Connor Earegood of The Detroit News shares three takeaways from Michigan State’s 35-7 win over Eastern Michigan on Saturday, Sept. 12.

MSU’s crop of receivers continues to expand

Michigan State entered the season eyeing a committee approach at wide receiver. Its second game against Eastern Michigan reinforced that notion.

Five different wide receivers made a catch as Michigan State threw to nine different players on Saturday, including two explosive catches from Charles Taplin and a big touchdown grab from Fredrick Moore.

If that’s a crowded room, Fitzgerald joked that he tried to add one more receiver to the mix: All-American point guard Jeremy Fears Jr., who visited practice during the week.

“I was trying to get him to play receiver. I don’t think Tom (Izzo) will let me do that,” Fitzgerald said.

As Chrishon McCray and Rodney Bullard continued to be favorite targets for quarterback Alessio Milivojevic (12-20, 170 yards, two touchdowns), Taplin in particular flashed as another potential difference-maker in the room. He made a critical 19-yard highpoint on fourth-and-11, then scored his first career touchdown from 38 yards out with a little stutter step that beat the corner.

Taplin didn’t play a single snap in Week 1. A performance like Saturday’s — three targets, three catches for 65 yards and a touchdown — shows there are probably more to come.

“I think one thing that’s grown with him is his confidence,” Milivojevic said. “I wouldn’t say he lacked it earlier in the year, but it’s something that he’s really worked on. He’s built it up. … I’m just really proud of him.”

Ditto from the head ball coach.

“You guys heard me say last week when I got up here, I want to play more guys,” Fitzgerald said. “And that was stressed to the players. Like, I want to play you. I want to get you out there. You’ve got to earn that trust in practice, and (Taplin has) been grinding.”

Cam Fancher brings a wrinkle that teams must respect

It’s rare for a quarterback with 39 career games to be a backup, but that’s where Cam Fancher finds himself as Milivojevic leads the Michigan State offense. However, he isn’t without his own little niche, and it’s one that paid off for the Spartans.

Fancher checked in midway through the opening drive of the second half, completing all six of his throws for 44 yards before handing the reins back to Milivojevic. Cam Edwards ended up punching in the touchdown off a wildcat look, making three different players to take a snap on the drive.

“We feel great about our quarterback situation,” Fitzgerald said. “I think (Milivojevic) has been outstanding, but we’ve got a weapon in Cam, and we’ve got to find ways to make it work where he can be a part of the game plan.”

Milivojevic is the starter, but Fancher — a southpaw who fans might remember from all the targeting calls he drew in a 2024 start at Spartan Stadium for Florida Atlantic — offers more of an improviser’s package. He may be a lefty, but he can roll out to either side and challenge a defense to come at him. He took a hard hit on one play, but otherwise did a good job of delivering the ball to his teammates.

Where some quarterback competitions — né, controversies — may end in some competitive rivalry between the competitors, this quarterback room has a sense of humility. Milivojevic sounded earnest when he praised what Fancher’s package does for the MSU offense.

“You want to get him in the game,” Milivojevic said. “So it’s just knowing the times to put him in, and just staying ready at all times for both of us. Because it might be a drive where Cam gets in like he did this game, and he led us all the way down the field.

“I think it’s just really cool that we’re going to utilize every single good player on our team.”

Communication is vital, with or without Jordan Hall

Pluck a mike linebacker out of any defense in the country and you’re bound to see a fall-off. Without injured linebacker Jordan Hall, Michigan State’s unit struggled in the first half to get off the field, giving up big plays on third downs as Eastern Michigan quarterback Noah Kim backyard-footballed his way down the field.

When it comes to communication, the buck doesn’t just stop at the green dot. And though linebacker Brady Pretzlaff did well to shoulder that responsibility in his second career start, Fitzgerald saw wider issues in how his defense communicated.

“I didn’t feel like we had necessarily communication issues because of the green dot. I think we had communication issues because we weren’t talking at times,” Fitzgerald said.

That tracks with what the product looked like on the field. A week after a bad fill from the safety position led to a 71-yard touchdown for Toledo, this time Eastern Michigan rattled off a handful of runs going eight or more yards because of poor fits from the second and third levels.

There were some experienced players in the mix there: Nikai Martinez got washed out of a couple plays, and a pair of experienced transfers in Michael Richard and Tre Bell came in at bad angles a couple times. At linebacker, Dion Crawford drew his first start for MSU, and he spent a couple of timeouts looking over an iPad with linebackers coach Max Bullough and Hall.

“I think everyone communicated really well,” said defensive tackle Eli Coenen, vouching for his teammates in front of the mics and cameras. “Like, linebackers are really good. Safeties, corners, obviously I can’t really hear them that much. But the linebackers, I heard them really well. So no drop off.”

Fitzgerald and defensive coordinator Joe Rossi probably think otherwise. How that gets addressed will be important going into a hostile road environment at Notre Dame.

cearegood@detroitnews.com

@ConnorEaregood

This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Three things we learned in Michigan State’s win over Eastern Michigan

Reporting by Connor Earegood, The Detroit News / The Detroit News

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