“It is stunning to see a 54 on the board, and there is a lot of pride of what we've done here in the past and people that we have here right now,” co-defensive coordinator Mike Tressel said following MSU’s loss to Northwestern. “I do expect to see people coming back swinging, but we need to watch the film and be honest with it and see who is really flying around on the ball like we have in the past.”

One of those guys flying around has been junior safety Montae Nicholson. He has taken on more of a leadership role with the team after Darian Hicks went down with an injury, leaving underclassmen at both cornerback slots. The loss of Riley Bullough and Jon Reschke left a noticeable lack of communication, and that’s where Nicholson is focusing his attention.

“He’s helped me out a lot,” sophomore safety Khari Willis said of Nicholson. “We communicate a lot. I see him a lot off the field so that’s more like a brother than anything. He’s having a tremendous year, so it’s somebody that, I mean I go to before the game and I’m in his ear. And when I come in the game he’s in my ear. So we kind of look out for each other like brothers.”

Nicholson has yet to record an interception this season after picking up three the year prior, but he has performed with major strides of improvement, particularly in the tackling department. He finished strong last season, placing second on the team with 83 tackles and leading them with 52 solo tackles. Nicholson, however, still saw room for growth.

“I tried to work on my tackling a lot,” Nicholson chuckled, as he recognized some struggles he had in that department last year. “I tried to pay more attention to that.”

His attention has certainly paid off, as Nicholson recorded 13 more tackles against Northwestern, making it the third game this season he has recorded double-digit tackles with 10 against Wisconsin and 17 against BYU. Nicholson currently leads the team with 54 tackles, once again leading in solo tackles as well with 22.

On pace for 108 tackles, Nicholson would set a career-high with one more season to go. Improvement off the field has had its effects on Nicholson as well, as he finds himself becoming more knowledgeable about his foe and the extra hours in the film room are paying off for him.

“Knowing the opponent,” Nicholson said. “I think that’s a big part of it. I definitely didn’t do enough of that last year and it showed. Once I started sort of paying attention to my opponent and what they were trying to do, how they were trying to attack us, I kinda had some success.”

The Spartans'depth chart has one true freshman and a redshirt-freshman listed as starting cornerbacks this week as they look to improve their tackling against the Maryland Terrapins next Saturday. Until then, Nicholson will continue to help younger guys improve in that facet of the game and motivate the team to get back to the success they have enjoyed the past few seasons.

“It’s the back end of the season, these last six games are critical,” Nicholson said. “I believe that we will pull through just because of the way we are practicing this week. We are getting back to the basics, getting back to the little things that won us games previously.”