The Toledo Rockets visit the Michigan State Spartans on Friday, September 4, 2026 at 8:00 p.m. ET from Spartan Stadium, East Lansing, MI.
Michigan State and Toledo both enter Friday night’s opener at 0-0. Toledo averaged 30.8 points per game in 2025, well ahead of Michigan State’s 24.6, a track record the Rockets bring into Spartan Stadium. Michigan State is a 9.5-point favorite at DraftKings, with the total set at 47.5.
Below, we’ll give you all the details you need to know about how to watch this game.
Zock is the marquee addition in new coach Mike Jacobs’ haul of 21 small-school transfers, and he arrives with a real track record. He picked up 20 tackles for loss and 11.5 sacks last season as the Southern Conference’s Defensive Player of the Year, numbers that would have led most Group of Five defenses outright. Toledo is chasing its third Mid-American Conference title game in five years, and Jacobs is 33-8 combining his last three seasons at Mercer and Lenoir-Rhyne. None of that translates automatically to the MAC, but a pass rusher who racked up that kind of production against lesser competition gives Toledo’s front seven a proven disruptor from the jump. Michigan State’s rebuilt offensive line will be the first real measuring stick.
Michigan State overhauled its roster hoping transfers could speed up a rebuild, and Edwards gives the offense a proven workhorse. He rushed for 1,240 yards at UConn last year and enters this season as the fourth-leading returning rusher in the nation with 2,690 career rushing yards over 36 games. New coach Pat Fitzgerald inherited a senior class heavy with new names, and Edwards is the one piece opposing defenses already have to prepare for. Toledo enters with a defense built around transfer additions of its own, led by edge rusher Andrew Zock, so neither team is hiding from how much roster turnover shaped this opener. If Edwards can run against a defense that new, Michigan State’s offense has a real foundation to build on.
Every new face at Michigan State arrived through the transfer portal this off-season, except Milivojevic, who remains the same quarterback who threw 10 touchdowns against just three interceptions a season ago. That continuity matters against a Toledo defense that will lean on newcomers of its own to slow down the Spartans. Fitzgerald’s rebuild depends on Milivojevic protecting the ball while Edwards and a retooled defense find their footing, and his low interception rate a year ago suggests he can do exactly that. Toledo’s own quarterback situation is far less settled, which puts extra pressure on Milivojevic to be the steady half of this matchup rather than the swing factor.
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