East Lansing — Since last spring, depth at linebacker has been touted as one of Michigan State’s strengths.
Odds are the Spartans weren’t counting on testing it in the opening game of the season, but they had little choice when junior outside linebacker Jon Reschke was forced to sit out with what coach Mark Dantonio called a minor injury.
That forced junior Chris Frey to move to the strong side and sophomore Andrew Dowell to step in on the weak side. It was the first career start for both, and with the game on the line, it was the linebackers who came up big, specifically Dowell.