Spartans Host Washington; Look to Build Off UM Win

Hard to believe we are now in the last quarter of the 2026 football regular season and the Spartans have just two more games in Spartan Stadium. The first is this Saturday against the Washington Huskies (4:15 PM ET, BTN). Here, we’ll take a closer look at the Huskies and some of the storylines for this game.

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Washington Season Recap

Washington enters at 5-4 overall and 2-4 in the Big Ten. The Huskies are coming off a 28-25 home loss to Penn State.

UW didn’t play the toughest non-conference schedule in facing Washington State, Utah State, and Eastern Washington and emerged 3-0 to start the season. The Big Ten hasn’t been as kind but one thing that might be in the Huskies’ favor is that their two conference wins have come on the road – against Purdue (October 16) and Nebraska (October 31).

In addition to Penn State, Washington has lost at USC and dropped home games to Minnesota and Iowa.

Most of the Huskies’ games have been close. The largest margin of victory in conference was against Purdue (38-26) and biggest defeat was to Iowa (41-24). Washington’s other conference games were all within one score.

Washington Offense

Demond Williams Jr. is Washington’s quarterback and, like Washington’s season, his play has been up and down. Williams is a 5-11, 190 lb junior who saw action for the Huskies as a true freshman, where he completed 78% of his passes for 844 yards, eight touchdowns and one interception. Williams became Washington’s full-time starter as a sophomore last year, completing nearly 70% of his passes for 3065 yards and 25 TDs.

This performance reportedly led to a big NIL deal to keep Williams at Washington but outside influences apparently still managed to find a way to . . . influence. Williams announced his intention to enter the transfer portal on January 6 but Washington, citing his NIL contract, refused to enter his name. Two days later, Williams announced his intention to stay at UW.

It was a short-lived distraction but one has to wonder if this has had any impact on Washington’s team dynamics and season so far. The Huskies went 9-4 last year, with a bowl win over Boise State, as Williams put together a great season. Washington will need to win out just to match that record this year.

Williams’ is also not producing at quite the same level. His completion percentage has dropped to 64.5% and his yards per attempt has gone from 8.7 last year to 7.6 this year. In conference play, Williams threw for 239 yards in the loss to Minnesota but didn’t crack 200 in the losses to USC and Penn State. Washington is 0-4 in conference games that Williams has started this year.

Even worse for Williams, he was knocked out of the Iowa game with an injury on October 9 and relieved by junior Elijah Brown. The Stanford transfer threw for 251 yards against the Hawkeyes and then followed that up 302 more in the Huskies’ win at Purdue. Brown also led the offense in the win over Nebraska but Washington returned to Williams under center against Penn State.

Bottom line for Michigan State: the Spartans will probably have to prepare for two UW quarterbacks this week.

Neither Washington quarterback has had much help from the run game. Washington is second-to-last in the Big Ten with only 99.3 rushing yards per game and averages just 3.6 yards per carry. Michigan State is one spot ahead of UW, averaging 110.1 yards. The Huskies have had just one game this year with a 100-yard rusher (the win at Purdue). Freshman Brian Bonner Jr. is UW’s leading rusher with 318 yards on 4.4 ypc and one touchdown. The quarterback, Williams, is next with 254 yards on 3.5 ypc and two TDs.

Perhaps as a result of the struggling run game, Washington has leaned more heavily on the pass. The Huskies have thrown the ball on 56% of their offensive plays this year and Williams and Brown have multiple reliable targets. Five wide receivers and two tight ends have at least 9 catches so far this year but UW does not seem to throw it to their running backs nearly as often.

Washington Defense

The Husky defense has been solid and ranks near the middle of the conference in points allowed per game (10th at 21.9) but teams have been able to move the ball on Washington. UW is just 13th in the league in giving up 350.4 yards per game (136 rushing and 214.4 passing). For comparison, the Spartan D now ranks 10th in the league after the great performance against Michigan, in allowing 337 yards per game.

Ryan Walters is Washington’s defensive coordinator and he has been employing the same scheme as when he was DC at Illinois and head coach at Purdue. The Huskies play a 4-2-5 base but often modify this by bringing a fifth player to the line of scrimmage. Here’s guessing Walters will do this often against MSU, and possibly stack the box with even more defensive players, in an attempt to get Alessio Milivojevic to put the ball in the air.

Michigan State, however, is unlikely to give up on the run easily. The Spartans are the opposite of Washington in running on 56% of their offensive plays and MSU found some success on the ground against Michigan’s strong defense.

Middle linebacker Jacob Manu (5-10, 225, SR) organizes Washington’s defense and had 49 tackles and three sacks this year.

What to Watch

Spartans get back to work. Through six straight losses and multiple injuries, this team didn’t quit. That effort finally paid off with a win at Michigan. Now, how well will with MSU refocus and get back to work after an emotional win against their rival? After creating great plans for the Michigan game, and having the players execute those plans, what will MSU coordinators Nick Sheridan and Joe Rossi come up with for Washington?

Spartan Stadium advantage. I feel like I bring this up for every home game but what will the home crowd be like on Saturday? Pat Fitzgerald has praised the MSU fans all season and said in his post game presser at Michigan that he’s looking for more great support from the Spartan faithful in the last two home games. As of this writing, it looks like it will be cool (mid-30’s) during the game, but dry. We’ll see how much excitement the Michigan win generated. Hopefully the team, and the fans, return to Spartan Stadium ready to go.

Feels like another close one. As mentioned above, most of Washington’s games have been close this year. The Spartans did some good things offensively at Michigan but probably aren’t going to light up the scoreboard against Washington. Washington’s offense probably has a bit more punch than Michigan’s but relies heavily on the pass. Can the Spartans coverage hold up and can they get pressure on the Husky QB like they did at Michigan?

Go Green!