When Michigan State beat Northwestern 35-27 this year to begin the season with a perfect 8-0 record and climbed to No. 5 in the AP Top 25 poll, it marked the first time the Spartans had an 8-0 record. since 1966. 44 years ago
The 1966 team won its first 9 games en route to a 9-0-1 record after Notre Dame and Michigan State battled to a 10-10 tie in “The Game of the Century.”
Those of us of age remember that Ireland coach Ara Parseghian decided to play for an equalizer with a last-minute field goal rather than risk defeat. His decision will go down in sports history forever as one of the most shameless decisions by a coach.
Michigan State’s season ended after Notre Dame’s tie, but Parseghian had one more game to play that he knew would be an easy win, so he settled for the tie, and Notre Dame was voted on by both the AP and UPI ( now Trainers). national champion. Michigan State finished second in the polls, but Alabama was also beaten as the Crimson Tide finished the year undefeated and unleashed at 11-0-0.
A week after their win over Northwestern this year, Michigan State would travel to Iowa and take an uncharacteristic 37-6 thrashing that allowed the Hawkeyes to gain a 30-zip halftime lead as Kirk Cousins threw 3 interceptions. , one of which became a 66-yard interception 6.
The Spartans, to their credit, returned to their winning ways to defeat Minnesota 31-8, Purdue 35-31, and Penn State 28-22 to finish the year with an 11-1 record. Their win against the Nittany Lions came at Happy Valley in Pennsylvania. They are among the 5 other teams with records as good as 11-1: Stanford, Wisconsin, Ohio State and Nevada are also 11-1.
There is another important and little publicized point that signals the continued improvement of the Michigan State team, and that is the apparent fact that coach Mark Dantonio had never won a game after a bye week in his head coaching career until the purdue game. That includes his first 3 years in Cincinnati and his first 3 years at Michigan State.
Michigan State had to come from behind to win 6 of its 11 games this year. The Spartans beat Notre Dame (after being down 7), Wisconsin (down 7), Michigan (down 3), Illinois (down 3), Northwestern (down 17) and Purdue (down 15).
Undefeated Auburn trailed in 8 of its 12 games and was coming from trailing at least 13 points 3 times before winning. Being able to overcome adversity is an indicator of a champion team. The fact that Michigan State has done it 6 times is remarkable.
In a season where there are now only 3 undefeated major teams left: Oregon (11-0), Auburn (12-0) and TCU (12-0), having a loss doesn’t seem like such a big deal. In terms of win-loss records, Michigan State is ranked in the top 8 teams in the country.
Now the Spartans must wait patiently until they find out which bowling game they will be invited to and then make the decision to accept the offer. They will be playing in a game of bowls, it is just a matter of who their opponent will be and where they will play.
Copyright © 2010 Ed Bagley