From walk-on to most valuable player.
Michigan State defensive end Kenny Willekes was voted by teammates as the winner of the Governor's Award as the team's MVP during the Spartans annual banquet on Sunday at the Kellogg Center. The redshirt junior, who joined the program as a walk-on before being put on scholarship in the spring of 2017, became the first defensive end to win the award, which has been presented annually since 1931.
Willekes has 20.5 tackles for a loss, which leads the Big Ten, ranks seventh in the nation and is the second-highest single-season total in program history, trailing only Julian Peterson's 30 in 1999.