Nebraska Tops Michigan State 31-13; Fitzgerald Cites Turnovers, Replay Calls

Pat Fitzgerald pointed to a 3-0 turnover deficit and questioned replay rulings after Michigan State's 31-13 loss, while 4-0 Nebraska booked a home date with Maryland on FS1.

Nebraska stayed unbeaten on Saturday evening, beating Michigan State 31-13 in the Big Ten opener for both programs. The Cornhuskers moved to 4-0 overall and 1-0 in conference play with the win, while the Spartans fell to 2-2 on the season and 0-1 in league games.

The victory carried weight beyond the conference standings for the Cornhuskers. Nebraska opened a season with four straight wins for the first time since 2016, and it won a Big Ten opener for the first time since 2019.

The head-to-head record moved further in Nebraska's favor as well. The Cornhuskers now lead the series 11-4 all time, including a 6-4 edge in the meetings between the two schools as fellow Big Ten members.

There was a personal milestone for Michigan State coach Pat Fitzgerald, too. He was on the sideline for his first Big Ten game since the 2022 campaign, when he was coaching at Northwestern, and Saturday's result left him with a career mark of 6-7 against the Cornhuskers.

On the field, Nebraska held a clear statistical edge over the Spartans. The Cornhuskers finished the evening with 369 yards of total offense, while the Michigan State offense managed 257 yards in the loss.

The turnover margin broke sharply against the Spartans, who committed three giveaways while forcing none of their own. Fitzgerald said that cannot continue if Michigan State is to have any success in Big Ten play this season. He described the turnovers as costly, pointed to a slow start in a game his team felt it needed to begin fast, praised Nebraska as a very good opponent — an assessment he said he had offered earlier in the week — and acknowledged that the Spartans' mistakes made the evening easier for the Cornhuskers.

Replay review also shaped the outcome. Among the plays affected was a Michigan State first-down catch in the red zone that officials overturned after review. The Spartans went on to miss a field goal on that possession.

Fitzgerald also addressed the officiating, saying he plans to watch the game and hopes to gain a better understanding of how several replay decisions were reached. In his view, two of the plays looked very similar, yet one was upheld while the other was overturned after officials judged the video evidence to be conclusive. He said the replays he had access to did not show anything that reached that threshold, and he wants to see the camera angles officials used.

Michigan State goes back on the road next week, traveling to face the Wisconsin Badgers on Saturday, Oct. 3. Nebraska, meanwhile, heads home to Lincoln for a meeting with Maryland at Memorial Stadium on the same day. That game is scheduled to kick off at 3 p.m. CT, with the broadcast on FS1.