Michigan State redshirt junior quarterback Alessio Milivojevic (11) throws the ball away as Notre Dame's defense tackles him during the Notre Dame football game at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Ind., on Saturday, September 19, 2026.
Faint chants of “Go Green! Go White!” echoed through sections of Notre Dame Stadium as Michigan State football ran to the locker room at halftime.
Fans who made the trip to South Bend, Indiana, had a reason to cheer. Their team trailed the No. 3 team in the country by just 17-10, a level of competitiveness that has eluded the Spartans since 2021.
But there's no award for trailing Notre Dame by seven at the break. Only the winner receives the Megaphone Trophy, which will stay with the Fighting Irish after their 27-10 win.
“Yeah I’m pissed,” MSU head coach Pat Fitzgerald said. “We came down here to win a game, and we didn’t execute cleanly. So I’m really pissed off right now.”
Regardless, trailing a top-5 team by just a touchdown is a huge step forward for a Spartan program that hasn't been competitive against ranked opponents in years.
The Spartans haven't beaten a top-10 opponent since 2021, when Kenneth Walker Jr. scored five touchdowns against No. 6 Michigan. MSU hasn't beaten a ranked opponent since 2022, though its win against No. 16 Illinois has since been vacated. The only other times the Spartans have been within one possession of a ranked opponent at halftime since 2022 were a 13-7 deficit against No. 4 Michigan that year and a 10-7 deficit against No. 25 Michigan last season.
Entering tonight, the Spartans had been outscored 528-167 by ranked opponents over 15 games, and after the opening play, it seemed a similar story was to be written.
Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr fired a 61-yard pass to wide receiver Micah Gilbert on his first play of the game. Instead of collapsing, the Spartan defense stood tall, stopping the Fighting Irish in the red zone and holding them to a field goal.
The defense's response improved, but MSU still looked outmatched on its first offensive drive. It finished with a three-and-out and a blocked punt that barely traveled 14 yards.
The Spartans looked outclassed as Notre Dame built a 10-0 lead after the first quarter, but over the rest of the half, they chipped away and kept the game from getting away.
MSU started the second quarter with the ball and, with favorable field position, drove 36 yards on 12 plays to set up a 32-yard field goal for its first score of the game. The Spartans were inches from a touchdown two plays earlier, when junior running back Kenneth Williams, wide open in the end zone, dropped a pass.
The Fighting Irish expanded the lead to 17-3, but MSU had 4:46 to respond and keep it a one-possession game going into halftime. It did, and fast.
On the second play of the drive, sophomore quarterback Alessio Milivojevic rocketed a 53-yard pass to graduate wide receiver Rodney Bullard Jr., setting up a 15-yard touchdown run by graduate quarterback Cam Fancher who split time with Milivojevic. Just like that, the score was 17-10, and it stayed that way heading into halftime.
“Nobody expected the game to be like this,” senior linebacker Jordan Hall said. “I know we came up short, but you know, going into halftime, we felt really good about the things we were able to do on the field; we just didn’t do a better job of finishing it.”
Though the Spartans started strong, Fitzgerald's team will want to forget the second half. Notre Dame added 10 points to its lead while the Spartan offense went silent, scoring no points and gaining just 40 yards.
MSU gave itself a shot, but sometimes talent takes over, especially on the Fighting Irish defense.
“They’ve got incredibly talented guys. And we just had too many mistakes to give ourselves a chance to compete to win that game,” Fitzgerald said.
Head coach Marcus Freeman has built his program into a talented, perennial College Football Playoff team. Since being hired ahead of the 2021 Fiesta Bowl, he is 46-12, a stretch that includes a College Football Playoff berth and a national championship appearance. The Fighting Irish haven't fallen out of the AP Top 25 Poll since November 2022.
A winning program isn't built overnight, but for Fitzgerald and his staff to take the Spartans into Notre Dame Stadium and be in a one-score game with the No. 3 team in the nation proves their culture is shifting. It gives players something to build on, and it's the type of performance, even in a loss, that's needed to turn a program around, especially one seeking to compete at the top of the Big Ten again.
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For Milivojevic, the takeaway was clear.
"I just learned that we have a team that's gonna fight," Milivojevic said. "We're gonna make it a fight for every single team we play this year."
The Spartans (2-1) return home next weekend for their Big Ten opener against Nebraska (3-0). Kickoff is set for 5 p.m. on Sept. 26 at Spartan Stadium. The game will air on Big Ten Network
