Spartans Relish Role of Michigan

With one minute left to play and the clock ticking, the roar from the 76,895 in Spartan Stadium, building like the sound of a jumbo jet taking off, told the story. So did the picture of wide receiver Plaxico Buress kneeling alone in prayer at the 35-yard line as time expired.

Michigan State’s football team had gotten the best of Michigan, 34-31.

The tough guys from down the road in Ann Arbor, always good and big and mean and nationally ranked, and always in the way of any kind of Big Ten and national desires the Spartans may have, had been handled, put in their place, outdone.

Michigan came into Saturday’s game unbeaten, a slight favorite and the No. 3-ranked team in the country. The Wolverines hold a 60-27-5 advantage in this series and have even won twice as many games in the series on the Spartans’ home field as has Michigan State. Indeed, for Michigan, this game with the state school down the road is a nice little rivalry, something to get the blood going a bit in midseason, but certainly not its big game of the year. That’s Ohio State.

Michigan doesn’t say that, of course, but that’s the reality. And so, when the Wolverines become nonchalant about their annual victory over the Spartans, who are building an entire season around the game, it works its way under the skin of the team dressed in green and white, as well as its fans.

So this year, the thought of getting shrugged off, beaten by a touchdown or so, and then having to listen to that song about “Hail” to this and that was more than the Spartan faithful could stomach, especially since Michigan State was unbeaten itself and ranked No. 11.

No, this time it was special. This was the time.

Not since 1961 had these teams played in a game in which both were unbeaten. They were each 2-0 that season and the Spartans’ 28-0 victory had limited significance. You have to go back to 1916, when Michigan was 4-0, Michigan State 3-0 and the losing Spartans in that 9-0 game were actually called Michigan Agricultural.

So when both teams lined up at 5-0 for this one, nobody could argue that it wasn’t special. And when Michigan State not only ran off to a 17-point lead, but then won at the end against the awakening sleeping giant by not just holding on but by effectively running out the clock, it even took Coach Nick Saban to new levels of hyperbole.

“I feel fabulous, not just for me, personally, but for our players,” said Saban, whose team last defeated Michigan in 1995. “This is as happy as I’ve ever seen them. I know how much this game means to our fans, and I’m happy for them.”

Spartan quarterback Bill Burke, a left-hander who won’t remind anybody of Steve Young but has emerged in his senior year as one of the more poised and accomplished passers in the country, was more to the point.

“There’s nothing like this,” he said.

Burke and his junior receiving star, Buress, clearly led the highlight films. Burke completed 21 of 36 passes for 400 yards and two touchdowns. Buress, 6 feet 6 and 222 pounds, caught 10 passes for 255 yards and one touchdown, and clearly was more than anybody on the Wolverine side of the ball could handle.

“You better have a big cornerback to put on him,” Saban said.

Burke’s performance included a school record for passing yardage, topping the mark of 369 yards set by Ed Smith against Indiana in 1978. It was also the 10th consecutive game in which Burke has thrown at least one touchdown pass.

Buress’ receiving yardage was also a school record, topping the 252 by Andre Rison in the 1989 Gator Bowl.

The only other record in the game was set by Michigan’s Hayden Epstein, whose 56-yard field goal was the longest ever against the Spartans. Epstein, a sophomore from Torrey Pines High near San Diego, wasn’t supposed to even play this season, but obviously has been able to successfully rehabilitate an injured knee.

As well as Michigan State played--and that includes a defense that leads the Big Ten against the rush and allowed Michigan a net six yards on the ground--it led by only three at the half, 13-10.

But after Burke hit Buress early in the second half for a 48-yard gain that set up a 19-yard scoring pass to Gari Scott and a 20-10 lead, Michigan State really turned the tide on a big play by Spartan strong safety Aric Morris in the next series.

With Michigan keeping intact its quarterback rotation of senior Tom Brady and sophomore Drew Henson, Michigan State capitalized on Henson’s youth and inexperience by blitzing him hard deep in his own territory. Henson scrambled, pump-faked two or three times, and then, under heavy pressure, fired a pass over the middle that went directly to Morris, who took the interception in full stride, got it back to the Wolverine 18 and was barely able to cool off on the sideline before Burke passed 15 yards to Buress for a 27-10 lead.

Michigan, suddenly aware it was down to one quarter and that the usual patsy down the road wasn’t acting like one, came right back with an 80-yard scoring drive to cut its deficit to 10 points. But the Spartans retaliated with a six-play, 76-yard drive to make it 34-17, and all those in the crowd who came dressed in Michigan maize and blue and had been hanging around expecting the Spartans to start remembering who they were playing could only sit, dazed.

“When we marched right back there, that was huge psychologically,” Saban said. “It tells the other guy that we took his best punch and it didn’t affect us.”

When it had really counted, when it was all on the line, Michigan State had come through. When the Spartans had a number of chances to do what they have done all too often against the Wolverines, they didn’t.

Scott, the senior wide receiver, recognized it, and said it:

“We finally beat them.”