Pure Michigan Sports

Although the Spartans were unable to secure their first bowl game win today during the Dantonio era, the program took amazing strides this season.  Obviously there is no shame in going 11-2 in route to the programs first Big Ten title since 1990.  However the Spartans special season was derailed by finishing 2-2 in statement games this season ( wins over Wisconsin and Penn State and losses to Iowa and Alabama).  Today the Spartans had the opportunity to catapult themselves amongst the country’s elite with a win over Alabama, but the Tide was simply better.  They are one of the most talented teams in the country and provide a style of play that the Spartans simply could not keep up with.  However just as Rome wasn’t build in a day, the Spartans won’t become an elite college football program after one season.

The Spartans have learned how to win this season and have gained invaluable experience for the future.  Had the Spartans won yesterday they would have been a top 10 preseason team in the country, and been on the fast track to success.  The blow out losses in big games show the Spartans are not ready for the big stage.  This season means very little if they cannot build from this season, but they have the pieces in place to do so.  The Spartans did a fine job of beating the teams they were supposed to, finding ways to win games they shouldn’t and even beating teams that were better than them.  However, to gain true credibility they will have to repeat this past season’s success, or at least win 9 or 10 games to prove they are not a fluke.

Next season they will certainly miss not having tackling machines in Eric Gordon and Greg Jones, but they will have a more experienced offense and motivated defensive and offensive lines.  Granted the Spartans have also lost offensive coordinator Don Treadwell, as he has become the head coach at Miami of Ohio, but the Spartans will be eager to prove they are more than a one hit wonder.  In the mean time hopefully coach Izzo and company can provide another wonderful basketball season, and Dantonio can rack in recruits that allow the Spartans to take the next step to becoming a perennial contender.

Michigan State’s special 11-1 season wasn’t capped off with a Rose Bowl trip or a BCS Bowl of any kind, but that isn’t keeping this team down.  The Spartans headed into this season focused on winning a Big Ten Championship, and this team achieved their goal in dramatic fashion.  It’s easy to argue this team deserved a better Bowl game fate, but that is in the past and this team and program is proudly focusing on the upward battle to legitimizing their season and future in the Capital One Bowl against Alabama.  The Spartans’ Captain Kirk Cousins is taking the process in stride as he reflected on being snubbed by the BCS to ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg:

Dale G. Young / The Detroit News

“I feel like this is a BCS bowl game,” Michigan State quarterback Kirk Cousins said. “We’re playing Alabama, and you could easily put the tag ‘Orange Bowl’ or ‘Sugar Bowl’ on it, and people wouldn’t think any different. It’s two very good teams here. This is our chance. This is our opportunity to prove to everybody that we should have been in a BCS bowl game. We started the season ranked pretty low and didn’t get the respect from the beginning. We felt like we needed to go out and prove it on the field throughout the season, and I think we did that. One more time, we need to prove that we belong.”

Winning can cure most ailments, and as this team proved this season it can even prove a horrible case of the Same Old Spartans.  Each win this season the Spartans slowly but surely gained respect, however this team still has another goal ahead of them, winning a bowl game.  A focus that wide receiver Keith Nichol stressed to the Grand Rapid Press’ Greg Johnson:

“This team has done a lot of things Michigan State hasn’t done in a long time,” Nichol said. “One, we beat Penn State at Penn State; two, we have beaten Michigan for a number of years in a row( I love how matter-of-factly he said this), and we won the Big Ten championship.  But what we haven’t done is win the last game of the year, the bowl game” he said. “We haven’t won a bowl game in I don’t know how long(2001 over Fresno State in the Silicon Valley Bowl).”

This bowl game may not be the game this team wanted but, they understand that a bowl game win over a team like Alabama can give this team the opportunity to take this program to the next level.  There is an outstanding chance this receive similar viewers, if not more, and draw just as much interest, if not more, than any of the other BCS games.  Come January 1st Michigan State must seize this latest opportunity because their future, BCS and otherwise, depends on it.

Last night the Michigan Wolverines held their annual football banquet, Denard Robinson won team MVP and Rich Rod broke out into song.  Sadly you read that correctly, the Associated Press’ Larry Lage reported the following taking place at the banquet:

Ricardo Thomas/The Detroit News

Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez fought back tears, talking about the toll his job has taken on his family, and used passages from the Bible and a Josh Groban song during an emotional address that closed the team’s banquet.  ”I truly want to be a Michigan man,” he said Thursday.  ”This hot-seat stuff is not very much fun,” he quipped.  He cited Hebrews, talking about the faith he had in program’s direction, and talked about how Groban’s “You Raise Me Up,” inspires him before having it played. Rodriguez, his wife, Rita, Brandon and players stood on risers with their hands held above their heads as the song blared in the ballroom.

Rich Rodriguez’s 15-21 record has put him firmly on the hot seat in Ann Arbor, but this performance may finally be the icing on the cake that gets him fired.  For starters what a travesty that no one thought to tape this, but also mind boggling that he thought this was a good idea.  Obviously as a Michigan State alumnus and fan I am a huge supporter of keeping Rich Rod, but even I can’t see how this kind of display does anything but hurt his chances of being retained for next season.  This display of emotion and desperation has to make one wonder does he have control of this team, as if the all the losses and employing Greg Robinson weren’t enough.

Michigan State doesn’t need Rich Rod to succeed and maybe a new coach will make beating Michigan tougher, but it was so much fun having Rich Rod around.  He has been such a polarizing figure while in Ann Arbor, fans either love him or love to hate him.  His spread offense and 3-3-5 defense never really stood a chance at lasting at Michigan, and even Michigan fans don’t like his attitude.  However I ask Michigan fans to think about all the good times, you beat Wisconsin that one time, you have owned Indiana the last three years, don’t forget beating Massachusetts by 5 points this year, and you had your best finish in the Big Ten standings under Rich Rod this year, 7th!

In all seriousness Rich Rod’s body of work likely has him looking for a new job soon and the Wolverines will once again be on the search for another coach for Spartan fans to hate.  It will be fun watching the university try to sway Jim Harbaugh (the undisputed choice and former Michigan Man) from other top college coaching jobs and NFL riches, but where does this program turn if they can not bring Harbaugh home?  As Michigan haters relish in these embarrassing times for Michigan’s football program this story is quickly going from hilarious to sad as people are beginning to simply feel sorry for this once proud program.  However, no one feels sorry enough to stop laughing, you raise me up Rich Rod(a youtube tribute), you raise me up( Mike Valenti singing you raise me up as Rich Rod).

Regardless of what bowl game this team eventually lands, one thing is for sure they are Big Ten Champions.  After defeating the Penn State Nittany Lions the Spartans capped off their magical year finishing the season 11-1.  Although this team was one horrible game in Iowa away from being perfect, it certainly wasn’t an easy season.  They entered the season picked to finished 7th in the Big Ten, but the upside for a special season existed, if the Spartans could learn how to finish close games.  In the past Spartan football teams frequently found ways to lose games and their inability to finish teams off had become quite famous.  However, it comes as no surprise that this special season will be highlighted by the Spartans finding ways to win close games against Notre Dame, Northwestern, Purdue, and Penn State.  One week it took ‘Little Giants‘, another week  it took a ‘mouse trap‘, but this team simply found ways to win games.

MSU Football/ TheOnlyColors.com

While the BCS picture currently appears to have the Spartans on the outside looking in, the Spartans coach finally told the Detroit Free Press’ Drew Sharp what he thinks of his team’s chances at a BCS bowl game:

“We’re the only football team that beat Wisconsin and I might add that we did it convincingly,” he said. “I’ll say it twice. We did it convincingly.  “We deserve recognition,” Dantonio said. “Every time I turn on the television, they’re talking about somebody else. I’ve been silent about it. They’re leaving the Spartans out of the discussion and we beat Wisconsin. We played the toughest schedule(Spartans played a tougher schedule 33rd through the first 11 games than the Buckeyes 55th and Badgers 75th).  We went away and played away from home in this last game — and won. We did some things that haven’t been done around here in a long time.”

Only time will tell how this process shakes out and if the Spartans will receive any credit for being the only team to beat Wisconsin, but the future still looks bright in East Lansing.  In 4 short years coach Dantonio (credit AD Mark Hollis for hiring him)hound a way to turn this program around, establishing his first recruiting class as the graduating class with the most wins in school history and finished  their senior season off with a Big Ten Title.  After his steady success the ground work is in place to build this program into a consistent contender for years to come.

Heading into the final week of the season the Spartans find themselves needing help to secure their first Rose Bowl bid since 1988.  Obviously the Spartans must take care of business against Penn State to make any tie breakers necessary, but assuming they do they will need plenty of help.  Some fans have jumped to the conclusion that Saturday it will be in there best interest to root for Michigan to defeat Ohio State in the last game of the season.  These fans would be incorrect, and obviously delusional.

Dale G. Young / The Detroit News

For starters I cannot think of a scenario where Spartan fans should ever root for the Wolverines, regardless if a trip to the Rose Bowl is on the line or the safety of the human race.  The Spartans rooting for Wolverines would be on par with the Red Wings rooting for the Penguins, Kris Draper becoming friends with Claude Lemieux, pulling for the USSR to beat the United States in 1980 Winter Olympics, or pulling for Kwame Kilpatrick to re-take his spot as Mayor of Detroit.  Call it insanity if you will, but rooting for the Wolverines never has and never will make any sense, ever.

Granted if the Wolverines were to beat the Buckeyes it would guarantee they bring back Rich Rodriguez for another year, which would be something to be grateful for, but we will consider that a nice consolation prize if they pull off the upset.  However rooting for the Wolverines is simply not an option, so there must be another way.  It appears to be impossible for Michigan State to leap frog either Wisconsin(despite being the only team to beat them) or Ohio State in the BCS rankings without either of them losing.

Unfortunately for an Ohio State win to truly help it would also need to be accompanied by numerous teams ahead of Ohio State and Michigan State (Oregon, Auburn, LSU, Oklahoma State and Stanford) losing one or both of their final 2 games, and Wisconsin losing to Northwestern.  If some variation of those losses occur Ohio State would be headed to the National Championship game and then it could allow Michigan State to slip in to the Rose Bowl.  If Ohio State loses, Michigan State would still need Wisconsin to lose and additional help from the teams ahead of them in the BCS.

While it would be disappointing to not see the Spartans special season end in Pasadena, this program has taken tremendous strides towards finally rebuilding a dormant program.  This football program needs many years of success to legitimize itself, and finishing this season with a Big Ten Title, shared or otherwise, would be a great start.  Hopefully the Spartans can get to a point where they can control their own destiny and not have to rely on other teams, especially the Wolverines.

Since facing off against Illinois the Spartans have entered their games flat, every game except for the game against Iowa they recovered in the 2nd half and found ways to win.  Entering today’s game the Spartans had no reason to not be full of emotion on senior day where they had so much on the line (Rose Bowl dreams, Big Ten title, and record for wins by a graduating class).  The offense marched down the field on their first possession, seemingly setting a trend for the game.  However after that drive the team went flat, and watched the Boilermakers have their way with them as they built a 28-14  lead, heading into the 4th quarter.  This appeared to be the same old Spartans finally re-surfacing this season and ruining their special season.

The team was desperate for a spark and got the big play they needed when senior Chris L. Rucker made things interesting grabbing an interception  that set up a Kirk Cousins to B.J Cunningham 5 yard strike  that pulled the Spartans within a score, 20-28.  However the Boilermakers answered right back with a field goal to increase their lead to 31-20.  The Spartans offense finally found a groove and put together a 7 play drive that was capped off by another Kirk Cousins touchdown pass to Mark Dell, they also converted the two point conversion making the score 28-31.  As the Boilermakers got the ball back the Spartans were eager to pounce and take control of the game, they finally found an answer to the Boilermakers offense and force them to point deep in their own territory.  All season the Spartans have been a team of destiny and got the lucky break they needed as Denicos Allen blocked the punt and Johnny Adams recovered the ball on the 3 yard line.  The Spartans wasted no time cashing in as Kirk Cousins put the Spartans on top with a 3 yard rushing touchdown, 35-31 with 4 minutes and 24 seconds left in the game.

With the game in the balance the Spartans defense did everything they could to close this game out, but the Boilermakers found a way to move the football down the field, until their drive was stalled at the Michigan State 22 yard line.  Purdue had no choice, but to go for it on 4th down needing 8 yards to stay in the game, but quarterback Rob Henry was hit as the threw by senior Greg Jones and Chris Norman intercepted the pass ending the game and keeping the Spartans special season alive.

Dale G. Young / The Detroit News

For the bulk of the season the Spartans had everything going their way and seemed to find success even when they weren’t looking for it.  However this game nothing came easy, but they once again found a way to put together 22 4th quarter points and steal a game from the Purdue Boilermakers.  The Spartans relied on many players in this comeback win, but none were greater than quarterback Kirk Cousins.  He finished the day going 28-37 for 276 yards, 3 touchdowns through the air, 1 interception and 1 rushing touchdown, the game winner.  Although the Wisconsin Badgers beat Michigan handily the Spartans Big Ten and Rose Bowl dreams stay alive heading into the final game of the season against Penn State. What a game and what a season, hopefully the Spartans can find a way to finish strong and gain a little luck along the way.

Kickoff: 12pm at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, MI

TV/Radio: Big Ten Network and 760 AM (Spartan Radio Network)

Line: Michigan State -19 1/2

Top reasons MSU will win:

Associated Press

1.) Senior Day-

The Spartans senior class heads into Saturday’s game trying to become the winningest class in school history.  An esteemed honor that should add extra motivation to this team that is determined to win it’s final two games of the season.  The Spartans have 17 seniors and while emotions will run high nothing will trump this team’s desire to finish their careers at Spartan Stadium with one last victory.

2.) The Ground Game-

The Spartans ground game bounced back last week, and will be looking reassert their balanced offense against the Boilermakers.  As proven two weeks ago with Edwin Baker they will ride the hot hand, but I would still anticipate the Spartans to use all three backs to provide explosive plays.

3.) Spartan Defense-

The Spartans defense found ways to create turnovers and heavy pressure against every offense they faced this season.  Stopping the Boilermakers running game would force the Boilermakers to move the ball through the air which is something they have struggled with all year long, this unit even made Michigan’s defense look good.

Top reasons MSU will lose:

1.) Disrespecting Purdue-

The injury plagued Boilermakers have struggled mightily offensively, but they have been getting a tremendous effort from defensive end Ryan Kerrigan of late. The senior has compiled 62 tackles, 12 sacks and 1 forced fumble on the season.  He also almost single handily led Purdue to a victory of the Wolverines last week.  The Spartans must to everything they can to contain him and not allow him to wreck havoc in this game.

2.) Same Old Spartans-

Until proven otherwise this will always be a reason Michigan State can lose a game.  It will take years for the Spartans to shed their history of losing games they shouldn’t.  Although their remaining three games include three teams they should beat these are exactly the time of games the old Spartans would find ways to lose.  While the Spartans cannot afford to lose either of their final two games, losing this game would be far less forgivable.

Prediction: Michigan State 31- Purdue 14

Plain and simple, this game simply means too much for the Spartans to be denied.

www.agecon.purdue.edu

*Side note I will spend 10-15 minutes tomorrow building a larger drum than the one Purdue boats as the ‘world’s largest’, how lame.

Bonus- Second and Third favorite team this week: Wisconsin Badgers and Iowa Hawkeyes- Yes I understand that it would make more sense for the Spartans to be rooting for a Wisconsin loss, but it would be sacrilegious to root for Michigan.  Especially when you factor in that many fans were rooting for Iowa to lose last week and then that loss actually hurt the Spartans just as much as it helped, as they dropped in the BCS rankings during their bye week.  The Spartans will obviously be rooting for Iowa this week to beat the Ohio State and will simply have to take care of their own business, since rooting for Michigan is not an option.  As far as the game Wisconsin should blow Michigan out. Wisconsin 49- Michigan 28

Dale G. Young / The Detroit News

The Spartans got back to the basics Saturday as the pounded the Golden Gophers with a dominating run performance from sophomore Edwin Baker.  His career day was capped off by a 179 yard rushing performance that included all four of the Spartans touchdowns as they cruised to a 31-8 victory.    In previous games the Spartans have split up the carries amongst their three running backs, but this week Dantonio chose to stay with the hot hand in Baker.  After displaying a dominate running game, the Spartans only averaged 76 yards on the ground the last three weeks, so Baker’s outburst was a welcome sign the remainder of the season.

This was the exact game the Spartans needed to recover from their horrible loss to Iowa last Saturday.  The defense held the Gophers offense in check, forcing an interception, limiting big plays and holding them to just one score.  Although it would have been nice to see a better performance from Kirk Cousins (9-20 131 yards and 1 interception) the offense was able to create the big plays they needed through the running game.  Another positive from the game was seeing the Spartans stay disciplined as they were only called for four penalties (4 for 31 yards).

This victory keeps the Spartans atop the Big Ten standings with Iowa, Wisconsin, and Ohio State as they head into their bye week.  The bye week will allow the Spartans to recover from minor injuries and give them plenty of time to prepare for the final two games of the season verse Purdue and at Penn State.  Aside from taking care of their own business the Spartans will have to continue rooting for Wisconsin to win out (last three games include: Indiana, Michigan and Northwestern) and root for Iowa to beat Ohio State in two weeks to keep their Rose Bowl hopes alive.