This is the Depth Dossier: the Michigan State Spartans, Week 8.

Michigan State's sixth straight loss looked completely different for about one drive, and then the whole thing fell apart, ending as a 28 to 10 defeat to UCLA.

Here's how lopsided it got. Safety Devin Vaught forced a fumble and ran it back 56 yards, setting up true freshman quarterback Kayd Coffman's first career touchdown pass, to wide receiver Kenneth Williams. That's as good as it got. UCLA ripped off 28 unanswered points, piling up 245 rushing yards, while Michigan State's offense managed just 17 total yards over its final eight possessions. Williams was the one guy who showed up all day, finishing with a career-high 54 rushing yards on top of that touchdown catch. Kicker Liam Boyd's 46-yard field goal was the only point Michigan State could scrape together in the second half.

Now, the box score alone doesn't tell you what Michigan State was working with. The Spartans started the game without their starting quarterback, their backup quarterback, and their top two running backs. Alessio Milivojevic, Cam Fancher, Cam Edwards and Jaziun Patterson were all out, which meant third-string quarterback Coffman and third-string running back Marvis Parrish had to carry the load. Parrish lasted three plays before leaving with a leg injury. By the end, Michigan State was down to its fourth quarterback, Leo Hannan, who went 9 for 15 for 67 yards but also threw an interception.

Give the defense its due, though. Michigan State forced two fumbles, and Vaught and defensive back Nikai Martinez each returned one 56 yards. Martinez's return set the offense up at UCLA's 19-yard line with a real chance to go up two scores. Instead, Coffman threw an interception two plays later, and UCLA answered with a touchdown to grab a 14 to 7 lead it never gave back. Fumble return, interception, touchdown, all in four plays. That sequence was basically the whole game.

The rushing numbers tell you why Michigan State couldn't recover. UCLA ran for 245 yards against Michigan State's 47, part of a 443 to 156 total yardage gap. Michigan State converted just 2 of 11 third downs and lost the time of possession battle by nearly 12 minutes. Defensive tackle Ben Roberts, who'd just had a career-best game the week before, went down on UCLA's very first offensive snap, which hurt badly against a team built to run the ball. On a brighter note, kicker Boyd is now 11 for 14 on field goals this season, one steady thing in an offense that couldn't find the end zone otherwise.

So what happens next? The injury list is really the story heading into the bye week. Running back Parrish with a leg injury, defensive tackle Roberts with a leg injury who was seen on crutches, right guard Nick Sharpe who didn't return after halftime with an upper body injury, and safety Vaught, who didn't have a confirmed return, are all question marks going into the Michigan game, and the program hasn't said yet who'll be back.

That uncertainty makes Williams the clear winner out of this mess. With Parrish hurt early and the top two backs already unavailable, he carried the ball 17 times for those 54 yards and caught the touchdown, a real shift in workload for someone who'd mostly handled kick returns before. If Parrish, Edwards or Patterson are still out, Williams looks like the lead back out of necessity.

At quarterback, Coffman's rough finish, 4 for 10 for 42 yards with that costly interception, opened the door for Hannan late, and nothing is settled behind Milivojevic and Fancher if either one is still out. Up front, Sharpe's absence after halftime is one more problem for whoever starts at guard.

Nothing is official yet, but between Vaught missing time and Roberts going down, the defense that forced two fumbles here is going to need some bodies back before Michigan State faces Michigan on November 7th.

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