EAST LANSING – Mark Dantonio and Michigan State’s coaches made it abundantly clear throughout August. This year’s team would be young.
Two games in, and that’s holding true. The green Spartans’ next task is their biggest yet, a night game against Notre Dame on Saturday (8 p.m./Fox). And in many ways, it’s going to be a primetime midterm exam for an inexperienced nucleus.
So far through two games, MSU has used 10 true freshmen and nine redshirt freshmen. That is 28.8% of the 66 Spartans who have played this season. Sixteen of the 56 players who saw action in both games were part of that true/redshirt freshman group.