Michigan State football star Jayden Reed slowed by bruises, cuts, dating back to preseason
EAST LANSING — Jayden Reed leaped for the pass from Payton Thorne, crashed hard to the Spartan Stadium turf and kept sliding.
Right into the corner of a metal bench. The result: a cut that was “pretty deep,” one of the more freak injuries in a year full of them for the Michigan State football wide receiver.
“At first, I couldn't do anything,” Reed recalled Tuesday, recounting the laceration he suffered Sept. 10 against Akron. “Like, literally, I couldn't sweat with my stitches and stuff like. The cut was pretty deep. So I really just had to rest and let that thing heal up on his own.
“That was a weird little injury. I've never seen it before, but things happen. … I never in a million years thought that would happen. I couldn't feel my back when it happened, so I didn't even know it was that until I had to get stitches.”
'THE EASY BUS ISN'T COMING':Mel Tucker has a message for MSU ahead of seemingly lopsided Ohio State game
The senior, a 2021 All-American all-purpose player who bypassed entering the NFL draft a year early, has battled a number of ailments since the preseason. Freshman quarterback Katin Houser confirmed during camp that Reed was “in and out” of practice with injuries, which included a foot issue. Then in the Spartans’ season-opening win Sept. 2 against his former school, Western Michigan, Reed landed hard on his left hip late in the second quarter but returned after halftime.
He was back a week later, when he again went airborne and hit the ground on the same left hip before his slide into the Akron bench. This time, he returned after halftime in street clothes. He did not make the trip to Washington, the first of MSU’s three straight losses, but has been back since the Minnesota game and plans to remain a primary target for Thorne when they face No. 3 Ohio State on Saturday at home.
“I've just been spending more time in the training room, the extra stuff I can do,” Reed said. “I've been seeing massage therapists, chiropractors, getting in the boots and stuff like that. Just minor training room stuff that's helped me get over the little nicks and bruises.”
Despite all those maladies, the game at Washington remains the only one the fifth-year senior has missed in his career other than when he sat out the 2019 season after transferring to MSU from WMU. Reed said remaining in East Lansing and watching the loss to the Huskies “kind of hurt.”
RAINER SABIN:Michigan is still on the rise while Michigan State's problems are just beginning
“It was pretty frustrating,” he said. “I did everything I could to get back, my body just didn't allow me to and I just had to stick with the plan. … (The area on his back with the stitches) was covered up for pretty much that whole week, really. I couldn't do anything. I had to shower a little weird. It was a lot of stuff going on with that.”
It took until Saturday’s 27-13 loss for Reed to catch his first touchdown pass of the season from Thorne, his middle and high school teammate in suburban Chicago. In four games this season, Reed has 19 catches for 189 yards. He has not been returning kickoffs since his fall against WMU.
“Do I think he's 100%? Probably not. But I don't think he's at 50%, either,” Thorne said Saturday at Maryland, where he and Reed connected a team-leading seven times for 61 yards. “We got a lot of guys that are banged up, a lot of guys that are playing through injuries. He's had some unfortunate ones, a couple of weird ones, so that stinks. I feel terrible for him. But I know he's gonna go out there and play hard, that's all I know.
“And I know that if he can play, he's gonna play and he's gonna play hard. That's all you can ask for.”
The 6-foot, 190-pound wideout led the Spartans in 2021 with 59 catches, 1,026 yards and 10 receiving touchdowns along with two punt return scores. Reed said he “stayed positive” and leaned on his faith and MSU’s training staff to help guide his recovery.
GRAHAM COUCH:Mel Tucker and MSU fans face challenging and unpleasant tests ahead
“I just keep faith in God. I pray every night. That's been getting me through everything I've been going through this year,” he said. “I'm getting better every day, so I'm getting there — 1% every day, I'm getting better. … It's really my back for the most part. Everything else, I've been fine. I think I still move pretty decent when I'm out there. I try not to think about.
“It's really mental. Once you're out there, you're out there. It's time to go. So I really don't think about it.”
As for those metal benches? The Spartan Stadium staff put coverings over the edges for the Minnesota game. Something Reed said he heard but wasn’t about to find out first-hand that day.
“Nobody got cut,” he said with a grin.
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari.
Read more on the Michigan State Spartans and sign up for our Spartans newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State football star Jayden Reed slowed by bruises, cuts
