Post-Game Notes: Illinois

GAME NOTES
• Michigan State played its first Saturday afternoon road game since a win at Maryland in game two of the season on Sept. 7 after playing a stretch of three straight road night games.

• The Spartans wore all white pants, jerseys and helmets, featuring the gruff Sparty logo, marking the first game this season the Spartans did not have the traditional Spartan head logo on their helmets.

SERIES NOTES
• Saturday was the 49th all-time meeting between Michigan State and Illinois, and despite the loss, MSU has still won 16 of last 21 meetings in the series and still holds a 27-20-2 all-time series advantage, including a 14-11-1 series lead in games played in Champaign.

TEAM NOTES
• Freshman defensive back Jaylen Thompson made his first career start at safety . . . Thompson becomes the 13th first-time starter for Michigan State, which now ranks tied for 10th most in FBS this season.

• Thompson is the second first-time starter on defense, joining redshirt sophomore defensive tackle Alex VanSumeren.

• Redshirt sophomore defensive back Caleb Coley made his first start of the season at cornerback and second of his career.

OFFENSE
• MSU finished with 343 yards of total offense, marking the sixth game this season over 300 yards . . . the Spartans had 256 passing yards, their fourth game with 250-plus yards.

• Sophomore quarterback Aidan Chiles was 23-of-40 for 256 yards with two TDs . . . it was the third game with 20-plus pass completions and the 23 was his second-highest of the season, just one shy of his career-best of 24 in the Maryland game (9/7/24), while the 40 attempts was a new career high, topping his previous mark of 38 from the same Maryland contest . . . the 256 yards is Chiles' fourth game with 200-plus passing yards and matches the second-most of his collegiate career with 256 vs. Iowa (10/19/24) and just behind his career-high of 363 from the aforementioned Maryland game.

• Chiles has now thrown at least one TD pass in four straight games and five of the last six outings, as part of seven of the 10 games this season, now with 10 total TDs on the season . . . with the two TD passes Saturday, Chiles registered his second game with multiple TD tosses, joining three scoring passing in the Maryland game (9/7/24).

• Chiles' 52-yard scoring pass to Aziah Johnson was the second TD pass play of 50-plus yards this season, joining a 77-yard scoring pass from Chiles to freshman wide receiver Nick Marsh in the Maryland game (9/7/24) . . . it was also the Spartans' fourth scoring play of 50 or more yards, joining a 63-yard TD run by graduate running back Kay'ron Lynch-Adams in the season-opener vs. Florida Atlantic (8/30/24) and a 50-yard TD run by redshirt junior running back Nathan Carter vs. Prairie View A&M (9/14/24).

• Freshman wide receiver Nick Marsh has at least one catch in all nine games that he has played, missing the Boston College game with an injury . . . Marsh finished with four catches for 58 yards, just shy of his average of 69.1 ypg that ranked seventh in the B1G and third among FBS freshman.

• With the 58 yards, Marsh extends his MSU true freshman top mark of 611 yards . . . Marsh now has 37 receptions on the season, moving into No. 2 on the Spartans' true freshman receptions list, passing Cody White (2017) with 35, and is the most by a freshman wide receiver, trailing running back Sedrick Irvin (1996) with 40.

• Redshirt freshman wide receiver Aziah Johnson snared his career-long catch with the 52-yard TD reception from Aidan Chiles in the first quarter . . . it was Johnson's first TD catch in a B1G contest and second overall of the season, with a 17-yard TD reception vs. Prairie View A&M (9/14/24).

• Johnson topped his career-high receiving total in the first half alone, adding an 8-yard catch and a 10-yard reception in the second quarter for 70 yards before halftime . . . Johnson's top two marks of his career have come on the road, as Saturday's outing bettered his previous top mark of 59 yards at Boston College (9/21/24).

• With a reception on the Spartans' opening drive of the second half, senior wide receiver Montorie Foster Jr. extended his team-leading streak of at least one reception to 23-consecutive games, dating back to 2022 . . . Foster now has at least one catch in 33 of his last 45 career games played.

• Foster finished with a season-high tying six receptions for 76 yards, matching the half-dozen catches vs. Maryland (9/7/24) . . . the Spartan senior has had three or more receptions in nine of the 10 games, including four or more in the last four games . . . Foster's 76 yards is his third-most of the season, behind his career-high 100 yards vs. Iowa (10/19/24) and 87 at Boston College (9/21/24) . . . the 76 yards is also his fifth game with 50-plus yards.

• Foster's second reception of the game was his 100th career reception, becoming the 34th Spartan football player with 100 career catches.

• Redshirt junior running back Nathan Carter snared the first TD catch of his collegiate career, matching his jersey-number with a 5-yard catch on MSU's opening possession of the second half.

• Carter ended the game with a season-high and career-best tying five catches, matching his most of five for the fourth time of his career, most recently done last season at Minnesota (10/28/23).

• Carter now has 13 receptions this season, 35 for his MSU career and 59 for his collegiate career.

DEFENSE
• Redshirt junior linebacker Darius Snow posted five tackles in the first half alone, tying a season-high from five stops vs. Iowa (10/19/24) . . . Snow finished the game with a team-leading seven tackles, for a new season-high and his most stops post-injury, after missing a majority of the 2022 and 2023 seasons with an injury; it was Snow's most stops since seven tackles in the 2021 match-up with Penn State (11/27/21).

• It was Snow's 10th career game with five or more stops, including a streak of eight straight games during the 2021 season, from Oct. 2 - Nov. 27, 2021.

• Graduate linebacker Cal Haladay registered six tackles, including on three straight plays in the first quarter, as part of five stops in the first half . . . the six stops marks Haladay's sixth game this season with five or more stops.

• Senior linebacker Jordan Turner logged six tackles, including 1.0 tackle for loss, tallying his eighth game with five or more stops out of the 10 contests this season.

• Turner now has at least 0.5 tackle for loss in seven of the 10 games and 8.5 TFLs for the season.

• Freshman defensive back Jaylen Thompson posted five tackles in his first career start, giving him 11 tackles in the last two games after logging a season-high six stops last time out vs. Indiana (11/2/24) . . . Thompson has 14 total tackles on the season in playing four games, with three tackles in his Spartan debut vs. Ohio State (9/28/24) and playing in the game at Oregon (10/4/24).

SPECIAL TEAMS

• Graduate placekicker Jonathan Kim split the uprights from 38-yards out at the end of the first half and is now 9-of-11 on field goals in the last four games as part of 18-of-20 on the season, leading the Big Ten and among the FBS leaders.

• Kim has made at least one field goal in eight of the 10 games this season and in 17 of his 22 games as a Spartan.

• For the season, Kim is now 17-of-19 on PATs this season and 38-of-40 for his career . . . he is also 31-of-39 on FGs for his career.

• Redshirt sophomore punter Ryan Eckley had six punts for a 45.3 ypp average, with a long of 53 yards, along with pinning one inside the 20 . . . Eckley also recorded one tackle.

• With the 53-yarder, Eckley has registered at least one 50-yard punt in the last 15 games with a punt, as part of 16 of the last 18 and 17 of his last 20 games . . . Eckley has 18 50-plus yards punts this season and 42 for his career.

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Players Mentioned

Aidan Chiles

Caleb Coley

Ryan Eckley

Montorie Foster Jr.

Cal Haladay

Aziah Johnson

Jonathan Kim

Kay'ron Lynch-Adams

Nick Marsh

Darius Snow

Jaylen Thompson

Jordan Turner

Alex VanSumeren

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