Michigan State has its first set of captains for the 2022 football season.
On Wednesday, the Spartans announced fifth-year senior safety Xavier Henderson, redshirt junior quarterback Payton Thorne and sixth-year senior punter Bryce Baringer as the captains for the season opener against the Western Michigan Broncos on Friday night (7 p.m. Eastern Time, ESPN).
Henderson comes as no surprise, as he was the only Michigan State player to be named a captain for all 13 games in 2021 and is an unquestioned leader of this program. While Michigan State rotates captains weekly, expect that to be the case in 2022 as well.