Redshirt sophomore Keith Nichol filled in formidably for injured starting quarterback and fellow sophomore Kirk Cousins in the Spartans’ 24-14 victory at Illinois. Cousins, who injured his ankle in last week’s 26-20 victory against Michigan, spent nearly the entire game on the sidelines.

Nichol went 13-for-25 passing for 179 yards and threw one interception in what was his first collegiate start.

“I’ve never really felt what it’s like to be in there all (of the) snaps,” he said. “It’s a good feeling to be in there all four quarters and lead the team to a win.”

For the second straight game, the Spartans has success running the ball, rushing for 132 yards. But unlike last week, most of MSU’s ground production Saturday came from its running backs.

“We wanted to be balanced again — it’s been kind of a theme for the last couple games,” offenive coordinator Don Treadwell said. “That was what we were able to do today in terms of rushing the football.”

Freshman Larry Caper led the Spartans with 95 yards and one touchdown on 16 carries. Sophomore Glenn Winston ran for 64 yards on 14 carries before leaving the game in the second quarter with a sprained knee.

Illinois started junior Eddie McGee at quarterback instead of senior Juice Williams in an attempt by head coach Ron Zook to energize the team.

But the Spartans’ defense was able to put consistent pressure on McGee — and Williams when he came in — disrupting the quarterbacks’ ability to throw and run.

“I thought we had really good pressure on the quarterback today,” defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi said. “I don’t know how many times we hit him, but one of our goals was to affect the quarterback. I think we did that.”

The Spartans sacked the Illinois quarterbacks six times. McGee was 2-for-11 passing with one interception before being pulled in favor of Williams.

“It was hard for Eddie to get much going when we weren’t very good at defense in the first half,” Zook said. “It’s hard to get any kind of rhythm going and that’s why I left him in there in the second half for a while.”

Nichol showed some early jitters on the first play of the game when on a bootleg rollout, he overshot wide open sophomore tight end Brian Linthicum.

“He was so open, I just got excited that he was out there,” Nichol said. “I tried to lead him a little too much so he could catch it and get up field real quick but I probably should have just put it right on him and made it easy.”

Two plays later, Nichol found junior receiver Mark Dell on third down for 23 yards. The Spartans were also the beneficiaries of a pass interference call and, on the seventh play of the game, Winston bowled into the end zone to give the Spartans a 7-0 lead.

Following a three-and-out by the Illini, the Spartans drove 81 yards in a seven-play drive that took 6:24 off of the clock, which ended with a 17-yard touchdown run by Caper.

After consecutive Illinois three-and-outs, the Spartans quickly moved into Illinois territory again, thanks to a 30-yard touch pass from Nichol to Caper down to the Illini 1-yard line.

It looked as though the Spartans were going score again to run away with the game but Winston fumbled on the goal line, turning it over to the Illini. But Illinois was stopped by the Spartans’ defense again and a bad punt gave MSU possession at the Illinois 35-yard line.

On the fourth play of the drive, Winston broke a tackle but landed awkwardly and hurt his right knee and was helped off the field. He was carted into the locker room at haltime and came back out after the break in street clothes.

The drive ended with a field goal by senior kicker Brett Swenson and the Spartans went into the locker room leading 17-0.

At halftime, the Spartans had outgained the Illini 281-60 in total yards.

“We brought great focus down here,” Dantonio said. “I thought our football team came out strong came out very fast. We left a couple points off the board certainly in the first half (but we) had a very, very strong first half.”

On the fifth play of Illinois’ opening second half drive, MSU senior safety Danny Fortener — starting in place of sophomore Trenton Robinson — intercepted a McGee pass and took it 45 yards for a touchdown.

“Trenton Robinson or Danny Fortener, either one of those guys could start for us and we feel great with it,” Narduzzi said. “We base it on who practices well and how the flow of the game is going. Both those guys are quality football players and I’m happy for Danny, the way he
had a game today.”

The Spartans’ offense, which had been extremely productive in the first half, never really got back on track in the second.

The Spartans didn’t score offensive points after the break and had only 91 yards of total offense.

“The second half was just kind of down, I don’t know what was going on there,” Nichol said. “We just need to pick it up a little bit.”

Illinois’ offense picked up in the second half with Williams at quarterback. The Illini scored on a touchdown run by Mikel Leshoure from three yards out to cut the lead to 24-7 late in the third quarter.

But the Spartans’ defense continued to play tough and only allowed one more touchdown, a 41-yard screen pass to Leshoure with less than two minutes remaining in the game.

“You just take the game and you shape the game. It’s not an error-free game by any means, for us or for anybody else,” Dantonio said. “The last touchdown is frustrating, certainly, but it happens.”

Late in the game, Nichol fell on his left arm and dislocated his elbow. Despite it being wrapped after the game, the quarterback said he was confident he would be OK.

“(It’s) just a little bruise,” he said. “It was just kind of a freak thing at the end. I’ll be alright, I’ll be back soon so we have to focus on Northwestern and get ready for that game.”

Regarding Winston’s and Nichols’ injuries, Dantonio said he did not know the extent of them.
“I don’t really know anything until we get an MRIs and those type of things.”