MSU 37, WMU 24: Spartans fend off Broncos in season opener

KALAMAZOO – It's about the players, Mark Dantonio reminded more than usual in an off-season crammed with coaching talk, and his new wave got right to helping in Friday's season opener at Western Michigan.

There was starting running back Madre London, sprinting for a touchdown in his first game as a redshirt freshman. There was sophomore safety Montae Nicholson, rising to snag a tipped ball for an interception. There was redshirt freshman cornerback Vayante Copeland, saving a touchdown on the opening kickoff – then delivering big hits to snuff screen passes, then making the late interception to end any chance of drama.

Reserve defensive end Demetrius Cooper announced himself as a pass-rushing threat and Gerald Holmes and LJ Scott also ran hard, but Western Michigan's players had more fun in the second half in a far-from-perfect 37-24 win for the No. 5 Spartans.

• Box score

In the preamble to an epic night ahead -- No. 7 Oregon visiting Spartan Stadium next week in an early College Football Playoff statement game – MSU's offense looked close to ready, but the defense looked vulnerable to say the least. A 24-point MSU lead got down to 10 in the second half, and it was 13 when Copeland picked a Zach Terrell fade in the end zone with 1:36 left to end it, finally.

"A game like this could be good for us, to check ourselves," said MSU senior quarterback Connor Cook, who was 15-for-31 for 256 yards and touchdown passes to Josiah Price and DeAnthony Arnett. "To know where we need to improve on, what needs to be addressed, what needs to be changed. And there's no doubt in my mind that the coaches and players will be ready for Oregon next week."

Terrell was 33 of 50 for 365 yards with two touchdowns and two picks, setting career highs in attempts and completions and throwing for more yards on MSU than anyone but Baylor quarterback Bryce Petty had last season. Cook missed some passes and hit some big ones, finding Aaron Burbridge four times for 117 yards and assessing his own performance afterward as "fairly average."

"Western schemed us up pretty good," said MSU's Riley Bullough, part of that new wave of key players, who had nine tackles and three sacks in his debut at middle linebacker. "They had some great plays that we didn't practice against. It's things we'll look at on film and get better from.

"They have some great players, a lot of athletic guys on their offense that we tried to stop to the best of our ability. But they're a D-I team too, they've got great talent. I'm just happy we won."

MSU gained 452 total yards, outrushing the Broncos, 196-18, with freshman LJ Scott leading the way with 77 yards on 13 carries. Starter Madre London had 13 carries for 59 yards and two touchdowns, and Gerald Holmes ran it nine times for 54 yards and a score.

MSU sophomore Jon Reschke got the start at "money" linebacker and matched Bullough with nine tackles, and the Spartans got seven sacks and an encouraging night from Copeland. He took a dive to trip up Western Michigan's Darius Phillips after a 70-yard return on the opening kick -- but Demetrious Cox and others could not tackle Phillips on his next try, a 100-yard race to the end zone.

That play earned the loudest noise of the night from a capacity crowd of 30,885 at Waldo Stadium – with roughly two-thirds of that crowd supporting the home team – in what has been called the biggest football event in school history.

"The kickoff returns were glaring," Dantonio said, "so we need to get that fixed up there."

That play was preceded by an MSU touchdown and followed by another MSU touchdown drive, though, on a night that saw the Spartans' advantage in the trenches materialize early. It was not as pronounced late with WMU putting together long drives.

WMU receiver Corey Davis had 10 catches for 154 and a touchdown, and Daniel Braverman had 13 catches for 109 yards, and also dropped a bomb that would have been a touchdown.

"I wouldn't say I was disappointed," said MSU senior defensive end Shilique Calhoun, who had a sack and nearly a couple more. "I think there's a lot of things we need to clean up, but that's what this first game is for, to give us an idea of what we need to clean up. We knew there were gonna be kinks."

Contact Joe Rexrode: jrexrode@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @joerexrode. Check out his MSU blog at freep.com/heyjoe.Download our new Spartans Xtra app for free on Apple and Android devices!

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