East Lansing >> When fans come back for Homecoming weekend, they’re almost always met with something new on the campus, or something new in the city.

Meanwhile, the Michigan State fans who returned Saturday night were treated to a new-and-improved offense, which absolutely dominated a very good Iowa defense from start to finish in a 32-20 win at Spartan Stadium.

Consider this: For the first time since 1989, Michigan State didn’t kick a single punt in a game. The Spartans scored on eight of their 10 drives, with one ending on an interception and another on a missed field-goal attempt. It’s just the 23rd time in a Big Ten game that Michigan State didn’t punt.

Michigan State’s offense had the ball for nearly 40 minutes, an eye-opening effort coming off three straight losses, albeit two of them to two of the top teams in the nation, Oregon and Ohio State.

“Football is a game of development and growth, especially at the college level, and we want to be all about doing that. That doesn’t mean we’re sitting here without a sense of urgency or with a ton of patience,” said Jonathan Smith, Michigan State’s first-year head coach. “We’re continuing to push these guys to gain some confidence, build some skill, over and over, doing similar things. And that’s why, even with the bye week, there was no panic or overreaction like, ‘We’re going to throw out the offense and put something in.’

“No. We know the type of players we have. We keep pushing these guys, and they continue with the work ethic they’ve had. We’ll find some success, and it showed up tonight.”

The Iowa game sure seemed to be a crossroads for Michigan State the first game of the second half of the regular season, and with the Spartans having dropped three straight games, after starting the Smith era with three wins.

The season could’ve gone one of two ways.

It was clear early Saturday which way it was going to go into Iowa territory.

“Typically, we are a good tackling team,” Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz said. “Michigan State played sharp and crisp, starting up front, but all of their guys. Backs did a good job running the football, and wide receivers looked good.

“Just need to give them credit. … They played an outstanding game.”

It started with redshirt freshman quarterback Aidan Chiles, who talked in the days leading up to the Iowa game about how he’s seen growth in his game through the first six games and his teammates echoed that sentiment. Chiles, who has six touchdown passes to nine interceptions through his first seven games, had a couple of squirely throws early against Iowa, but he got away with one, and seemed to gain confidence as the game went on. He was smart with the football he mostly threw the ball away when he had to, outside of one intentional-grounding call but it didn’t stunt his aggressiveness, his willingness to try to make plays. Chiles threw for 256 yards on 22-for-30 attempts, and he also rushed for 51 yards.

Ferentz called Chiles “dangerous” before the game, and he repeated the term Saturday night. Smith called it Chiles’ most-complete game as a Spartan. Afterward, Chiles said this offense can be even better. He bemoaned having to settle for field goals; graduate-student placekicker Jonathan Kim made a Michigan State-record six.

“It was about keeping your composure,” Chiles said. “And doing what you know how to do. Just go out there and play football the way you know how to play football.

“We came out, did what we had to do, got the points, kept the game out of reach basically.”

The balls he threw to his teammates were almost all within reach.

Freshman Nick Marsh had eight catches for 113 yards, and nearly a touchdown (he was ruled down on the 1 on a nice catch-and-run late in the game), and senior receiver Montorie Foster Jr. had five catches for 100 yards, including an 18-yard touchdown in the corner of the end zone an immediate answer after Iowa scored its first TD in the third quarter, capping off a 75-yard drive that covered more than five minutes, and put the Spartans up, 19-7. For Foster, it was the first 100-yard receiving game of his career. For Marsh, it was the second this season.

Chiles had an immediate connection with Marsh; it’s taken a minute to click with Foster, but it’s clicked.

“It was a lot of execution,” said Foster, in his fourth year at Michigan State, which lost the close Iowa game last season, and it sent the season spiraling. “We didn’t have many mistakes.”

Michigan State (4-3, 2-2 Big Ten) also rushed for 212 yards, its most since rushing for 242 against Indiana in November 2022. Senior Kay’Ron Lynch-Adams led the way on that front, with 86, his most since rushing for 101 in the season-opening win over FAU.

Michigan State had 468 yards of total offense, the most Iowa has given up in a game since Wisconsin racked up 473 in a game in November 2019.

Even after factoring in the Michigan State stats, Iowa still is a top-32 scoring defense nationally and a top-29 defense against the rush.