Michigan State University Athletics
Memorable Football Season Openers
9/1/2011 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 1, 2011
By Steve Grinczel, Online Columnist
After a winter, spring and summer's worth of absence making the heart grow fonder for football, the season opener is a once-a-year event that generates its own energy field.
It's Christmas, New Year's, the Fourth of July and sometimes Labor Day all wrapped into one. The atmosphere is guaranteed to again be festive when the Spartans host Youngstown State in just the third nighttime home opener in school history, and 10th night game ever in Spartan Stadium.
Coach Mark Dantonio's first home opener, against UAB, may have lacked the cache of a game against a highly ranked team from a power conference would have provided, but the 55-18 victory supplied once-in-a-lifetime memories.
It also provided the first tangible evidence that a culture-change was underway within a program that had amassed an inordinate number of penalties in previous seasons.
"Running out for the first game at Spartan Stadium as the head football coach, that's a memory I'll always have," Dantonio said. "We played very well that game. Probably my biggest memory of that whole game is we had three penalties. To me, that was the most impressive thing.
"If you can do those kinds of things in opening games, you've got a great chance to win the football game, and we played very well on special teams. When you look at opening games, special teams and penalties affect the game."
The Youngstown State game will be the first litmus test coaches, and fans, will be able to use to confirm strengths and indicate areas that need shoring up.
"Are you ready to tackle people in game-time and on game-plays?" said Dantonio, who's 4-0 in home openers. "We've gone a lot of live (in practice), but until you get out there, you've to tackle in space, you can't put the ball on the ground, you've got to do well as a snapper, holder, kicker.
"Those are things that are going to define you a little bit in your first game. Certainly, your second game becomes even more of a barometer, I think, because you sort of get some things worked out."
Michigan State teams have come back from home-opening losses. After tying Syracuse on the road and losing to Notre Dame at home, the 1990 Spartans went on to win a share of the Big Ten Championship. However, the last five MSU teams that lost their home openers (1991 Central Michigan, '92 Central Michigan, '94 Notre Dame, '95 Nebraska and '98 Colorado State) had an average record of 5-9, and only one finished above .500.
Teams that open with a 0-1 record rarely get credit for getting off to a fast start.
"Yeah, I think it can set a tone," Dantonio said. "It's the beginning; it's not the end. And if you're playing with young players you believe they're going to get better as you progress through the season, and I think that's what we'll do.
"We've got a good nucleus of young players on offense, and defensively, we've got a lot of guys who played, but they're still relatively young. There's going to be mistakes out there, but I just want them to be made 100-percent full-go, and we want to again put a premium on toughness and effort. If we do that, and know what to do, we have a chance to win a football game."
One thing is certain, the opener will bring a welcome relief to the monotony, drudgery and repetitiveness of training camp, and nighttime kickoffs always come with a little more electricity - in more ways than one.
"It makes it a little more like high school, so it ought to be more fun" Dantonio said. "I don't think there's any advantage or disadvantage. I think it's an advantage to our people in Michigan that we moved this game to Friday, so they can have a Labor Day weekend."
And, the outcome against Youngstown State could be a harbinger of things to come just at it was on three other noteworthy opening days.
1987
If the first game is supposed to set the tone, then Michigan State opened the 1987 season with a crescendo. Despite finishing the 1986 season with a bowl-worthy 6-5 record, the Spartans were denied an invitation to the postseason party. Consequently, MSU started looking forward to hosting its own version of a Rose Bowl, with a visit by Pac-10 traditional power and 16th-ranked Southern California in the '87 opener in what was officially called "The Great American Football Celebration."
When kickoff was moved to sundown on Labor Day, the buzz over the first night game in Spartan Stadium grew exponentially. Was it electric? Was it carnival-like? Was us surreal?
Yes, yes and yes.
The pregame hype jumped off the charts when USC linebacker Marcus Cotton said: "When I take the field, hell's in session. You've got your hands full with me. It's going to be like a war."
The white of the Spartans' pants was a little brighter, the pads popped a little harder and the jam-packed crowd of 77,922 created a hostile environment fueled, perhaps, by the artificial beacons illuminating the East Lansing sky in a way never seen before.
Michigan State marched 65 yards on the opening drive and took a 7-0 lead on Lorenzo White's 9-yard touchdown run, and the Spartans blew the game open with 17 unanswered second-half points.
The Spartans' 27-13 victory was a statement game, maybe not to the nation since they lost subsequent games to Notre Dame and Florida State, but to themselves. They could not only play with traditional powers, they could beat them.
More importantly, the manner in which the Spartans beat up the Trojans established once and for all the smash-mouth style of play that had been a work-in-progress under head coach George Perles the previous four seasons and would become an MSU trademark.
"I always knew we could beat them," defensive tackle Mark Nichols said after the game. "We can play with anybody. The first five games (vs. USC, Notre Dame, Florida State, Iowa and Michigan) intimidated you guys (in the media) more than us. We won our first one, now we have to work on our second one."
MSU outrushed USC, 238-61, and forced five turnovers on three interceptions and two fumbles.
"We won by 13 points and that's no big deal, but USC isn't exactly Little Sisters of the Poor," Perles said afterward. "There was a lot of tradition out there. They've beaten Big Ten teams to death lately."
Michigan State didn't get its second win until week four when it beat Iowa, 19-14, but the win over USC continued to pay dividends. The Spartans then toppled No. 12 Michigan, 17-11, finished undefeated in the Big Ten to clinch their first championship since 1978 and made their first trip to the Rose Bowl in 22 years. In the rematch with USC in Pasadena, the Spartans reprised their opening win with a dramatic 20-17 victory over quarterback Rodney Peete & Co.
1999
When defensive back Amp "Soup" Campbell sustained a horrific neck injury in the second game of the 1998 season at Oregon, whether or not he ever played football again was the last thing on anyone's mind. When he underwent spinal-fusion surgery the night of the injury and was forced to wear a halo brace for weeks on end, the hope was that someday he'd be able to lead a normal life.
So, when Campbell suited up for the Sept. 2, 1999, opener under the lights at Spartan Stadium, only one word could be used to sum up his situation.
Miraculous.
And, it got better.
Campbell not only played, he was the difference. With the Spartans trailing 17-14 early in the fourth quarter, linebacker Julian Peterson ripped the ball out of Ducks running back Herman Ho Ching's hands and "Soup" scooped it up. Campbell exploded out of the pack and sprinted 85 yards for the decisive touchdown and the second-longest fumble return in MSU history. The teams traded field goals down the stretch, but MSU came out with a 27-20 victory.
"I feel like a little kid right now," Campbell said afterward. "Everything broke right for me. I was just praying nobody would catch me. I knew we needed a big play, and that really helped get our defense going.
"I remember those nights in the hospital where I couldn't move, where I couldn't roll over to pick up the phone. I just prayed all the time, and my prayers were answered."
Even usually dour MSU head coach Nick Saban was caught up in the emotion of the opening-night moment.
"I'm so pleased and proud about Amp in so many ways," Saban said. "I've never felt lower as a coach (than) when he got hurt. I've never felt higher than when he picked up that fumble and ran it back. No matter what happens from here, we've won."
The inspired Spartans continued to win, and win and win.
The victory ignited a six-game winning streak, as the Spartans tied for second in the Big Ten and beat Florida in the Florida Citrus Bowl to wrap up a 10-2 season.
1965
Although Michigan State had established itself as a powerhouse in the 1950s under Biggie Munn and was a Big Ten force under Duffy Daugherty in the early '60s, it hit a snag with a 4-5 record in '64.
The tide turned on Sept. 18, 1965, when the Spartans downed Pac-10 favorite UCLA, 13-3, in the opener at Spartan Stadium.
That victory catapulted the Bubba Smith- and George Webster-led Spartans to and undefeated regular season and a National Championship, which was decided before postseason play.
UCLA, led by sophomore quarterback Gary Began who would go on to win the Heisman Trophy in '67, got the better of MSU in the Rose Bowl rematch, 14-12, despite being outgained by more than 100 yards.
Nevertheless, the fuse that was lit in that opener against the Bruins touched off back-to-back Big Ten Championships, successive national titles and a two-year 19-1-1 record.
