Michigan State football: 21 stats that defined the Spartans' 2021 season (2024)

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Here are the 21 stats that defined Michigan State’s 2021 season.

1. Kenneth Walker III’s 1,636 rushing yards are the fourth most in a single season in program history.

If you’re going to talk about the year Michigan State just had, you have to start with Kenneth Walker III. His 1,636 rushing yards rank fourth in program history for a single season, trailing only Lorenzo White (2,066 in 1985), Le’Veon Bell (1,793 in 2012) and Javon Ringer (1,673 in 2008).

In terms of efficiency, Walker is at the top of this list. Among Michigan State running backs with at least 150 career carries, his 6.2 yards per carry average ranks first. Ringer needed 126 more carries to gain 37 more yards than Walker. Bell needed 118 more carries to gain the extra 157 yards. White, who played in a different era, rushed for 430 more yards on 155 more carries. Not to mention Walker played with a quarterback who’s now in the record books himself. More on that later.

Walker’s season will be remembered for quite some time. He owns the record for longest play from scrimmage at both Wake Forest and Michigan State. He rushed for five touchdowns in a 37-33 win over Michigan — the most rushing touchdowns ever allowed by the Wolverines’ defense. And he took home both the Doak Walker and Walter Camp awards, becoming the first MSU player to take home either.

Not bad for a pickup out of the transfer portal.

2. Michigan State rushed for 2,227 yards — its best statistical rushing season since 2014.

Before the Peach Bowl — in other words, before Walker declared for the NFL Draft — MSU was averaging about 185.5 yards per game on the ground. That would’ve ranked just outside of the top 40. Regardless, this was Michigan State’s best rushing season since 2014. Obviously, Walker deserves a ton of credit, but also credit offensive line coach Chris Kapilovic for assembling a functioning unit for the first time in years.

Of course, there are questions about where MSU’s run game goes from here, but that’s a story for another day.

3. Payton Thorne now owns the single-season passing touchdown record at MSU with 27.

This one, admittedly, flew under the radar for a bit. Thorne played second fiddle to Walker in this offense throughout the season, but he quietly put up big numbers.

Entering the Peach Bowl, Thorne needed two passing touchdowns to break Kirk Cousins’ record of 25 touchdown passes in a season at Michigan State. While it wasn’t his best performance, he finished with three touchdowns, including two in the fourth quarter. He ended the year with 27 passing touchdowns while playing with the best running back in the country. He also recorded the third-highest passing yards in a season by an MSU quarterback. Oh, and he has up to three more years of eligibility.

It’ll be interesting to see where Thorne’s game goes from here. This is his team now.

4. Jayden Reed ranks among the top 10 in single-season receiving yards and touchdown at Michigan State.

You could sort of tell in the summer that Reed was due for a big year. He was torching Michigan State defensive backs in spring and preseason practices. The separation was there. He had his guy at quarterback. The only thing he needed was for games to start. And when they did, he showed his value.

Reed finished with 59 catches for 1,026 yards and 10 receiving touchdowns. He became the first MSU receiver with 1,000 yards in a season since Aaron Burbridge in 2015. His 1,026 receiving yards rank ninth all time for a single season at MSU and his 10 receiving touchdowns rank sixth. He had one of the best individual seasons by an MSU receiver in program history.

And he’s coming back for another year.

Let go and let GOD.🙏🏾💚 pic.twitter.com/LunDw5BNtf

— j.reed1💂🏾 (@JaydenReed5) January 4, 2022

5. Reed had two punt return touchdowns, becoming the third player to do so in program history.

Twice this season, Reed scored punt return touchdowns. His first went for 62 yards against Nebraska, and the second went for 88 yards to tie the game against Western Kentucky.It was MSU’s first season with a punt return touchdown since 2011. Reed became the first MSU player since 1972 to record two punt return touchdowns in a season. Only three Michigan State players have ever done it.

Reed was a finalist for the Paul Hornung Award, given annually to the most versatile player in college football, for a reason. He finished 20th nationally with 1,672 all-purpose yards in 2021 and recorded 13 total touchdowns. It was an excellent overall season.

6. Jalen Nailor ranked 14th nationally in yards per reception at 18.8.

They don’t call him “Speedy” for nothing.

Nailor has been one of MSU’s fastest players since he stepped foot on campus in 2018. Since then, he has emerged as a serious vertical threat, thanks to his speed.

This was the best season of Nailor’s career. He finished with 37 catches for 695 yards and six touchdowns in nine games played. His 18.8 yards per reception were good for 14th nationally and first in the Big Ten.

Nailor announced his plans to enter the 2022 NFL Draft this week. Because the NFL heavily focuses on physical attributes, expect Nailor to get a look if he tests well. His speed might entice some folks.

7. Michigan State became the fifth FBS team with a 300/200/200 game.

When Michigan State hit the road to face Rutgers, it felt like a game the Spartans would win. The Scarlet Knights’ defense was suspect, and MSU was firing on all cylinders offensively. Ultimately, Michigan State won the game. And it made history in the process.

Thorne (339 passing yards), Walker (233 rushing yards) and Nailor (221 receiving yards) helped Michigan State become the fifth team in FBS history to have a 300-yard passer, a 200-yard rusher and a 200-yard receiver in the same game.

It’s obviously a tough feat to pull off, but more than the pure numbers, this game demonstrated MSU’s offensive balance. Thorne and Nailor connected for three touchdowns of 60 or more yards. Walker had a 94-yard touchdown run in this game and still would’ve had well more than 100 yards without it. It was the type of performance that instilled confidence in MSU’s offense as a whole.

8. Michigan State scored four touchdowns on flea-flickers.

You knew this was coming. The flea-flicker was one of Michigan State’s best plays of the season, scoring four times when called upon (two by Reed, one by Nailor and one by Montorie Foster).

So what made the flea-flicker so reliable? It works as a play-action pass. The threat Walker posed often caused safeties to come downhill prematurely to stop the run. When that happened, it left one-on-one coverage for MSU’s best playmaking receivers. Then there’s Thorne, whose deep-ball accuracy was one of his best attributes this season. Put it all together and you have your answer.

Leave it to offensive coordinator Jay Johnson to normalize flea-flickers as a regular part of his offense.

https://t.co/NRrK6uahWk pic.twitter.com/TtXcNIk6lo

— Colton Pouncy (@colton_pouncy) November 18, 2021

9. Michigan State averaged 31.8 points per game — its most since 2014.

It’s safe to say most MSU fans would’ve been fine with middle-of-the-pack scoring production after the previous five seasons. Michigan State ranked 104th in scoring in 2016, 96th in 2017, 126th in 2018, 104th in 2019 and 116th in 2020. Not great.

The 2021 season was a different story. Michigan State finished at No. 39 nationally, averaging north of 30 for the first time since 2014. Credit Johnson for taking advantage of the weapons at his disposal and turning things around in Year 2.

10. 985

That’s the number of passing yards Michigan State allowed against Purdue and Ohio State — the two games it lost this season. You can’t talk about the good things we saw this season without the bad. And Michigan State’s pass defense was bad, particularly in those two outings.

This defense made Purdue’s Aidan O’Connell look like a Heisman contender, allowing 536 yards, three TDs and no interceptions in a 40-29 loss. C.J. Stroud’s effort against Michigan State is likely what propelled him into the Heisman conversation late in the season. He was 32-of-35 for 432 yards and six touchdowns and threw his last pass attempt with 12:34 left in the third quarter, with his team up 49. It could’ve been a lot worse.

Michigan State had a real Achilles’ heel this year. More on that … right now.

11. Michigan State was dead last in passing yards allowed per game.

At least early in the season, Michigan State’s pass defense was somewhat serviceable. No one confused it for the No Fly Zone era, but given the high volume of passes coming its way, you could at least make that argument for a period of time. MSU was in the top 25 nationally in yards per attempt heading into the Michigan game — seven games in.

Then, well, the wheels fell off. Here’s a breakdown of the numbers.

• Sept. (four games): 264 passing yards per game; 5-4 TD-INT ratio; 6.2 yards per attempt
• Oct. (four games): 337 passing yards per game; 7-3 TD-INT ratio; 6.5 yards per attempt
• Nov. (four games): 412 passing yards per game; 14-2 TD-INT ratio; 9.2 yards per attempt

Michigan State ended the year ranked 130th in passing yards per game allowed (324.8), 112th in touchdown passes allowed, 110th in completion percentage (65.6) and 62nd in yards per attempt (7.3).

Again, Michigan State saw the most passes per game of any team this season — an average of 44.5 per game — but that could be attributed to opposing coordinators spotting a serious weakness and looking to take advantage of it. What’s clear is that an already suspect unit regressed as the year went on. The 9.2 yards per attempt and 14 touchdowns allowed in November reflect that.

The bottom line here is that Michigan State has to be better next year.

12. Michigan State’s third-down defense ended the year ranked 79th in the country, allowing offenses to convert 39.9 percent of the time.

If it feels like the numbers were worse than that, they were — at least during the regular season. Prior to holding Pitt to 2-of-12 in the Peach Bowl, MSU allowed conversions 41.29 percent of the time, which would’ve ranked in the 90s nationally.

Getting off the field was another problem for this defense, and a lot of those conversions came through the air. This went hand-in-hand with MSU’s struggles against the pass.

13. Michigan State’s run defense ranked 15th nationally, allowing 116 yards per game.

Death, taxes, Ron Burton getting the most out of his defensive tackles.

The sustained success of MSU’s run defense, through two different head coaches, has been impressive. It all starts up front, and Burton’s crew got the job done again in 2021.

Michigan State ranked 15th nationally in opponent rushing yards per game, allowing just 116 per game. MSU’s yards per rush average was 3.39, good for 14th nationally. With most of the interior defensive line set to return, expect this unit to excel again next season.

14. Michigan State’s red-zone touchdown percentage ranked 19th nationally.

Another area where Michigan State found success defensively came in red-zone situations. MSU was one of the better defenses when it came to limiting opposing offenses to field goals rather than touchdowns. The Spartans check in at No. 19 in touchdown percentage at 49.06.

This is where the team earned its bend-don’t-break title for stretches this season. This wasn’t a perfect defense by any stretch, but it did tighten up in this area of the field. If this trend continues, and the passing defense improves, MSU could be a lot better overall defensively next season.

15. Michigan State ranked 54th nationally in scoring defense, allowing 25.3 points per game.

Taking a big-picture look at the defense, there were some strides made as well as some setbacks.

After allowing 35.1 points per game and ranking 100th nationally in 2021, MSU’s defense took a step forward here. But MSU ranked 110th in yards per game allowed in 2021 and 71st in yards per play after besting both of those totals the previous season.

At the end of the day, the coaches will take the low point total over the high yardage, but there’s an understanding that things need to improve. MSU already has made some moves via the portal and the 2022 recruiting class to address some holes defensively.

16. Mel Tucker became the first MSU head coach to start 2-0 against Michigan.

In a meeting of two 7-0, top-10 programs, Michigan State came out on top of a 37-33 battle with Michigan in East Lansing this season. The game itself was an instant classic, with MSU erasing a 16-point deficit in the second half for a comeback victory.

In the process, Tucker became the first head coach in program history with back-to-back wins over Michigan to start his career.

College football fans in the state of Michigan were spoiled this year, as both Michigan and Michigan State recorded double-digit wins in 2021. Michigan beat Ohio State and won the Big Ten. Michigan State exceeded expectations and beat Michigan.

Surely there won’t be any back-and-forths between the two fan bases on Twitter this offseason!

17. Michigan State was 5-1 in games decided by 11 points or fewer.

The Spartans had a knack for winning tight games all year. Most years, you could make the argument that there’s some luck or some good breaks involved. I wouldn’t argue that. But more than anything, this team was the toughest team mentally I’ve ever covered.

All the catchphrases and sayings are just a gimmick. It’s all part of the culture Tucker wanted to build, and clearly, his team bought in. Whether it was the fourth-quarter comeback against Miami, the Nebraska win in overtime, the final 21 minutes of the Michigan game, a tight win over Penn State or the Peach Bowl victory, this team believed it was going to come out on top — and did more often than not.

18. Six Michigan State players and coaches were semifinalists, finalists or winners of national awards.

Michigan State players and coaches earned some national recognition this past season. Here’s a look at some of the names who were considered for awards:

• Walker: Doak Walker Award winner; Walter Camp Award winner; sixth in Heisman voting; Big Ten running back of the year; consensus first-team All-American
• Tucker: Big Ten Coach of the Year award winner; National Coach of the Year finalist
• William Peagler: FootballScoop RBs Coach of the Year
• Reed: Paul Hornung Award finalist
• Kapilovic/MSU offensive line: Joe Moore Award semifinalist
• Johnson: Broyles Award semifinalist

19. Michigan State nearly matched the number of four-star prospects it signed between 2018-20 (six) in its 2022 class alone (five).

Tucker was brought to Michigan State to recruit and elevate the level of talent. If his 2022 class is any indication, he has this program in the right direction.

MSU’s 2022 class is currently ranked No. 21 overall. That would make it MSU’s highest-ranked class since 2016. It is highlighted by four-star prospects Alex VanSumeren, Katin Houser, Dillon Tatum, Jaden Mangham and Antonio Gates Jr. And it might not be finished just yet.

20. There have been 446 bowl games during the past 25 years in which a team has trailed by double digits entering the fourth quarter. Michigan State is the only team to come back and win by double digits.

Credit for this one goes to Stat Perform, and it’s a fascinating one. First off, that’s a lot of bowl games. It’s kinda surprising it hasn’t happened more often. Or, like, any other time in the last quarter-century. Michigan State was down 21-10 entering the fourth quarter and came back to win 31-21. The Spartans outscored Pitt 21-0, via two Thorne touchdown passes and a Cal Haladay pick-six.

The other interesting part of this is that it feels reflective of what we saw from MSU this season. In tight games, players and coaches expect to be at their best when their best is needed. The Peach Bowl was another example of that.

21. This was the sixth 11th-win season in program history — all coming since 2010. Only six other programs, and only five Power 5 programs, can boast that success in that span.

The other programs to do so are Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson, Oklahoma, Oregon and Boise State. That’s pretty good company. Michigan State has done this with two coaches and hasn’t historically been a national power like some of the other programs listed above.

Obviously, Mark Dantonio is responsible for five of those seasons at MSU, cementing his place as one of the best coaches in program history. But for Tucker to get it done, and to get there so early, speaks to a couple of things.

1. MSU got the right coach at the right time for this program.

2. Michigan State can win with the right coach.

Granted, Tucker has a long way to go before he matches what Dantonio did. The 2022 season could be a bit of a step back, as MSU adjusts and continues to retool. But the hope is that double-digit-win seasons become the standard once again.

No matter what happens from here, though, the 2021 season was a successful one.

(Top photo of Kenneth Walker III: Mike Mulholland/Getty Images))