2020 Michigan State Spartans football team


2020 Michigan State Spartans football team will represent the Michigan State Spartans during the 2020 NCAA Division I FBS football season Spartans play in the East Division of the Big Ten Conference and play their home games at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, Michigan. This will be the first season for head coach Mel Tucker.
On July 9, 2020, the Big Ten announced that member teams will only play conference games in effort to reduce issues related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. On July 24, the school announced that the entire team, which had returned to campus for voluntary workouts, was being placed on a 14-day quarantine after two staff members and one player tested positive for COVID-19.

Previous season

finished the 2019 season 7–6, 4–5 in Big Ten play to finish in fifth place in the East Division. The Spartans received a bid to the 2019 Pinstripe Bowl where they defeated Wake Forest 27–21.
On February 4, 2020, the school announced that head coach Mark Dantonio had resigned and Mike Tressel would be taking over as interim head coach for the Spartans. Tressel was previously team's defensive coordinator. On February 12, the school announced the hiring of Colorado head coach Mel Tucker as the university's 25th head football coach.

2020 NFL Draft

MSU kept its streak of 80 years of having at least one player drafted in the NFL Draft when cornerback Josiah Scott was selected in the third round of the 2020 NFL Draft.
431Jacksonville JaguarsJosiah ScottCornerback
711Minnesota VikingsKenny WillekesDefensive End

Several other undrafted players signed free agent contracts with NFL teams:

Recruiting

Position key

Preseason Big Ten poll

Although the Big Ten Conference has not held an official preseason poll since 2010, Cleveland.com has polled sports journalists representing all member schools as a de facto preseason media poll since 2011. For the 2020 poll, Michigan State was projected to finish in third in the East Division.
Media poll

Personnel

Roster

Coaching staff

Schedule

Michigan State's 2020 schedule began with a conference home game, first against Northwestern of the Big Ten Conference, then 3 non-conference BYU Cougars of the FBS independents and the Toledo of the Mid-American Conference, and the final non-conference game is Miami of the ACC Conference.
Michigan State had games scheduled against BYU, Toledo, and Miami, but cancelled these games on July 9 due to the Big Ten Conference's decision to play a conference-only schedule due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In Big Ten Conference play, the Spartans played all members of the East Division and drew Northwestern, Iowa, and Minnesota from the West Division.

Rankings

Radio

Radio coverage for all games will be broadcast statewide on the Spartans Sports Network

Game summaries

Northwestern Wildcats

Iowa Hawkeyes

Michigan Wolverines

Ohio State Buckeyes

Indiana Hoosiers

Minnesota Golden Gophers

Penn State Nittany Lions

Rutgers Scarlet Knights

Maryland Terrapins