East Lansing, Mich. - There’s been a common phrase tossed around during player interviews this season.

They keep referring to something called neutral thinking.

And with the current state of the football team coming off a loss, the mounting injuries, and questions remaining to be answered, it explains a lot about the mindset coach Mel Tucker has tried to instill in his players going forward.

So what is neutral thinking?

It’s an Eastern-world concept that late sports psychiatrist Trevor Moawad used in working with several world-class athletes including the Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson.

“Neutral Thinking means accepting the idea that when something good or bad happens, it happens,” wrote Moawad in a memoir written before his September 2021 death from cancer.

“Instead of getting caught up in the negativity of a bad past or a mental or physical mistake, you just accept that it happened and move on.”

The Spartans sound very much like a team living by these principles, especially after coming of their first loss of the season, a 40-29 defeat at Purdue.

“That game is in the past, we’re moving on, focusing on Maryland and looking forward to the game,” said MSU senior safety Xavier Henderson after practice earlier this week.

But this mindset involves much more than just moving forward on the calendar. It’s about removing the feelings attached to significant moments, whether positive or negative and focusing on your behavior.

“When things get bad or go wrong, just try to keep a neutral mind,” said graduate senior defensive end Drew Beesley. "On the same token, you don't want to get too high because when you encounter something bad it makes it that much worse and harder to move on from."

Beesley ramped up his belief in this way of thinking during his five-week absence due to injury prior to his return for the Michigan game.

Instead of lamenting about being sidelined for weeks, Beesley focused on what he could do to improve his situation daily and whatever he could do for the betterment of the team.

“Having a neutral mind is something Coach Tucker has taught me and all my teammates and it’s taken me a long way,” said Beesley. “I try to preach it and pass it along as well.”

MSU is hoping several of its players will take Beesley’s approach and Tucker’s philosophy to heart as the team deals with a mounting number of injured players.

On Saturday, MSU played without starting kicker Matt Coghlin, wide receiver Jalen Nailor, and left tackle Jarrett Horst. Freshman cornerback Chuck Brantley left the field against Purdue and was replaced by another previously injured cornerback in Ronald Williams II - who had not played in the game until Brantley went down. Reserve cornerback Marqui Lowrey has also been hampered by an injury for much of the season and didn't take the field at Purdue after being removed from the Michigan game after nine snaps with a recurring ailment.

With Brantley, Williams and Lowery battling ailments, the Spartans have become dangerously thin at the cornerback position. Junior cornerback Chester Kimbrough briefly left the Purdue game with a limp as well. Basically, the entire cornerback corps is gimpy at best right now, coming off a dismal game at Purdue in which the Spartans allowed 536 yards passing.

Michigan State played walk-on walk-on cornerbacks in the spring scrimmage in April, and the results were not pretty. If Michigan State becomes more compromised at cornerback, it wouldn’t be a big surprise to see the Spartans dip into their talent reserves at wide receiver in order to offset the shortage at cornerback.

Defensive end Jack Camper, tight end Trenton Gillison, and offensive lineman Matt Carrick did not travel to Purdue for undisclosed reasons while linebacker Cal Haladay and walk-on kicker Stephan Rusnak, who filled in for Coghlin, both played wearing casts on their hands.

This injury list is a compilation of various media reports because while Tucker is open to sharing his wisdom and personal philosophies with his players and the general public, his injury report is another story.

“I don’t like to talk about injuries because I don’t like to tell our opponents who they are going to play, who they are going to face, who’s available, and who’s not available,” said Tucker. “You have to do that in the NFL. Well, we don’t have to do that in college. We don’t have to (list), probable, questionable, and all that. I like to give out as little information as possible.”

And if the information is less than ideal, he and the Spartans will attempt to stay neutral in preparation for Saturday’s game against Maryland.