It’ll be a homecoming of sorts on Saturday when Eastern Michigan visits Michigan State in East Lansing.
Eagles quarterback Noah Kim spent four years at Michigan State, including as the starter to begin the 2023 season, and returns to Spartan Stadium in his seventh year of college eligibility.
Kim transferred from Michigan State to Coastal Carolina before moving on to Eastern Michigan in 2025.
“I’d be lying if I said, ‘Oh, it’s just some random football game,'” Kim said to MLive.com. “At the same time, you kind of have to be able to control your emotions and how you feel about certain situations and what you’re going into. At the end of the day, we are playing a football game and it doesn’t matter who we play, what the logo is or anything of that sort. We have a football game and we have to execute at a high level.”
Through two games so far this season, Kim is 51-of-81 passing (62.9%) for 453 yards and three touchdowns with one interception.
“He’s seen a lot of football,” Michigan State head coach Pat Fitzgerald said of Kim. “He’s seen a lot of coverages and he’s got that ability to extend the play and then make you pay if you’re not sound in your run fits.”
Eastern Michigan (1-1) comes in following a 27-21 home loss to San Jose State last week. Michigan State (1-0) enters after last week’s 30-20 home win in its season opener over another Mid-American Conference opponent, Toledo.
Michigan State controlled the game statistically against the Rockets (26 first downs to Toledo’s 10, 397 total yards to Toledo’s 273), but gave up a 60-yard touchdown pass and a 71-yard touchdown run on defense, and had to settle for five field goals by kicker Liam Boyd on offense.
Eastern Michigan has never beaten Michigan State, having lost all 10 of the previous meetings between the programs. The Spartans rolled to a 73-14 victory in their last clash in 2014.
