For Andrew Maxwell, who had spent so much time living in relative anonymity, the autograph seekers caught him by surprise.
“I had a 15-year-old girl stop me after the Michigan State-Michigan hockey game. She stopped me and asked for a picture,” the junior quarterback said. “I had another girl stop me and asked for a picture on the sidewalk. I said, ‘You guys realize I haven’t started a game yet, right?’”
Maxwell’s days of going unnoticed at Michigan State around campus and at Spartan Stadium are over. He is replacing the winningest quarterback in school history on a team with designs on winning even bigger.
“I don’t think the pressure comes from having to replace Kirk (Cousins) as a quarterback,” Maxwell said of his predecessor, a fourth-round draft pick of the Washington Redskins. “I think where the extra pressure comes in is where our program is right now.”
The Spartans have put together back-to-back 11-win seasons, with Maxwell mostly watching.
His body of work is limited to nine games, usually mop-up duty, over two seasons as Cousins’ backup. The 6-3 Midland, Mich., native completed 29 of 51 passes for 294 yards and one touchdown in those appearances.
But his debut spring as the starter was cut short by a sprained right knee suffered in a mid-April scrimmage.
“I feel like I was hitting my stride,” Maxwell said after the injury.
“I feel like I was getting pretty comfortable out there as far as leadership, being in the huddle, being comfortable being the No. 1 guy — all the things that I just had in my mind that I wanted to get done before spring (was over), I feel like I was getting comfortable and getting those things accomplished.”
What’ll matter this fall is wins and losses — any love he’s feeling from Spartan fans these days is conditional. But at least he’ll begin with the respect of his teammates.
“I mean Maxwell is going into his fourth year here,” center Travis Jackson said.
“Huge thing, we respect him a lot. He has a lot of knowledge. He’s studied his playbook three, four years now. He’s just been waiting his turn. He knows the whole offense, he knows everything. He’s a great leader, listens, commands people as well. And I think he’s going to have an awesome year this year.”