Michigan State University Athletics
Spartans Eager to Bounce Back Against Maryland
11/11/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football
Following Tuesday's practice, MSU starting left tackle and All-America candidate Jack Conklin said the Spartans will learn their lessons from the loss at Nebraska and that the team will be ready to play Maryland on Saturday.
By Steve Grinczel, MSUSpartans.com Online Columnist
EAST LANSING, Mich. â€" The air where Michigan State has been living the past 12 months can be pretty thin.
The Spartans ended last season ranked fifth after pulling out an astounding come-from-behind victory over No. 4 Baylor in the Cotton Bowl. They entered this season at No. 5, ascended all the way to No. 2 after beating defending College Football Playoff runner-up Oregon and never fell below seventh as they won their first eight games despite experiencing a rash of injuries and a series of close calls.
Such rarified conditions can play tricks on the mind.
While no one wearing green and white would try to spin last Saturday's 39-38 loss at Nebraska as a good turn of events, MSU is making a credible argument that it wasn't the worst thing that could have happened.
Unlike 364 days earlier when a loss to No. 13, and eventual national champion, Ohio State caused the Spartans to stop short of the Big Ten title game and a chance to advance to the inaugural CFP, the summit is still in view.
Even had Michigan State, which plummeted eight places to 14th this week, beaten the Cornhuskers, it still would have to defeat Maryland on Saturday at Spartan Stadium, No. 2 Ohio State in Columbus on Nov. 21 and Penn State in regular season and home finale to win the East Division crown and reach the conference final.
And if the Spartans were to do that, and beat the West champion -- which at this point appears will be undefeated and No. 5 Iowa â€" they will have a strong case for being selected, at 12-1, by the CFP committee to compete for the national title.
So while MSU's scenario hasn't been altered appreciably because of the heartbreaking loss in Lincoln, some things may have changed for the better after a weekend of introspection.
"We're not gonna forget about that game, but we're not going to dwell on it either," said left offensive tackle Jack Conklin. "We're going to go about every week like we have before. There's definitely a lot of outside pressures but as a team, all of our goals are still in front of us.
"It's hard to say, but if we were going to lose a game, Nebraska's on the opposite side (in the West), and if we go and beat Maryland, beat Ohio State and beat Penn State, we're still going to be in the position that we want to be, playing for the Big Ten Championship. Right now, we're just looking toward Maryland, get that game won, and that's our plan right now."
The bad news is, MSU has been through this before.
The good news is, MSU has been through this before.
A year ago, the Spartans were coming off the devastating Ohio State loss, which removed championship incentives from the table. Nevertheless, they marshalled their forces to beat Maryland, Rutgers and Penn State by an average score of 39-9 to qualify for one of the CFP's top-tier, non-playoff bowls.
"You definitely see the resilience with our team," Conklin said. "We all know we left something out there last Saturday and unfortunately we can't get that back. But throughout the past years, and how we've grown as a team, you're not going to see us dwell on that and it's not going to affect us in the next couple games.
"If anything, it's going to propel us to play even better and we're excited to get back out there against Maryland."
The only other time, in nine seasons under Coach Mark Dantonio, Michigan State lost after scoring as many as 38 points in a game that didn't end in overtime was the 42-39 defeat against Wisconsin in the 2011 Big Ten Championship.
That game also turned on a disputed official's call and Dantonio said the postgame emotional devastation in the locker room was the worst he's ever seen. But, the Spartans bounced back to beat Georgia in the Outback Bowl and he promised they would do it again.
With 117 points in the last three games, Connor Cook coming off his school-record fourth straight 300-yard passing and fourth career four-touchdown-pass performance, Aaron Burbridge adding to his league-leading reception total with a career-high 164 yards against Nebraska and tailback Gerald Holmes rushing for a career-best 117 yards against the Cornhuskers, offensive production has been on the upswing.
"I think we're really close to breaking it out," said Conklin, who added that the starting offensive line is back intact and the healthiest it's been since the first quarter of the second game. "You've seen glimpses of it the last two games. We're starting to get the points back up. After seeing it die down in the Purdue and Rutgers games and the Michigan game, now you're seeing it spike again.
 | "We're not gonna forget about that game, but we're not going to dwell on it either." -MSU left tackle Jack Conklin |
"I think that comes down to getting everybody healthy, the younger guys are finally starting to figure it out and I think you see us coming together as an offense. Gerald Holmes broke out for two long runs and you see (receivers) Macgarrett Kings and RJ Shelton stepping up, so it's not just Burb out there. And Connor's dialed in the best I've seen in his (three) years of starting. The offensive line is healthy so I'm excited to see what we can do these next three games."
Mental health is always another matter and even Dantonio has yet to figure out how to gauge it. He's been around teams that he thought were ultra-focused and determined going into a game fall flat, and others that appeared to be too loosey-goosey win big.
And everything in between.
"Really, I've almost quit trying to figure out how a football team gets ready," he said. "I've seen guys in the locker room very serious and not play well. I've seen guys almost sort of jovial and play very well. I don't know.
"But I understand how we prepare. It's basically how we practice. We had great practices last week. That didn't transition into playing well early in the game. There were some other things that happened in the game, obviously. But, again, credit Nebraska. Credit the environment and everything else that goes along with that. At the end of the day, how do you know? You don't. Otherwise we wouldn't all be sitting here talking about it. That's what makes sports so unique. You try and get ready, but you don't know till the game starts."
There's no question that Cook would prefer to be 9-0. But as the team's unquestioned leader in being able to slough off adversity â€" whether from a bad play, quarter or game â€" he's resolved to get what he can out of this reality check and use it to the team's advantage.
"You just have to be mentally tough and put it behind you," Cook said, drawing from last season's experience. "Really, it's as easy as that. You can't look back and say, ‘woulda, coulda, shoulda,' you have a stiff upper lip and be a man about it and that's what we're doing.
"That loss sucked, it stung and it was horrible, but it's just going to motivate us heading into the end of the season. It's not a good feeling and it's going to make us hungry. I drive past Spartan Stadium each and every day, look at (it) and say I have two more games left in there. It's definitely in the back of our minds and no doubt about it, we're going to go out there each and every week and lay it out there."
The Spartans haven't lost consecutive games since November 2012 which tells Holmes they have learned how to capitalize on failure under Dantonio.
"It's real valuable because losses can put a team backward," Holmes said. "You can go from being a good team to losing one game and then letting it end your season off not the way you wanted to. I feel a loss can be two ways: positive and negative.
"It can be positive because it can be a push and a wake-up call letting us know that we need to be more precise at what we do."
Although Conklin thought the Spartans had taken steps to guard themselves from the trappings of success, losing has eliminated any thoughts of taking winning for granted.
"I think you'll see a different team than you've been seeing," he said. "You're going to see a team that realizes we're not invincible. We've been winning these close games and we seem to be a little more relaxed than we should be. We know we're going to win, so maybe you haven't seen the drive you usually see, but I think you're going to see that now.
"Guys are realizing we've got three games left, so what are we going to do? Are we going to sit here and hurt about that game or make something of this season?"
