Everyone now knows Kenneth Walker III after Michigan State beats Michigan

EAST LANSING, Mich. – The beauty of the Heisman Trophy race in recent years is that, for all the predictions and radio chatter and car advertisements, the winner earns it on the field. When the 2021 season began, no one outside of Wake Forest knew Kenneth Walker III or what potential he held.

They know now. Everyone at Michigan State knows. And you can bet, after he stopped, started and accelerated like a Tesla through the maize and blue defense time and again Saturday, they know in Schembechler Hall, too.

Walker rushed for 197 yards and five touchdowns on 23 carries as No. 8 Michigan State twice came back from double-digit deficits to defeat No. 6 Michigan 37-33 in a battle of unbeatens. The immortal Red Grange of Illinois became immortal largely because he ran for four touchdowns against Michigan in 1924. It took 97 years for someone to run for five.

Walker set that record by scoring from 27, 8, 1, 58 and 23 yards Saturday. The last two, in the fourth quarter, completed a late-game turnaround that defied everything that happened before it. Michigan (7-1, 4-1 in the Big Ten) outgained Michigan State (8-0, 5-0) 552-395, and held the ball for 34:50. But the Wolverines, like the rest of College Football 2021, had no answer for Walker.

Walker began the game as the leading rusher in the nation (997 yards, nine touchdowns, 142.5 yards per game, 6.56 yards per carry). He improved on all those numbers against a defense that had surrendered only three rushing touchdowns this season.

“He’s a real shifty runner,” a shellshocked Michigan defensive end Aidan Hutchinson said after the game. “Hard to bring down.”

Walker, a 5-foot-10, 210-pound junior alternated between running past Wolverines or running over them. The fun of watching him comes in the anticipation. On any given snap . . .

“Honestly, three of his touchdowns today, I wasn’t expecting a huge play,” Michigan State quarterback Payton Thorne said. “On the first one, in the huddle, I said, ‘Forget the red zone. Let’s just score right here!’ And he did! So, that was good.”

Yes, Payton. That was good.

Michigan and Michigan State have played this rivalry 114 times and, God willing, they’ll play it another 114 more. But they may never play another football game as rollicking, as thrilling, as seesawing as what 76,549 at Spartan Stadium witnessed.

“One thing we know about our guys,” a hoarse Michigan State coach Mel Tucker said after the game, “is that they are going to keep playing.”

Until Walker’s last touchdown, with 5:08 left, Michigan State had led the game for a total of 3:31, way back in the second quarter. Michigan State didn’t convert a third down until the fourth quarter — when the Spartans converted four of five.

The Spartans’ defense allowed the Wolverines only two touchdowns in six trips to the red zone. Jake Moody had four field goals for Michigan; he kicked seven, the other three from 35 yards when Tucker called timeout back-to-back-to-back late in the first half, the biggest waste of ice since someone ordered Johnnie Walker Blue on the rocks.

But let’s not get distracted. Forget the porous Spartans pass defense – Michigan quarterback Cade McNamara (383 yards) and tight end Erick All (10 catches) had career bests and freshman wide receiver Andrel Anthony, from East Lansing High, made his first college reception a 93-yard touchdown on the Wolverines’ third snap.

Tucker built the defensive game plan around limiting Michigan backs Hassan Haskins (14 carries, 59 yards) and Blake Corum (13-45). “If they could beat us throwing the ball, then they would get us,” Tucker said.

And let’s not be distracted by the vagaries of replay. With Michigan ahead 20-14 late in the first half, Wolverines linebacker David Ojabo sacked Thorne at the Spartans’ 3 and forced a fumble. Hutchinson curled around in the end zone for a Michigan touchdown, only to lose that 26-14 lead in the video booth.

Michigan State won the fourth quarter, recovering the second of Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy’s two fourth-quarter fumbles, this one at Michigan’s 41 with 7:12 to play. McCarthy may have been playing because McNamara had taken a hit right in the midseason from blitzing corner Justin White.

“He was working through something at that point,” Harbaugh said, explaining why McNamara was not in the game. Harbaugh’s postgame news conference lasted four minutes and change, his tone as clipped as a Beverly Hills lawn. It’s hard to blame him. The biggest bugaboo of his good-not-great résumé at Michigan is that he is 3-4 against Michigan State and 0-5 against Ohio State.

In the end, Michigan State had too much Walker, who, in turn, is learning to have too much Michigan State as fast as he can. He is new to the program, and learned about the intensity of the Spartans-Wolverines rivalry two weeks ago, when Michigan State was off.

Tucker had his players, many of whom, like Walker, are new to East Lansing, watch video and listen to former players talk about why it is important to beat Michigan. You might think that would be understood by anyone who signs a Michigan State scholarship, but Walker, an Arlington, Tenn., native who stepped through the transfer portal from Wake Forest after the 2020 season, knows little of college football history.

“My dad was really into college and NFL,” Walker said. “But I was always playing sports. I didn’t know much about watching TV at all.”

The unlikeliest of Heisman candidates now knows who became the first back to rush for five touchdowns against fabled Michigan. So do the rest of us.