Michael Masunas injury update: Jonathan Smith explains severity for Michigan State TE

Michael Masunas was ruled out for the season after the Michigan State tight end suffered a shoulder injury.

After undergoing surgery, head coach Jonathan Smith explained they tried to get the pass catcher healthy enough to return. Unfortunately for the Spartans, it just wasn’t in the cards.

But, Smith is confident in the depth chart moving forward.

“We were trying to take the last couple of weeks to just see if he could kind of get to a place that he felt better about getting back out there,” Smith said. “He just did not, over the last couple of weeks, get to that point. So we made the decision to call it good for this season. Tough blow, (but we) support him (and) do feel like we got some depth in that room that’s played the last couple weeks, who can carry the load.”

This season, Masunas has four catches for 37 yards after logging just one catch last year.

As a member of the Class of 2022, Masunas was a three-star recruit out of Chandler (Ari.) Hamilton, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He was the No. 15 overall prospect in the state, the No. 56 tight end in the class and the No. 921 overall prospect in the class.

Michael Masunas out for season as Michigan State preps for Iowa

With Masunas out for the season, there are others to watch out for as Michigan State preps for the Iowa Hawkeyes this weekend.

Tight end Brennan Parachek is expected to step up with a larger role at the position.

“It was a good week to learn and get better at what we weren’t doing the best at in the beginning,” Parachek said, via Spartan Mag. “I do think we won the bye week, as coach Smith was saying. I think we’re prepared and ready to go this week .”

But he definitely knows he has to fill the shoes of a role model on the team in Masunas.

“Mike’s a great player, a very physical, strong guy,” Parachek said. “A great role model. I’m kind of trying to step into his shoes and trying to mimic what he was doing at the beginning of the year. It sucks that he’s injured right now, but hopefully we can get him back soon and we can start building him up.”