Michigan State dealt another long-term injury to key player

EAST LANSING – The injuries keep piling up for Michigan State early in the season.

Sophomore cornerback Chance Rucker is the latest Spartan who will miss extended time after being hurt in last week’s 27-24 win at Maryland.

“Chance Rucker is going to be longer term, upper body,” Smith said on Monday. “You’re not going to see him probably for six to eight weeks, which was unfortunate because I did think he was progressing. That’ll be a next-man up kind of mentality.”

Rucker, who made eight starts as a true freshman last year, started the season-opening win against Florida Atlantic before coming off the bench at Maryland and being injured while making a tackle late in the third quarter. He was immediately walked off the field and into the building in the end zone for further evaluation.

Michigan State brought what Smith said was a healthy team into the season but that situation changed significantly in the first two weeks. Wide receiver Alante Brown and safeties Dillon Tatum and Khalil Majeed all suffered long-term injures in the opener, Smith announced last week. Starting right guard Kristian Phillips also sustained a lower-body injury against the Owls and is likely out for the season, Smith said after the win at Maryland.

The Spartans rotated heavily on defense the first two weeks and their secondary depth is going to be tested even more with Rucker out. Charles Brantley and Ed Woods started at Maryland while Rucker, Ade Willie and Jeremiah Hughes were also in the mix.

“The difference in practice, there’s other guys that are going to get more opportunity to fill in, which I’m excited about,” Smith said. “We’ve got some younger players that have been working hard, haven’t gotten in on defense as much who might get an opportunity to force their hand to do it. … We’ve got some other options of guys that need to step up in there and we’ll see how this week of practice goes to determine who those guys are.”

Woods and starting receiver Jaron Glover were both injured against the Terrapins and their status is questionable when Michigan State (2-0, 1-0 Big Ten) hosts Florida A&M (1-1) on Saturday (3:30 p.m., BTN).

“We’ll kind of see how they progress through the week,” Smith said of the two, “but we’re hopeful.”