Spartans Seek 11th-Straight Road Win in Big Ten Play

Oct. 7, 2015

By Steve Grinczel, MSUSpartans.com Online Columnist | @GrinzOnGreen

EAST LANSING, Mich. â€" Shilique Calhoun is returning to the state where he grew up and played high school football.

Calhoun will know soon enough whether he'll be welcomed back to New Jersey as a favorite son or an invader when Michigan State plays Rutgers Saturday night in Piscataway.

"Let's see if my family curses me out or cheers me on," Calhoun said from behind his trademark smile. "That will be the real test â€" if they are against me or with me."

Not that it should matter to the No. 4 Spartans, who have prospered in the road environment as well as any team in the nation and better than most in recent seasons. Mark Dantonio's teams are 17-3 away from Spartan Stadium since 2010 and 23-9 at opposing Big Ten venues in his nine seasons as head coach.

If Michigan State reaches the midpoint of the regular season with a win, its school-record winning streak in league away games will grow to 11 and Dantonio will have at least one victory in every Big Ten stadium. Rutgers lost at MSU, 45-3, in its first season as a member of the conference a year ago.

In the Football Bowl Subdivision, only Ohio State and Florida State, each with 13-straight victories, have longer conference winning streaks as visitors.

As much as Calhoun and the Spartans love to play in East Lansing, there's something about hostile surroundings that brings out the best in them.

"I think it will be good to get on the road, honestly," Calhoun said. "We've had home games early on and now it's time to see how we fare against teams when we're on the road. I think we do a great job of being road warriors. It will be a great test for this team to get away from this atmosphere and understanding that we're not always going to be in our comfort zone."

In Michigan State's nine league road games since beating Wisconsin, 16-13 in double overtime, its average margin of victory is 23 points. The ailing Spartans will be happy to come home with a win by any number of total points, but such a cushion would provide welcomed relief.

Two key starters, linebacker Ed Davis and cornerback Vayante Copeland, have been lost to season-ending injuries as has Dennis Finley, an important back-up offensive tackle who went down after making his first career start in last week's win over Purdue. Fifth-year senior safety RJ Williamson underwent surgery for a torn bicep after the last game and my not return until the postseason if at all. The names of right offensive tackle Kodi Kieler (three missed starts), left tackle Jack Conklin (one missed start), tight end Josiah Price (one missed game) and wideout Macgarrett Kings (one missed game) are back on the depth chart but whether they are able to play against the Scarlet Knights could be a game-time decision.

The galvanizing properties that come from boarding a plane, staying in a hotel and eating meals together while enduring abuse hurled at them from the time they pull up to the stadium in buses until they depart for the airport, can't be overstated.

"I think we love when people want to call us names; that's the best," Calhoun said. "I think we have the mindset that that's when we need to be our strongest because it's not always going to be in our favor. There are going to be questionable things where we feel as if maybe because we're on the road things aren't going to go the way we want them to.

"So we just try to band together when we have to travel and get ready for battle. We compete and stick together because we're not in our household."

While there are benefits to being in familiar surroundings, fifth-year senior linebacker Darien Harris also noted that road trips provide a welcome break from the daily routine.

"It's an attitude thing, first and foremost," he said. "You've got to enjoy playing on the road, you've got to enjoy the away crowd, the boos you're going to get and everything you get with the away experience, and it is an experience. You've got to have fun with going to different places and playing in different stadiums.

"The joy you get from winning in an away stadium is sometimes sweeter than the joy you get from winning at home. You just have to take all of that, bottle it up and at the end of the day get ready to play. We get to be together with just the team."

The vibe is noticeably different from the comfy confines of Spartan Stadium.

"We get a schedule every week before a home game but we wouldn't even need it because everything's going to be the same," Harris said. "Going away, we get a little different feel for things, different hotel, different food and everything's just kind of a change of pace.

"It's just little things like looking at a schedule and having to find a meeting room. Whereas on Fridays before home games we can get there with our eyes closed. You actually have to read things and all those little things, those inches we're always trying to find, add up. It's kind of refreshing."

Going on the road allows the Spartans to close themselves off from the rest of the outside world for 36 hours or so. "It's always nice to get away and clear your mind a little bit," said fifth-year senior quarterback Connor Cook. "It kind of re-focuses you and I think the thing that has made us so successful is our ability to focus on the road."

While the players are energized by the change of scenery, defensive line coach Ron Burton, who is in his third season at MSU since leaving the Air Force Academy, is impressed with the system Dantonio has developed for road trips.

"The way of doing things, the itinerary, the game plan, the protocol from the time we get here in the morning on Friday until we hit the road and get to the hotel," Burton said. "I think it's just the procedures that we use and the relaxed atmosphere that Coach Dantonio sets for the road."

Fifth-year senior offensive lineman Jack Allen, who is MSU's regular center but moved to left tackle after Finley was injured, is the only player to have started every game of the Spartans' Big ten road win streak. The differences between home and away may be subtle, but he notices them.

"I think we kind of show up more on the road," Allen said. "Yeah, I know (we have to do that at home, too), but it's that extra push to go and beat somebody in their own house."

Even Dantonio concedes that takes, as former legendary Michigan State head coach Biggie Munn might have said, a little extra effort.

"Well, I think we're 17-3 right now since 2010 on the road, but who is counting," Dantonio said. "I just think we try and change things up. We try and stay fresh and we try to go together. It's not easy going on the road. There's no question about that. We've had tough games, very difficult games. But our senior class has always led.

"And we bring our emotion with us (because) we don't have a crowd there and that type of thing. So we have to feed off each other, and we've just tried to maintain. I don't really have an answer for you as to why, but I would say players make plays and we've made plays on the road and we've made plays at home. Just keep on riding."