Kenneth Walker III, Payton Thorne nearing Michigan State football single-season records

EAST LANSING – Here are the Michigan State football players who helped or hurt their stock in the Spartans’ 40-21 win over Maryland on Saturday.

Three up

■ RB Kenneth Walker III — A tweaked ankle couldn’t slow down the junior’s late-season quest to impress the Heisman Trophy voters. Walker ran a career-high 30 times for 143 yards and two touchdowns, adding a pair of receptions for another 29 yards (26 of those yards after the catch). His 1,473 rushing yards rank eighth in MSU’s single-season list, while Walker’s 17 rushing TDs are tied for seventh-most in a single season. His 148.9-yard rushing average through nine games and 6.8 yards per carry are better than Alabama’s Derrick Henry (139.3 and 5.8 in 2015) and Mark Ingram II (127.6 and 6.6 in 2009), the last two running backs to win the award.

■ QB Payton Thorne — Don’t look now, but Walker isn’t the only one closing in on some records. Thorne threw four touchdowns in a game for the third time this season, and his 21 passing scores are tied for the sixth-most in a single season by an MSU quarterback. The sophomore is five shy of breaking Kirk Cousins’ mark of 24, set in 2011. Thorne went 22 of 31 for 287 yards and has 2,460 passing yards on the season, closing in quickly on the top 10 single-season list.

■ CB Marqui Lowery/Ronald Williams II — The two transfers came up with big plays while pushing through injuries. With Chuck Brantley out, Lowery returned after sitting at Purdue with a nagging left leg issue that has limited him to five games this season. The Louisville transfer delivered a career-high seven tackles, including a bone-crunching hit late tight end Chigoziem Okonkwo in the fourth quarter. Williams, who arrived from Alabama via junior college, swatted away a critical fourth-down pass in the final period and made three stops.

Three down

■ DEs Drew Beesley/Jacub Panasiuk — MSU for the second straight game struggled to get to the quarterback from the veteran edge rushers. Panasiuk had two QB hurries but did not have a tackle for the first time since the opener at Northwestern. Beesley, who also lined up inside at times, struggled to contain Maryland’s Taulia Tagovailoa, who ran past the sixth-year senior for a 45-yard gain on third-and-3 to set up the Terps’ first touchdown.

■ Pass coverage — The Spartans continue to struggle in stopping opponents’ passing, particularly over the middle on intermediate and crossing routes and in the screen game. The linebackers are struggling to cover tight ends and running backs, with both Cal Haladay and Noah Harvey getting flagged for pass interference. Meantime, Xavier Henderson admitted to a busted coverage on a late first-half touchdown pass, and fellow safety Angelo Grose also has been out of position on seam routes.

■ K Stephan Rusnak — It is a tough spot for a freshman walk-on to replace sixth-year kicker Matt Coghlin, and Rusnak — who missed his first career field-goal attempt at Purdue a week earlier — blew his one point-after attempt in the first quarter. Rusnak also managed just two touchbacks in seven kickoffs, with one coming from the 50-yard line, and that gave Maryland some return opportunities the Spartans can’t afford against a much better Ohio State team Saturday.

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari. Read more on the Michigan State Spartans and sign up for our Spartans newsletter.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State football: Kenneth Walker III, Payton Thorne eye records