Two teams built the same way will battle in today’s 7:15 p.m. Big Ten Championship Game at Lucas Oil Stadium, where the Hawkeyes and Spartans have more in common than a desire to earn a championship trophy.
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“I mean, obviously this is everything I’ve wanted, being able to get an opportunity here and to be a contributor as I have this season, and for the team to go 12-0 is unreal”.
The Michigan State brand is as strong as its ever been. The Spartans are only 3.5-point favorites, even though they played the far tougher schedule, beating Oregon, Michigan and Ohio State.
Some Big Ten coaches analyzed anonymously for BTN.com this week, and one concluded of Iowa’s secondary that MSU’s Connor Cook “may sit back there and pick them apart”. Whether you’re in the NAIA or the SEC, winning each of your regular-season games meant something about a team’s preparedness, its ability to play its best every single week. Overlooked are road wins over Northwestern and Wisconsin, which were both ranked at game time.
After being on the brink for many years, the Spartans are as close as they’ve ever been in the modern college football structure to joining college football’s elite. Michigan State, meanwhile, will rely on three blue-collar backs to poke holes in Iowa’s run defense, which finished No. 2 in the Big Ten (110.0 yards per game). “We knew he was getting a lot of heat after last season – and last season wasn’t really his fault”, sophomore Iowa tackle Boone Myers said.
Big E on his time with the Hawkeyes: “I have to use the term ‘the best of times, the worst of times.’ Worst of times mainly because it was very frustrating dealing with all of the injuries. They want it all”. So we’ll see how effective he is, how long he goes, but he’ll play. “We know that we’re going to have to bring our best”. Beathard. Rudock transferred to MI and led the Wolverines to a 9-3 season. They’ve been here before.
The Spartans (11-1) have reached 11 wins for the fifth time in the past six years, and coach Mark Dantonio says in some ways, he tried to pattern Michigan State’s system after Iowa’s.
The conventional wisdom is that the title game Saturday night is essentially a play-in for one of the four precious spots in the second College Football Playoff. Michigan State continues to excel while short-handed. The Spartans have won 10 or more games in five of the last six seasons after doing it just twice in the 82 years before Dantonio arrived.
A healthy Cook gives Michigan State the advantage as both defenses force the offenses outside of their comfort zone. Well Austin, if whatever happens actually does happen, college football fans around the nation shouldn’t be surprised when the Hawkeyes pull out a win this Saturday in Indianapolis. “Our goals all along have been to get to the playoffs and compete for a national championship”. November hasn’t been kind to the Spartans, who gained only two wins last month against New Hampshire.
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That being said, there is no doubt in my mind that Dantonio will somehow convince his players that they are the hunters and not the hunted.
