Bowl Win Next Goal On Checklist
12/20/2011 12:00:00 AM | Football
Dec. 20, 2011
By Steve Grinczel, Online Columnist
Isaiah Lewis had no doubt the eyes of the 64,152 spectators in Lucas Oil Stadium and those of the tens of thousands watching on television were staring only at him.
"Yeah, I knew," Michigan State's sophomore strong safety said Tuesday during MSU's Outback Bowl Media Day.
Lewis' running-into-the-kicker penalty sealed the Spartans' fate against Wisconsin in the waning minutes of the Big Ten Championship Game. The 42-39 defeat in his hometown of Indianapolis prevented MSU from defending its conference title and advancing to the Rose Bowl for the first time in nearly a quarter-century.
Most gazed on Lewis with stunned disbelief. Many looked upon him with contempt if not disgust. Some probably focused pity on an aggressive competitor trying to make a game-altering play, while Badger fans had to smile down on him with gratitude.
"When something happens, you expect people to be looking at you to be that guy to blame," Lewis said. "People who don't understand the game will be more on the negative side than the people who know the game."
What people need to understand is that regardless what they think, Lewis will line up for his next play, and all those that follow in the Outback Bowl game against Georgia on Jan. 2 in Tampa, unfazed by that missed opportunity against Wisconsin.
As a defensive back who has been burned by receivers and almost certainly will be again, Lewis is required to have a short memory.
"I just look onto the next play," he said. "You play the position so long; you just learn how to do it. It's natural. If you keep thinking about that one thing that happened, you're next play is going to be just as bad as the last.
"So you've just got to look past that and look to make a play."
Lewis embodies the attitude 12th-ranked MSU has to demonstrate as it attempts to break a five-bowl losing streak and finish in the Top 10 for the first time since it was seventh in 1999 and only the third time since 1966.
Yes, for the first time in 13 games, the Spartans have had to readjust their goals because the Rose Bowl is out of the question. However, a second-consecutive 11-win season is still attainable, and the momentum from a bowl victory would carry over to the 2012 season.
Lewis realizes he can be an example of dealing with adversity and getting something positive out of it.
"If your teammates see you aren't dwelling on that, and you're not stuck on that, they'll see that," he said. "Your playing shows that, too. Your playing will reflect what your mind thinks. If I don't think about it, I'll have a good game."
It's a mind-set offensive coordinator Dan Roushar has seen become galvanized throughout the season. After the Spartans lost at Notre Dame, 31-13, they could have pointed to the fact that they had an injury-riddled offensive line and used that as an excuse to under-perform for the following weeks.
Instead, with head coach Mark Dantonio setting the tone, they came back to beat Central Michigan, Ohio State, Michigan and Wisconsin.
"From my personal standpoint, I thought it was his best job of coaching that I've ever been around," Roushar said. "I don't think there were things that you saw on the outside but things that he did inside, from a motivation standpoint, from keeping us together, staying focused, staying positive and understanding that improvement was needed, and I thought our kids did that.
"I think it's always been a trademark of Coach Dantonio's teams - we get better as we go through the year, and I think that's reflective when you look at our record in November and the way we do things. It's also a great credit to our kids. You see guys working for each other. You see attention to detail."
In five seasons under Dantonio, MSU has eliminated many of the flaws that has prevented it from being a perennial Big Ten Championship contender and mainstay in the national polls. Getting to, and winning, a Rose Bowl will go a long way toward re-establishing the Spartans as a national power, but it turns out that getting there required another transitional stage powered in large part by the seniors who were unheralded collectively as a freshman recruiting class.
"I think they've done a lot for this program, as did the seniors before them," said sophomore middle linebacker Max Bullough. "They're kind of the building block of turning the program around.
"They deserve a win and we're going to give them all we've got to do it."
Having to re-set goals so late in the season was a difficult process to accept in the few days immediately following the loss to Wisconsin. Like Lewis, and several other Spartans, Bullough had a chance to make a difference in that game, but didn't come through on a fourth-down desperation pass that led to the Badgers' winning touchdown.
"You kept thinking woulda, coulda, shoulda thoughts in your head," Bullough said. "They had that Hail Mary and I'm the one jumping up, and I'm three inches away from tipping the ball. It's things like that that make you say, `Wow, if we could have just done this or that, we'd be going to the Rose Bowl and it would be a historic event.'
"But after four or five days, I've looked at the situation as we're playing in a great bowl against a great opponent. We had a bad ending to the Big Ten Championship Game, but we're excited to prove ourselves against a SEC team. It's important as anything to send our seniors out with a win because they're not going to be a part of it next year, and also, going into next year, rankings really matter for where you're ranked in the preseason.
"If we can get a win against Georgia to set ourselves up right for next year, that's just that much better for the program."
Maybe Michigan State's primary goal is no longer attainable, but other lofty objectives still are.
"We've done a lot of things that haven't been done in 40 years, 20 years, whatever," Dantonio said. "The one thing that has escaped us thus far is winning our bowl game. That's something that we've got to be able to rectify and to make sure that we're able to do that and continue to work towards that.
"The number-two goal for our entire program was win our last game and springboard next year's class into next season. It was to spring into 2012 with a positive outlook."
With so many watching, it will help to have a short memory.
