Michigan State football stock watch: Run game posts big day, continues late-season surge

EAST LANSING — Here are the Michigan State football players who helped or hurt their stock in the Spartans’ 39-31 double-overtime loss Saturday to Indiana:

Three up

RB Elijah Collins: If it was Collins’ final home game as a Spartan, he did what he set out to achieve and left it all on the Spartan Stadium field. The 6-foot-1, 215-pound senior, who battled COVID and other injuries the past three seasons, turned the clock back to 2019, when he nearly ran for 1,000 yards as a redshirt freshman. Collins churned his legs through contact and produced a 31-yard touchdown run in the third quarter after a 1-yard score before halftime. He finished with 109 yards on 19 carries and two TDs — the most in each category for the Detroit native since 2019 — while adding career highs of four catches for 43 yards. Collins has 285 yards on 60 carries with six scores this season.

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RB Jalen Berger: The sophomore’s late-season resurgence continued against the Hoosiers. Berger continued to have moments where his vision missed creases, but the times when he sees holes and makes quick cutbacks with speed and power are becoming more and more the norm. The 6-1, 215-pounder posted his best Big Ten performance, even in seven games at Wisconsin in 2020 and ’21, with 119 yards on 21 carries against the Hoosiers. Berger has averaged 95.0 yards on the ground over his last three games and leads the Spartans with 669 yards on 141 carries with six touchdowns on the season.

Offensive line: Speaking of turnarounds, MSU’s offensive line continued to show growth and development — even without veterans Matt Carrick, Jarrett Horst and Brian Greene. Geno VanDeMark returned from injury to play the majority of the snaps at right guard, while Brandon Baldwin started his third straight game at left tackle. See the results above, with MSU having its first 100-plus-yard rushing day by two ball-carriers since Nick Hill (178 yards) and Jeremy Langford (109 yards) did it against the Hoosiers on Oct. 18, 2014. The Spartans front five also protected quarterback Payton Thorne, posting back-to-back games without allowing a sack for the first time since the Western Kentucky and Rutgers games last season.

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Three down

Special teams: Assistant coach Ross Els’ unit proved to be an unmitigated disaster across the board. The kickoff coverage unit allowed Jaylin Lucas to open the game with a 43-yard return to midfield, then an 88-yard touchdown return in the third quarter. MSU allowed 202 yards on six kickoff returns as freshman Jack Stone failed to deliver a touchback. Kicker Ben Patton missed a 22-yard potential game-winner as time expired in regulation, then in overtime had a 28-yarder try blocked after backup long snapper Michael Donovan’s snap nearly soared over holder Bryce Baringer’s head. Baringer also failed to kick to his usually elite level with the winds affecting both his punts and Donovan’s snaps.

Jay Johnson: Despite a season-high 540 yards of offense, MSU looked disjointed in the second half. The Spartans failed in short-yardage situations — including failing to get into the end zone on their first possession despite four chances from inside the IU 10, which included first- and second-down runs the Hoosiers’ defense stuffed. Johnson’s overreliance on the flea-flicker is apparent — the first Spartans’ first play went for a 39-yard pass from Payton Thorne to Keon Coleman, but Indiana had their second one to open the second half diagnosed from the snap. Then there was the final drive of regulation, with MSU using tempo offense despite trying to drain the clock as much as possible and Thorne coming out of a timeout and nearly having a delay of game penalty with confusion.

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Mel Tucker: Along with Johnson’s erratic ending to regulation, Tucker’s use of two timeouts in the final 1:06 was equally as puzzling as the third-year head coach saying the Spartans were playing for a touchdown on the final drive of the fourth quarter. MSU ran the ball six times in eight plays after crossing midfield with more than 2 minutes to play in regulation, the two passes both short, quick looks to tight ends (Daniel Barker for 2 yards, Maliq Carr for 5 on third-and-4 with 1:46 left). The 17-point collapse looked reminiscent to previous Spartan losses under John L. Smith (Michigan in 2004 and Notre Dame in 2006) and Mark Dantonio (Illinois in 2019).

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari. Download our Spartans Xtra app for free on Apple and Android devices!

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State football stock watch: Run game's late-season surge