After two taxing games against Michigan and Ohio State, MSU found itself burned out for its 49-14 loss to Northwestern on Saturday.

MSU head coach John L. Smith said lack of effort was not the issue. Lack of emotion, on the other hand, was.

"We played with effort," Smith said. "Our effort was good, but our emotion was not good. We as coaches were talking about that and saying maybe it's hard to play with that emotion one, two, three weeks in a row because we had great emotion and effort the last couple weeks prior to this one."

After a three-play touchdown drive to start the game, Smith thought everything would go smoothly.

Not so fast.

"We just didn't have a spark," Smith said. "We played hard, but we need to play with emotion. We can't be businesslike when we hit the field."

Smith said he didn't see the emotionless effort coming.

"If I knew, I would've injected them with something to give it to them," he said.

Now MSU faces an Indiana team that, despite being the general laughingstock of the Big Ten, has the same 4-3 record as them.

"We're down, our guys know that, but they have to put it behind them," Smith said. "They can't be dwelling on that. Forget about it and look ahead and we have to learn that."

Kickin' it

As expected, freshman Matt Haughey passed junior John Goss on the depth chart at place-kicker. Goss missed two field goals in Saturday's loss.

Smith liked what he saw from Haughey in practice Sunday.

"He's pretty darn efficient," Smith said. "He's got a decent leg. In fact, yesterday's kicking was very good. He's compact, his get-off time is pretty darn good and we like that about him.

"But only until you get out there and kick in front of some people, we'll find out about what he's all about inside."

Junior Kyle Mayer, who was sidelined with a groin injury the past few weeks, also resumed kicking.

Injury update

Smith said senior wide receiver Kyle Brown is unlikely to play Saturday against Indiana.

Brown was hurt on the first play of the game against Northwestern, when he caught a 53-yard pass. He did not return to the game.

Sophomore Terry Love is expected to handle the punt return duties in Brown's absence. Freshman Ryan Allison is listed below Brown on the depth chart at receiver, but Smith did not say who would start.

Senior wide receiver Matt Trannon, who played sparingly last week, is expected to be healthy.

Time set

The Nov. 5 game at Purdue will kick off at noon.