the identity of Michigan State is at the top of his priority list. There needs to be fear in opponents’ eyes when they see the Spartans on the schedule, and it’s going to take a lot of discipline and hard work to get there.

If Fitzgerald is able to inject life back into this team, the idea of Michigan State football as it used to be will come screaming through once again. But that will take everything from the coach and the players to have that life reinvigorated.

The main storyline this year is going to be Pat Fitzgerald and how he gets his team to unite in such uncertain times.

One of the first moves Fitzgerald made once arriving in East Lansing was securing his quarterback of the future.

Junior Alessio Milivojevic started the final four games for Michigan State last year, and anyone watching could see how much better the team played offensively and defensively when “Les,” as they call him, was implemented as the starter.

Milivojevic’s ability to evade pressure while throwing seeds downfield was much more noticeable than the previous starter, Aidan Chiles. When the switch happened, the Spartans started competing on every level and looked like a competent team.

Now, Fitzgerald and Spartan Nation expect not just the same Milivojevic who balled out when the pressure was off, but the guy who finished second-best in the Big Ten in PFF grade against pressure, to take the next step forward by not only getting the Spartans in games, but actually closing them out and winning.

Milivojevic was the starter for the Spartans’ only conference win last year and had Michigan State winning in the fourth quarter in three of his final four games. But moral victories are saved for last year’s team. This year’s team is looking for wins only.

If Milivojevic does take that next step and becomes one of the nation’s top quarterbacks, things will look bright in East Lansing.

Speaking of leading in the fourth quarter and not closing games out, that leads us right into the third storyline of the season.

This callout is for both the offense and defense, as it takes two to tango yourself to a victory. The offense will need to rely on Les’ arm talent late in games to extend drives in crucial times, while also leaning on hard-hitting Cam Edwards and the running back room to follow a strong-willed offensive line and push opponents around to keep drives alive and the clock running.

At the same time, the defense will need to be a lot better in the fourth quarter. Michigan State had four wins in its grasp all in the final four games and allowed Minnesota, Penn State and Iowa to flourish when the lights got brightest.

Jordan Hall, Nikai Martinez, Chuck Brantley and every defensive player will be tasked with becoming even more physical and locking down opponents late.

Good teams know how to win. The Spartans will have to prove they do.

This has been my biggest question for the Spartans all offseason, and it didn’t seem to be addressed that much in the transfer portal.

Which Michigan State wide receiver and/or tight end will step up to be the team leader, the go-to guy, the all-or-nothing pass catcher that Les can throw to when there are players in his face and he’s got to throw up a Hail Mary?

On paper, it looks like it should be senior Chrishon McCray, “Big Play McCray.” His experience with Les is vastly overlooked. McCray was struggling to find a rhythm in the Spartans’ offense last year with Chiles starting, but as soon as Milivojevic entered as the starter, McCray’s stats skyrocketed.

Now, with the departure of Nick Marsh, the receiver who led the Spartans in receiving yards the last two seasons, there are a lot of targets that have opened up.

The Spartans brought in guys like Fredrick Moore, KK Smith, Kenneth Williams and Carson Gulker, along with freshman Samson Gash, my projection for the Spartans’ leading receiver. However, all of those guys are very inexperienced in the Big Ten with minimal playing time, or, in Gulker’s case, a ton of playing time but at an FCS school in Ferris State.

Someone is going to have to catch the seeds Milivojevic is putting down the field. The question is, who becomes the leader of the pack?

Finally, the last storyline to watch this season is which of the incoming plethora of transfers steps up to be the best on the team.

From running back Cam Edwards to offensive linemen like Ben Murawski and Trent Fraley, to the other side of the ball with guys like Chuck Brantley returning as a transfer and Eli Coenen, the big defensive tackle, the Spartans are filled with players chomping at the bit to prove their worth in a Big Ten program.

We’ve already seen transfer Kenny Soares Jr. earn the Mr. Spartan tradition of wearing the number one. We’ve already had Coach Fitzgerald announce transfer Trent Fraley as the starting center.

The transfers will all be leaders on this team, with their experience from top to bottom.

Yet, it’ll be a fun side note to watch and compare who the best transfer was at the end of the year, and how and why they impacted the team so much.

Those five storylines could ultimately tell the story of Michigan State’s 2026 season. If Fitzgerald can establish the identity, Milivojevic can take the next step, the Spartans can close games, a true No. 1 pass catcher emerges and the transfers live up to their potential, Michigan State could be much closer to where it wants to be than anyone expects.