5 MSU Players To Watch in Top-10 Test at UCLA

Pasadena awaits Michigan State football for a serious regular-season test.

The Spartans (2-5 overall, 0-4 Big Ten) are readying for their second top-10 opponent of the season in No. 9 UCLA (6-0 overall, 4-0 Big Ten). MSU has been knocking on the door of a victory in the last two weeks in a row, but the Bruins are a very different challenge. These five players feel particularly important for Michigan State during this one:

RB Marvis Parrish

Running back Marvis Parrish could be MSU's lead back in this one. Star back Cam Edwards is done for the year, and Jaziun Patterson has been listed as questionable in the lead-up to this one. Parrish has struggled a bit this season to consistently get real gains, having gotten just 96 rushing yards on his 33 carries this year -- a 2.9 yards-per-carry average.

UCLA has a pretty good run defense itself, too. The Bruins rank 20th in the nation and fifth in the Big Ten in that category, allowing 97.7 rushing yards per game. Michigan State may be forced to run the ball a lot in this one, too, if starter Alessio Milivojevic is unable to play. That would likely thrust Kayd Coffman into the starting role, and the Spartans likely wouldn't want to make him throw a ton of times and put even more on his plate.

WR Rodney Bullard Jr.

The box score says wide receiver Rodney Bullard Jr. had just two catches for 11 yards last week against Northwestern. He should've had a lot more. There were four opportunities for Milivojevic and Michigan State to hit Bullard deep, and the Spartans weren't able to take advantage of any of them. Bullard was overthrown on two of those plays, didn't get the ball thrown at all on one, and the other was NU's strip-sack early in the game while Milivojevic had space to move up in the pocket.

It was as good a performance as it gets for a receiver with two catches and 11 yards. Bullard and his fellow receivers have been playing better as of late. The question is whether he can keep it up against the Bruins. Their top corner, Rodrick Pleasant, is out for this one as well. He was an All-Big Ten Honorable Mention last year.

Linebackers

Michigan State's linebackers will be an X-factor. The status of two serious contributors, Brady Pretzlaff and Caleb Wheatland, is up in the air. Pretzlaff missed the NU game with an injury sustained against Illinois, and Wheatland has been out for two weeks after getting injured at Wisconsin.

Potentially getting Wheatland and/or Pretzlaff back would be a very positive development for MSU. Jordan Hall was also out last week (and he's out again this week), which led to the Spartans largely playing Dion Crawford and Cam Stodghill at linebacker. Aveon Grose, a safety, also lined up like a LB in some passing situations. UCLA also leads the Big Ten in rushing yards per game, so any reinforcements on the front seven are huge.

CB Jeremiah Favorite

True freshman corner Jeremiah Favorite is also set to start for the second consecutive week. MSU's cornerback room has just been decimated by injuries. Four of the team's top five cornerbacks -- Tre Bell, Charles Brantley, Tyran Chappell, and Keshawn Williams -- are out again against UCLA. This pushes Michigan State to start its CB4/5 and its CB6: NiJhay Burt and Jeremiah Favorite.

Favorite has had to learn on the job quite a bit this year. He's shown he has the right stuff to be a great corner for Michigan State in the future, but the Spartans are asking an awful lot right now. He still looked like a true freshman out there at times last week -- opponents are generally going to attack a true freshman corner quite a bit -- and tackling has been a struggle for Favorite as well.

DT Ben Roberts

Ben Roberts would get the team's hypothetical MVP award if it were handed out today. He's been an All-Big Ten-level nose tackle or 2i-technique for MSU thus far. His play has been exceptional enough that he'll likely become an NFL draft pick in April. Roberts' best performance yet came against Northwestern, getting six total tackles, 3.0 tackles for loss, and 2.0 sacks.

His elite run-stopping abilities are much needed against that previously mentioned UCLA rushing attack. For all of Michigan State's faults, you don't often see teams gash them right up the gut with how good Roberts is at plugging that A-gap.