A half-dozen Iowa defenders tried to stop Scott, but he wouldn’t be denied.
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Iowa never trailed by more than one possession.
“I didn’t know you could fit 22 plays into 80 yards, but they did it”, he says.
“This is more than one year”.
That theme resonated throughout the game against the hard-nosed Hawkeyes whose effort matched that of the Spartans every step of the way to another improbable ending. It was the longest play given up by the Spartans this season.
Top-seeded Clemson will play No. 4 Oklahoma at the Orange Bowl and No. 2 Alabama gets No. 3 Michigan State at the Cotton Bowl in the New Year’s Eve semifinals of the College Football Playoff. On the play, Cook rolled to the left on an option before lowering his shoulder and plunging for the line-to-gain.
At the end of it, L.J. Scott powered through a pile of Hawkeyes and reached the football out into the end zone to score the game-winning touchdown in the final minute. Ohio State won the National Championship against overwhelming odds, and it appears Dantonio’s Spartans might be on the same path this season.
With Wisconsin’s personnel losses and Maryland returning the bulk of their 27-win outfit of 2014-15, fans of Big 10 basketball spent the offseason seeking a team to challenge the Terrapins for conference supremacy.
How long they stayed: That first stint lasted four games, but only two of them were wins.
Michigan State scored 13 points in the second half against Iowa’s 7. The last MSU team to top the rankings was Tom Izzo’s 2013-14 team, in December 2013.
The Iowa Hawkeyes have made all the clutch plays this season. “It just seems like there’s so much symbolism that always goes along with this team and how we were able to play this season”.
Alcorn State will face North Carolina A&T in the inaugural Celebration Bowl.
Iowa was held to 52 rushing yards on 24 carries in the loss.
“We still have a lot to prove”. “We’ve had to fight through adversity, fight through hard times, and we’ve earned everything we’ve gotten”. “Are we going to weather the storm or be the storm, and I think we did a great job of being the storm after adversity hit”. The fifth-year senior was gritty, however, and he ran for a fourth-down conversion on the game-winning drive.
“We’re a different team”, Tigers coach Dabo Swinney said.
Not sure if that’s going to be enough, but win or lose, Alabama will leave Arlington knowing it was in a tough, physical football game.
“It wouldn’t be a Spartan game if it didn’t come down to the last play”, Allen said.
“Dantonio’s teams, they live to be the underdog”.
Michigan State’s Michael Geiger kicked field goals of 29 and 47 during the third quarter to push the Spartans into a 9-6 lead before Beathard’s bomb to Smith. A big difference from last season, when the committee had to choose from Ohio State, Baylor and TCU, and ticked off the Big 12 by jumping the Buckeyes past the Bears and Frogs in the final rankings. And that 10 seconds came back to the Spartans when they blocked a punt for a touchdown with 10 seconds remaining before the play started.
Iowa got their first points 9 minutes into the first. You could see it in their eyes and there’s a point in time when you see the tide turning. “And you got to allow your players to do what they do best from our perspective”.
It was vintage Big Ten football. The Outback Bowl is the Big Ten’s third-oldest current bowl partner and has been affiliated with the conference since the 1993 season.
“I could only smile, really”, Allen said.
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“That’s something that’s pretty cool”.
