Post-Game Notes: Eastern Michigan

GAME NOTES
• Michigan State improved to 2-0 in the Pat Fitzgerald era with Saturday's 35-7 win over Eastern Michigan.

• With Saturday's win, Fitzgerald now has 112 wins, and takes over sole possession of No. 13 spot on the Big Ten football coaches all-time list, pulling away from a tie from John Cooper from Ohio State (1988-2000) . . . next up at No. 12 on the B1G list is Fielding Yost of Michigan with 113 wins and at No. 11 is Mark Dantonio (Michigan State, 2007-19).

• Fitzgerald is No. 2 among active Big Ten coaches behind Kirk Ferentz of Iowa (1999-present) with 209 wins.

• MSU remains unbeaten all-time against EMU, improving to 11-0, including a 9-0 mark in East Lansing . . . Saturday was the first meeting between the Spartans and Eagles since 2014 . . . with Saturday's 35-7 score, the Spartans have now outscored the Eagles, 432-84 (average score: 39.3-7.6) over those 11 all-time meetings . . . the two teams met twice during the 1898 season and once in 1899 before not playing again until 1996.

• Michigan State University inducted seven individuals into its Athletics Hall of Fame for the 2026 Class on Friday night: Lindsay Bowen (women's basketball), Dan Currie (football), Tico Duckett (football/men's track & field), Walt Drenth (men's and women's cross country and track & field coach), Sue Latter-Addison (women's cross country and track & field), Kalin Lucas (men's basketball) and Leah O'Connor (women's cross country and track & field) . . . There was also a special recognition during halftime of Saturday's game for the 2026 Class.

OFFENSE
• With its 35 points Saturday and its 30 points in the season opener, Michigan State has scored 30 or more points in its first two games this season as well as its last three games total, dating back to the 2025 season finale with 38 points . . . it marks the first time since 2023 that MSU has scored 30+ points in its first two games of the season, as part of the fourth time in the last six seasons (2021, 2022, 2023, 2026), and the fifth time in the last 12 seasons (2015, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2026).

• After dominating time of possession by nearly 30 minutes last time out vs. Toledo, Michigan State had a slim, 31:21-28:39 edge in time of possession, despite EMU having the ball for 11:09 of the first quarter compared to just 3:51 for MSU, as the Spartans countered with a 11:40-3:20 advantage in the fourth quarter.

• Michigan State scored five touchdowns on its nine offensive drives Saturday . . . after five field goals and two TDs last week, the Spartans scored five TDs Saturday and now have seven TDs and five FGs for 12 scores out of 19 drives.

• The Spartans had four drives of 10 plays or more, scoring on two of them, with a 16-play drive that ended with a TD in the first quarter, a 13-play that ended with a TD in the third quarter, a 12-play drive that ended with a punt in the second quarter and a 10-play drive to run out the clock at the end of the game.

• MSU's 16-play TD drive was the Spartans' longest scoring drive since a 17-play TD drive last season vs. Nebraska (10/4/25) . . . the Spartans' 16-play drive ate up 7:19 of clock, the longest scoring drive by time since the same aforementioned 17-play at Nebraska that chewed up 9:45 on the clock.

• Michigan State amassed 472 yards of total offense, which was the Spartans' highest offensive output since game 2 of the 2024 season with 484 yards at Maryland (Sept. 7, 2024).

• MSU's 258 yards rushing on Saturday was its most since game 2 of the 2022 season with 260 yards vs. Akron (Sept. 10, 2022) . . . the Spartans' 214 yards passing was also a season high and the most since the 2025 season-finale vs. Maryland (Nov. 29, 2025 at Ford Field in Detroit).

• Redshirt-sophomore quarterback Alessio Milivojevic was 12-of-20 passing (.600) for 170 yards and two TDs . . . the 170 yards passing snapped Milivojevic's streak of three-straight outings with 200+ passing yards . . . with only 12 completions Saturday, Milivojevic's streak of 20+ completions also came to a halt at three in a row.

• Milivojevic has thrown for at least one TD in his last four starts as part of in eight of his last 10 games, now with 13 TDs for his career . . . Saturday's two TDs was Milivojevic's third time with multiple TDs out of the last four games, with two passing scores vs. Iowa last season and four in the season finale vs. Maryland.

• Milivojevic completed a pass to nine different receivers Saturday.

• Graduate running back Cam Edwards had 152 rushing yards on 21 carries and two TDs . . . Edwards is MSU's first running back with 150+ rushing yards in game since Kenneth Walker III had 197 yards vs. Michigan on Oct. 30, 2021.

• Edwards' 21 carries was his second-straight outing as a Spartan with 20+ rushing attempts after a career-high 27 last time out vs. Toledo . . . overall it was Edwards' eighth career game with 20 or more carries.

• The 152-yard rushing outing was his first 100-yard outing as a Spartan and the 10th 100-yard rushing outing of his collegiate career after nine during his three seasons at UConn . . . it was his fourth 100-yard outing in his last five games, ending the 2025 season with three-straight before the streak came to an end with 98 yards last time out in his Spartan debut, but back on track Saturday with the 152 yards.

• Edwards' 152 yards was his third-most of his career and his second most against a Mid-American Conference team behind his career-high 194 yards vs. Ball State (9/20/25) and 165 yards vs. Air Force (11/15/25).

• With the two rushing TDs, Edwards tied his career-high for the sixth time of his career, and the first time since two in UConn's game vs. FAU (11/22/25) . . . it was Edwards' third outing with two TDs out of his last five games played.

• Graduate running back Jaziun Patterson scored his first rushing TD as a Spartan and his fifth career score, with four rushing TDs during his four seasons at Iowa (2022-25).

• Redshirt-freshman tight end Jayden Savoury had a career-high tying four receptions after four catches last week vs. Toledo, but Savoury's 51 yards on Saturday was a new career-high, topping his 36 yards last time out in the Toledo game.

• Redshirt-freshman wide receiver Charles Taplin snared the first TD catch of his career with a 38-yard scoring pass from Milivojevic in the third quarter . . . Taplin finished with a career highs of three catches for 65 yards and the TD, after only one catch for 8 yards last season at Minnesota (11/1/25).

DEFENSE
• The Spartan defense forced had one takeaway for the second game in a row with a fumble recovery, along with a season-high 4.0 sacks of former MSU QB and current EMU QB Noah Kim, along with a season-high 7.0 tackles for loss, three pass break-ups and six QB hurries.

• Redshirt-junior safety Devin Vaught and redshirt-sophomore linebacker Brady Pretzloff led MSU's defense in tackles for the second-straight game, this time tying with a season-best eight stops apiece.

• Pretzloff's eight tackles is a new career-high for the second-straight game this season after five stops last week vs. Toledo . . . Pretzloff now has 13 tackles this season in two games, topping his total of 11 stops in seven games in 2024-25, playing four games as a true freshman in 2024 and three last season with an injury.

• Vaught's eight tackles is his second career game with eight or more stops after his career-high 10 tackles in his final game at Maine in a border-battle with New Hampshire (11/22/25) . . . overall, it was Vaught's sixth career game with seven or more stops.

• Vaught also tied his career-high with 1.0 TFL for the third time of his career, last doing so vs. Liberty (8/30/25).

• Redshirt-junior defensive junior defensive lineman Eli Coenen finished with 2.0 sacks on Saturday as he logged at least 1.0 sack for his second-straight game as a Spartan and his third-consecutive career game with at least 1.0 sack after 1.0 sack last season while at Illinois in the 2025 Music City Bowl vs. Tennessee (12/30/25).

• Coenen's 2.0 sacks were the most as a Division I career, and tied his collegiate career-high with 2.0 sacks during the 2024 season while at Division II Bemidji State in a contest vs. Western Colorado (11/30/24).

• Graduate edge Kenny Soares Jr. posted a career-high 1.5 tackles for loss, topping his previous career-best of 1.0 TFLs a total of nine previous times in his career (2022-24 at Northwestern; 2025 at NC State), last doing so last season vs. Memphis (12/19/25).

• Soares also tied his career-high with 1.0 sacks for the third time of his collegiate career, last going so vs. Utah (12/23/23).

• With his forced fumble and recovery in the third quarter, graduate cornerback Charles Brantley logged the first forced fumble and fumble recovery of his six-year collegiate career.

SPECIAL TEAMS
• One week after graduate placekicker Liam Boyd split the uprights a career-high five times and finished with 16 points on the night in the win over Toledo, Boyd had a five PATs on Saturday, the second-most of his collegiate career behind his career-best of six PATs during his time at Charlotte, which came in a game vs. Monmouth (9/13/25).

• Redshirt-senior wide receiver/punt returner Chrishon McCray had a career-long 31-yards punt return Saturday in his only return of the night, which came a week after the first three punt returns of his collegiate career last time out vs. Toledo.

• Junior punter Rhys Dakin had a season-long 59-yard punt on Saturday, which came on his first punt of the day on MSU's opening possession of the game . . . it was Dakin's longest punt as a Spartan and the 27th 50+ yarder of his collegiate career with 26 during his two seasons at Iowa . . . Saturday's 59-yarder was the fourth-longest of his career, behind his career-long of 65 yards, along with two punts of 61 yards.

• Dakin's 59-yard punt was downed at the EMU 3-yardline, marking his second punt inside the 10 this season and the 14th punt inside the 10 of his collegiate career as part of the 49th career punt inside the 20.

Michigan State University Athletics

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Players Mentioned

Liam Boyd

Charles Brantley

Eli Coenen

Rhys Dakin

Cam Edwards

Chrishon McCray

Alessio Milivojevic

Jaziun Patterson

Jayden Savoury

Kenny Soares Jr.

Charles Taplin

Devin Vaught

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