“Again, you look at their full body of work, they’ve got two top 25 wins, one top 10 win against No. 8 Notre Dame, and Ohio State has a win against No. 14, Michigan”.
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“We’re not in yet, so we’re just enjoying the night as Big Ten Champions”.
They didn’t like that.
Against a lot of probability, Michigan State is set for its College Football Playoff debut this winter. “I got to grit it out being in a situation like this, playing for a championship”.
The result: A 16-13 victory over the Hawkeyes in the Big Ten Championship Game, and a spot in the College Football Playoff. MSU possessed the ball for nine minutes and:22 seconds for the go-ahead TD drive, with a pounding run game and clutch passes to claim the conference championship. “First to be East Division champions, it’s special, and then to be a Big Ten champion, it’s unbelievable”. Both times the Spartans won the championship game, they did so by downing previously undefeated squads on a neutral site in Indianapolis.
But the Spartans forced the Hawkeyes to settle for only three field goals before putting together that last-ditch drive.
Iowa had gone up 13-9 on an 85-yard touchdown pass from quarterback C.J. Beathard to Tevaun Smith.
“As you move forward, you try and win regular-season games, win the Big Ten, win bowl games, and you continually try and take your program to the next challenge, and I think that’s part of growth, and we’re going to find out if we’ve grown up a little bit”. This is the team that took a fumbled punt back for a walk-off touchdown at the Big House.
MSU-M.Geiger 23 yard field goal, 11:11. Are they going to keep winning just because they refuse to lose? MSU had won a Rose Bowl under Dantonio.
That play turned out to be an option keeper, and Cook took Iowa linebacker Josey Jewell’s best shot.
You could tell Michigan State’s timing was off Saturday when the Spartans scored and left:27 on the clock.
The pantheon of memorable plays with catchy names executed by Michigan State under ninth-year head coach Mark Dantonio has a new entry. “We’ve had to fight through adversity, fight through hard times, and we’ve earned everything we’ve gotten”.
And now it’s on to the next.
“Queze said it to us, I think maybe before the game”, Calhoun recalled.
That’s just not the way the Spartans have done things in 2015.
“We know what kind of physical, tough teams they have at Michigan State, and it will be a real challenge for our team”, Saban said Sunday. He’s the definition of a pocket passer and has led the Spartans to the top of the rankings year in and year out.
It will forever be known in Michigan State lore as, “The Reach”. That score held, and now No. 3 Michigan State will face No. 2 Alabama in a December 31 national semifinal.
The college football playoffs show begins at noon on ESPN. He expects that the strong leadership on his team will help the Buckeyes throughout bowl practices and prep. Heck, even two 5-7 Big Ten teams are going bowling (Nebraska and Minnesota). Now it’s on to the semi for the victor.
Alabama definitely secured its place as one of the four teams in the playoff by defeating Florida in the Southeastern Conference decider. But while that remains an unknown for the next few hours, what is a known is that the Spartans will be competing for a national championship.
“He’s a load. I felt like if he found a crease he’d get more”, Dantonio said. Teams like the Browns, Texans, 49ers, Eagles and even the Cowboys could be in play for a first round quarterback. They’re capable of so much, especially when they believe those things.
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“We were confident right up to the last play that’s we’d make a stop down there, I think everybody on our team was”. There’s a belief system. “I know it’s been written about, what have you”. That energy goes a long way. We were saying, ‘Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go, pound it, pound it, pound it’. Championship football teams do that.
