After suffering a neck injury in Saturday's game at Ohio State, sophomore left tackle Stefon Wheeler returned to East Lansing on Sunday night.
Results were negative on an MRI done Sunday, but Wheeler will not return for Saturday's game against Wisconsin. The game will be at noon on ESPN2.
"He's still got some pain in his shoulders," head coach John L. Smith said. "He's got a little bit of a protruding disc, which could be from that fall or could be from years past, but they don't know that. So it's a matter of when the pain subsides enough, and he can start practicing again."
The injury, which occurred during the third quarter of Saturday's game, brought back memories to sixth-year senior guard Paul Harker, who had a similar injury two years ago at Notre Dame.
When Wheeler was lying on the field nearly motionless, senior quarterback Jeff Smoker went over to Harker and asked "Bring back any memories?" Harker responded with it "brought back too many." He did not see the injury but could guess how it occurred.
"It was on a quarterback sneak where the goal was for everybody to stick your face mask in the armpit of the guy next to you and form that wedge," Harker said. "I can imagine what might have happened is he probably dove down to the ground and jammed his head."
Sophomore safety Eric Smith missed Saturday's game with a shoulder injury, but John L. Smith said he was at "80 percent" before the game and would play this week.
"He made substantial improvement toward the end of the week but did not practice enough that he could play," John L. Smith said. "Hopefully he's good enough this week that you can go ahead and spend some time with him."
BCS standings
MSU (7-3 overall, 4-2 Big Ten) dropped to No. 24 in the Bowl Championship Series standings after Monday's 33-23 loss to Ohio State.
John L. Smith expressed to his team that they no longer were in contention for a Big Ten title after the loss, but they should play their final two games for "Spartan pride" and bowl positioning.
Versatile Cobb
While junior college transfer DeAndra Cobb has excelled on the kick return team, breaking an MSU record with his third return for a touchdown of the season on Saturday, he also has played both offense and defense.
John L. Smith indicated that he will continue to use the junior on both sides of the ball this season.
"We can use him in particular packages to lock down a receiver," he said.
Penalties
While the Spartans were penalized 12 times for 89 yards, Ohio State was penalized only two times for 14 yards.
Smith reassessed the situation on film Sunday and came to the conclusion that a lot of the penalties were people just playing hard. One of those occurred when Harker jumped over sophomore receiver Matt Trannon and hit an Ohio State defender after the play.
"He knocks a guy off his feet, gets up and kind of jumps over a guy that fell," Smith said. "How do you tell a guy not to do that?"
'The Tin Man'
Sophomore linebacker Seth Mitchell has gained the nickname "The Tin Man" during the season because of his work despite a lingering knee injury.
"We have to oil him up before each game - lube up those joints," Smith said. "He had a great game, and he ran around like Seth Mitchell of old.
"You see him the next day, and he walks around like 'The Tin Man.'"
Mitchell led the Spartans in tackles for the second consecutive game, this time with 14. He also had 1 1/2 tackles for a loss.
Tickets
There still are 2,000 tickets available for the Spartans' home game against Penn State on Nov. 22. The tickets are available through the ticket office at (800) GO-STATE for $42 apiece.
