Jefferson caught a pass over the middle and Warrick slammed into him at full speed, helmet to helmet, sending him backflipping onto his head. Jefferson sat out the rest of the game with a head injury.

“It just felt good because I missed almost three games, so I hadn’t been able to get any contact in a while,” Warrick said. “But at the same time I still had to be focused on getting ready for the next play.”

The crowd jeered Warrick for the brutal slam and chanted expletives at him in unison.

“The ref told me it was clean,” he said. “The reaction was kind of crazy, but that’s all in football. They’re going to protect their players just like we’re going to protect ours.”

In his first start since injuring his leg against Bowling Green, Warrick recorded a team-high 12 tackles.

“It just feels good being out there fighting,” Warrick said. “Forget about all the tackles and all that. I just want to be out there fighting with my teammates going 100 percent, everybody flying around getting it done.”

Williams steps up

Push led to shove and then to a helmet-slapping fist fight between freshman cornerback Chris L. Rucker and Wisconsin wide receiver Marcus Randle El following a play in the second quarter.

“You’ve got to back away from those things,” MSU head coach Mark Dantonio said.

“You’ve got to know when to stop.”

Because they failed to stop, the referee ejected both players, and MSU’s only available backup cornerback was sophomore wide receiver T.J. Williams.

With most of the game still left to unfold, Williams had no time to think about it, he just had to go out and play.

“Our coach always said … you’re one play away from getting in,” Williams said.

“And when it’s your time, you have to step up.”

Wisconsin quarterback Tyler Donovan would test Williams right off the bat.

He threw a pass to Jefferson in the end zone, but it bounced off his fingertips and Williams intercepted it.

On Wisconsin’s next possession, Williams broke up a pass Donovan threw to tight end Travis Beckum.

Williams said he knew he had to do more than just come in and play as a backup.

“We set our standards high, everybody has to be able to play as a starter, like a starter,” he said.

Coming into the season, Williams was expected to start at wide receiver, but he was not listed on the team’s preseason depth chart and missed the first two games of the season for undisclosed reasons.

He took a couple of snaps as a wide receiver against Pittsburgh, catching one pass for 16 yards.

With three of the four starting defensive backs out with injuries against Notre Dame, Dantonio gave Williams some playing time at the cornerback position.

Now that he has one catch on both sides of the ball, Williams said he’s ready to play wherever the team needs him.

“It all depends on what the coach asks me to do,” he said. “I’m there.”