The Spartans have been doing great in one area while struggling in all the others, and that area is the special teams unit, which has been thriving under new special teams coach LeVar Woods, who has been able to make great players out of Rhys Dakin, Liam Boyd, and all returners.
So, even though the Spartans have a slim path to a bowl game and a lot of work to do against opponents while they try to finish out the season well, how have the players on special teams performed this season, and have they been able to improve over what MSU was able to do last season?
Michigan State's Rhys Dakin punts the ball during the football Spring Showcase on Saturday, April 18, 2026, at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
The first player to be accounted for is MSU's punter, who actually followed Woods to the Spartans, Rhys Dakin, and he has been having a quietly amazing year. He may even end up finishing with a better year than Ryan Eckley had last year.
He currently sits at 24 punts for an average of 49.3 yards and a punting long of 74 yards, also having a good number of punts landing within the 20-yard line (9) this season. Eckley averaged 48.5 yards a punt on 49 attempts and saw 20 of them land within the 20-yard line in 2025.
Whether Dakin is able to surpass Eckley will sadly not matter at the end of the season when it comes to making a bowl game or not, unless MSU pulls off a miracle, but Dakin has still done his part by being great and showing potential to be even greater come next season.
Liam Boyd has actually been an improvement since last season's Martin Connington, as he has been able to hit all but three of his field-goal attempts thus far, and none of those have been from within the 30-yard line. If he keeps up the pace, he is set to not only have more kicks than MSU took last year, but also have more makes than last year.
Aside from one return touchdown last season by Alante Brown, there was not much to see in terms of the return game, and so far this season it is the same story. There have been no return touchdowns, and there have not really been any huge returns either.
This, though, is expected, and every season comes with the expectation that returners are able to give good field position, but they are not expected to give perfect play either; although, if MSU wants to at least match what they did last year, they have four games to find a return touchdown, starting against the Michigan Wolverines.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/michiganstate as MSU Special Teams Summary: Breaking It Down Over Bye Week .
