EAST LANSING — The last time Jalen Thompson played at Ford Field, Michigan State football’s frustrating season came crashing to an end in blowout fashion. A coaching change came a day later.
Two years later, the Spartans head to Detroit again to face Maryland. This time, Thompson sees a difference — a group that continues to fight even while mired in an eight-game losing streak and with their coaches’ futures in purgatory.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementEven if the season-ending outcome might be the same.
“We want to leave our seniors with a win, just giving them the best opportunity as possible,” the junior defensive end said Tuesday, Nov. 25. “All these games we’re playing, they’re bigger than the program, it’s bigger than us. So it’s just playing for the guys next to us, playing for our seniors.”
Aug 29, 2025; East Lansing, Michigan, USA; Michigan State Spartans defensive lineman Jalen Thompson (9) celebrates a tackle for a safety in the third quarter at Spartan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brendan Mullin-Imagn ImagesMSU (3-8, 0-8 Big Ten) will be looking to salvage a victory to avoid going winless in conference play when the Spartans face Maryland (4-7, 1-7) on Saturday, Nov. 29. Kickoff is 7 p.m. (FS1). The team hopes to end the second-longest losing streak in program history and avoid going without a Big Ten victory for the first time since an 0-5-1 finish in 1958 under Duffy Daugherty.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“It would mean a lot,” redshirt freshman quarterback Alessio Milivojevic said Tuesday. “Going to Ford Field this weekend, it would be an awesome experience. It’s gonna be even better if we get that win to send the seniors out the right way and just go into the offseason confident and ready to work.”
More: Another week of limbo for Jonathan Smith, Michigan State football
The Spartans have played twice at Ford Field, the first a 30-17 win over Florida Atlantic on Sept. 11, 2010, in a matchup that was technically a home game for the Owls. In 2023, MSU took its final home game to Detroit against Penn State. It had been moved months before Mel Tucker was fired, and interim coach Harlon Barnett’s team limped through a 42-0 day-after-Thanksgiving thrashing by the Nittany Lions.
Jonathan Smith was hired the next day. But he went 5-7 last year with three Big Ten wins, though NCAA infractions that occurred under Tucker forced Smith and MSU to vacate those wins earlier this month. That included the first Big Ten win for Smith last season at Maryland.
DETROIT, MICHIGAN - NOVEMBER 24: Nicholas Singleton #10 of the Penn State Nittany Lions runs the ball up the field in the first quarter of a game against the Michigan State Spartans at Ford Field on November 24, 2023 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Mike Mulholland/Getty Images)Smith now technically is without a conference victory due to MSU vacating last season, and his team hasn’t won a game this fall in more than two months. That stretch includes two frustrating narrow misses, a 23-20 overtime loss at Minnesota on Nov. 1 and a 20-17 loss Nov. 22 at Iowa on a last-second field goal after the Spartans blew a 10-point lead going into the fourth quarter.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“I’m a firm believer that you learn more from when things don’t go well,” defensive coordinator Joe Rossi said Tuesday. “And when things are hard, it really reveals what you believe and who you are. And there’s a bunch of guys in that room who, who they are is how I would want my sons to be.
“And so you can take that for what you want for a football game. But really, in life, those guys, those seniors, they’re gonna be successful in what they do. We’ve all been through it — you get out there in the real world and it comes at you, and there’s some hard times. Not everyone is equipped to handle them, but they’ll be equipped.”
For Thompson, Saturday's game will be his fourth time playing at Ford Field. The Detroit native and Cass Tech alum played a youth league game there, a high school game and started as a true freshman for the Spartans against PSU in 2023.
“It’s a great opportunity to get a feel for it, to see the atmosphere and to see what it’s like being in an NFL stadium,” said Thompson.
Sparty, the Michigan State mascot, runs out of the tunnel before the game against Penn State on Friday, Nov. 24, 2023, at Ford Field.MSU’s 2010 game drew 36,124 fans, while the 2023 game had a crowd of 51,927 at Ford Field. This time, however, the school is giving fans who have already purchased tickets an option for two more free passes. That's because the crowd to watch two Big Ten bottom dwellers is expected to be far less less than the stadium's 65,000 capacity. The Terrapins have lost seven straight since opening Big Ten play with a win over Wisconsin.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“I think both programs are really hungry for a win and to take some momentum into the offseason,” MSU offensive coordinator Brian Lindgren said Tuesday. “And I know the guys, the way we practiced today, I was pretty pleased with the way those guys have continued to compete.”
Contact Chris Solari: [email protected]. Follow him @chrissolari.
Subscribe to the "Spartan Speak" podcast for new episodes on Apple, Spotify or anywhere you listen to podcasts.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State is different from team that got whacked at Ford Field
AdvertisementAdvertisement
