Experienced Spartans Accustomed to Championship Game Spotlight
12/3/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football
By Steve Grinczel, MSUSpartans.com Online Columnist
EAST LANSING, Mich. â€" On paper, in black and white, Michigan State and Iowa are virtually indistinguishable.
The Spartans outscored opponents 33-21 during the regular season while the Hawkeyes held a 34-19 edge. MSU had 264 first downs to Iowa's 253 and the Hawkeyes averaged 404 yards of total offense to the Spartans' 399. Michigan State was only slightly better in time of possession, 33:01-32:13, but the Iowa defense was a little stingier, allowing 332 yards per game to 349.
The Hawkeyes are rushing the ball for 44 more yards per game, but MSU is out-passing them by 39. The teams are deadlocked atop the Big Ten, and are fourth nationally, in turnover margin at plus-14 (1.17 per game). And although the Spartans pace the league in third-down conversion at 50.6 percent, Iowa is third at 44.2.
The near identical winning formulas are reflected in MSU's Big Ten East Division championship and Iowa's West title. The Hawkeyes (12-0, 8-0 Big Ten) and Spartans (11-1, 7-1) are even neck-and-neck in the College Football Playoff rankings at fourth and fifth, respectively.
What sets Michigan State and Iowa apart, as they prepare to square off in Saturday night's Big Ten Championship Game at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, is the color of big-time experience.
By early Sunday morning, MSU will have played in three of the five conference finals staged since the Big Ten expanded and split into divisions in 2011. A number of fifth-year seniors attended the inaugural final against Wisconsin as true freshmen, and 27 members of the current roster helped MSU beat Ohio State for the title in '13. Five of those players started against the Buckeyes, including then-redshirt sophomore quarterback Connor Cook who went on to capture Most Outstanding Player honors in the dramatic 34-24 victory.
The Spartans are destined for their third-straight CFP/BCS-level game and are 5-1 in postseason play â€" 1-1 in Big Ten championship games and 4-0 in bowls â€" since '11, while the Hawkeyes, 34-30 from 2010-14, are making their first trip to Indy. Iowa is vying to return to a major bowl for the first time since finishing the 2009 season with a 24-14 victory over Georgia Tech in the Orange Bowl and won its last league crown in '04.
For Michigan State, familiarity breeds comfort.
"Going from 2011 to 2013, I would say the guys that had traveled were kinda more used to it," said two-time first-team All-Big Ten center Jack Allen. "When we first got there, I've never really been in a stadium like at that and it's something I've never really seen before. It was a surreal experience."
What kind of advantage MSU's upperclassmen will glean from not having stars in their eyes is difficult to measure, but no one on the team was immune from being star-struck four years ago.
"I remember everybody was taking pictures next to (former Indianapolis Colts quarterback) Peyton Manning's locker," said Allen, who may be as unflappable as any Spartan in recent history. "I remember that. I was two lockers away, so no big deal."
Aside from the first championship game when the Spartans and Badgers were both newbies, first-timers have not fared well in the final: Nebraska was demolished by Wisconsin 70-31 in '12, and No. 2 Ohio State was upended by MSU the following year.
"I think it's an advantage for us internally," said Spartans head coach Mark Dantonio. "I don't know versus (Iowa's state of mind) and all that, but for us, having players that have gone there in '11 -- some of them sat in the stands because you are only allowed so many players on the field and some of them were on the sidelines â€" (they) did not play but they experienced the game.
"And then, going there in '13, a lot of guys played in that game and were successful there. This is the third time in five years that we have been able to go and play for a championship. So I think that can't hurt us. That can only help us."
Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo has frequently talked about how invaluable his first trip to the Final Four, in 1999, proved to be in terms of dealing with and eliminating distractions prior to winning the National Championship in 2000 and in the Spartans' five subsequent Final Four appearances.
Left offensive tackle Jack Conklin, who as a redshirt freshman started in '13 along with Allen, Cook, defensive end Shilique Calhoun and fullback Trevon Pendleton, should be able to foster an unencumbered, been-there mentality.
"Our players can talk to the other people and give them that experience -- what the stadium is like, what's the climate like, the atmosphere like," Dantonio said. "It's a sellout. It should be very exciting for them. (ESPN College) GameDay is there again, so this will be the fourth time we play on GameDay, so that will be exciting as well."
The Spartans have come up with inventive ways to dampen nervous energy in the team hotel during situations under Dantonio's supervision.
"Jack is like a personal masseuse, so he goes around to everybody's room and gives them massage and gets us ready for the game," Calhoun joked of Allen's calming influence during MSU's regular weekly press conference. "He only does it before big games, so, thanks man."
"No problem," Allen replied, demonstrating his karate-chop technique. "It's just my hands and wrists."
The Spartans also take their cues from Dantonio, who's been known to punctuate the stoic resolve he usually demonstrates in public and on the sideline with disarming instances of lightheartedness.
"I would say like the night before the game he does a good job of keeping everybody relaxed," Allen said. "We have a team movie and you kinda get to do your own thing a little bit but at the same time you're focused and going through meetings and stuff like that. On game day I think he tries to keep it loose. Sometimes that's hard when you're the head guy, but I think he does a good job of it."
Dantonio's seven walk-off wins in high-profile games since 2009, including at Michigan and Ohio State this season, and those dramatic come-from-behind, fourth-quarter victories against TCU in the 2012 Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl, Ohio State in the 2013 Big Ten Championship Game, Stanford in the 2014 Rose Bowl and Baylor on Jan. 1 in the Cotton Bowl, support that contention.
Every coach touts experience as the greatest teacher of all, and Dantonio has said MSU is reaping the benefits of getting so many backups playing time this season due to an uncommon rash of injuries. And Cook, whose first of 10 300-yard games as a Spartan (24 of 40, 304 yards, three touchdowns, one interception) came against Ohio State in Lucas Oil Stadium, certainly won't be daunted by the surroundings, nor will his teammates who are used to being on a big stage.
However, how that translates into yards gained, stops made or points scored in Indianapolis is anybody's guess.
"Love that place," said co-defensive coordinator Mike Tressel. "As coaches, we try to go to the NFL Combine every year just simply because when you go back to Lucas Oil again it brings back memories of the Big Ten Championship. This is where we want to be. The first goal is to try to win the East Division and go back.
"Certainly, we're talking to our guys about the fact we've been there before, they know what to expect and we're able to put slide shows on the screens of us having played games at Lucas Oil. So we'll try to use that as an advantage; hard to quantify, though."
The Spartans also know as well as anyone they can't count on Iowa's inexperience to work in their favor. Michigan State played well enough to win in its first go-round, and if not for a couple of close official's calls, might have prevailed over Wisconsin. A year later, the unranked Badgers made it into the final only because Ohio State and Penn State were ineligible from postseason play by NCAA sanctions, and then went on to obliterate the 14th-ranked Cornhuskers.
Michigan State is listed as the favorite to win what by most accounts will be a play-in game for the national championship playoffs, which is a departure of its usual role as the underdog. But that doesn't matter, according to fifth-year senior linebacker Darien Harris, who occasionally spelled Taiwan Jones in the '13 title game.
"I think anybody on the team would be a fool to go in and take an undefeated team lightly," he said. "They're 12-0 for a reason. They have done a great job this season in all facets of the game and obviously they have been really successful. At the end of the day both teams are playing for a shot to go to the playoffs, so I'm expecting a hard-fought battle.
"We don't really care what we are in each game. There's going to be people that think we will win and there's going to be people that think we will lose, but what only matters is the guys in our team room, the guys that will be playing the game. Kinda the same thing we've told the (younger players) all year, the same thing we told them when we went to the Big House (in Ann Arbor) or Columbus or Nebraska; it's a big game but live in the moment, enjoy the moment and play loose out there.
"I'm sure it will be a new experience for them, just like it was for guys like Jack and Shilique and Connor that started in 2013, but we had great leaders then, and we have great leaders now just to let them know it's another game, just enjoy the opportunity and he embrace the moment."
And yet, the well-seasoned voices of reason say they're being told the same thing in Iowa City.
"At 12-0, obviously their confidence is sky-high," Tressel said. "They don't think anybody in America can beat 'em and why not? They haven't."
Said MSU co-offensive coordinator Jim Bollman, "When you watch them on film, they're tough (and) they're kind of exactly what you expect from an Iowa team, let alone a 12-0 Iowa team. It's not by magic."
If the Spartans have proven anything since their last visits to Lucas Oil Stadium, it's that no moment is too big for them. Maybe that's why Dantonio is telling them to just enjoy the ride through charted territory.
"When you roll up in the bus and you see that (facility), you have a good feeling about it," he said. "It's exciting to play and that's it is way I hope our players approach this. No stress, a little bit of pressure but play through it, have fun."
