'The Drive' Propels Spartans to Big Ten Championship
12/6/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football
LJ Scott stretches out for the game-winning touchdown against Iowa in MSU's 16-13 victory over the Hawkeyes. (Photo by Rey Del Rio, MSU Athletic Communications)
By Steve Grinczel, MSUSpartans.com Online Columnist
INDIANAPOLIS â€" Quarterback Connor Cook directed it. The Jack Allen-led blockers cleared a path. Freshman tailback LJ Scott did most the legwork across the length of the field, all the way to the Iowa end zone.
Eighty-two yards.
Nine minutes, four seconds.
Twenty-two plays…
… The last of which produced the game-winning touchdown when Scott daringly reached the ball over the goal line from 1 yard out with 27 seconds remaining in Saturday night's Big Ten Championship Game against the previously unbeaten Hawkeyes.
Superimposed over what will go down as one of the greatest drives in Michigan State football history are the names, faces and plays of Spartans who came before the ones who triumphed over No. 4 Iowa, 16-13, before a title-game-record crowd of 66,985 Saturday night at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Ninth-year head coach Mark Dantonio couldn't help but pay homage to those who helped make possible: MSU's third Big Ten title on his watch, its first appearance in the College Football Playoff, and a realistic shot at capturing the program's first national championship in 49 years.
"We built a foundation," Dantonio said. "I can't tell you how many (former Michigan State players) were here, but (they are the) guys who laid out this road for us back in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015.
"This is more than one year. This is an accumulation of a lot of people, a lot of work."
That theme resonated throughout the game against the hard-nosed Hawkeyes whose effort matched that of the Spartans every step of the way to another improbable ending.
On the first play of the fourth quarter, MSU surrendered a three-point lead when Iowa quarterback C.J. Beathard launched a perfectly placed pass from the shadow of his own goalpost to wideout Tevaun Smith for an 85-yard touchdown. It was the longest play given up by the Spartans this season.
Michigan State and Iowa traded punts on their next two possessions to set up the Spartans' final drive, reportedly the longest in the nation, among Football Bowl Subdivision teams in terms of the number of plays, this season. It began at MSU's own 18-yard line with 9:31 remaining on Scott's 6-yard run, and required the offense to overcome a 10-yard holding penalty four plays later.
Cook threaded the needle with his third, and final, pass of the drive to wideout Aaron Burbridge, whose critical 16-yard catch converted on third-and-8 from the 50. After a 7-yard scramble by Cook, Scott had seven consecutive punishing carries, methodically covering ground in increments of 2-6 yards.
Then, on fourth-and-2 at the Iowa 5, Cook ran the ball for 3 yards on a nervy option keeper around left end. A measurement confirmed the first down and Scott's next two carries went for 2 yards and no gain. On MSU's final offensive play of the game, Scott ran to his right and was met at the 1 by a gang of desperate Hawkeyes, but they couldn't stop him from scoring.
Cook, still visibly hampered by a sprained throwing shoulder suffered three games earlier, put the drive right atop of growing list of remarkable events, including a Big Ten Championship win against Ohio State on the very same field two years ago, accomplished during his career.
"We've obviously had a lot of great memories at Michigan State with this senior class, (including) winning the Rose Bowl and the Big Ten Championship in 2013," said Cook. "But to be down like that, to not be playing as well as we would have liked on offense the whole game, and then the last drive, to have that many plays and to eat up that much clock, it's just crazy to win a game like that."
No more so, however, than winning at Michigan with a fumble return for a touchdown on the last play. Or, after losing at Nebraska, having to win out against Maryland, at No. 2 Ohio State â€" where the Spartans won with a field goal on the last play -- and Penn State just to reach the conference final.
"That was the drive to win the game and be champions," said Cook, who became the first two-time recipient of the Big Ten Championship Game Most Valuable Player award. "It just goes to show the toughness we have, the grit we have, the fact that we're not going to be denied.
"We're going to go out there, give it everything we have and never quit. The Spartans never say die."
The victory rewarded the risk Cook and defensive end Shilique Calhoun assumed when they decided against entering the NFL Draft to return for their senior season after beating Baylor in the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 1. Regular-season losses to Oregon and Ohio State cost Michigan State a shot at the 2014 Big Ten Championship and a place in the inaugural CFP.
The Buckeyes' eventual victory over the Ducks for the National Championship only heightened Cook and Calhoun's desire to finish what they started at MSU.
 | "It wouldn't be a Spartan game if it didn't come down to the last play. It was dogfight." -Senior center Jack Allen |
"Honestly, this is the reason why I came back, of course to get my (criminal justice) degree and then the opportunity to play big-time football with the opportunity to make it into the playoff system," said Calhoun, who led a defensive charge that limited Iowa to a season-low 52 yards on the ground. "I just love my teammates so much for working so hard through the off-season, and pushing and grinding through each and every game because football is not easy at all.
"We faced a lot of adversity, but we persevered. It just proves that this team, no matter how bad things look, we're going to keep fighting, we're going to keep pushing and we're going to scratch our way to a victory. The biggest thing is, how are we going to fight back against adversity? Are we going to weather the storm or be the storm, and I think we did a great job of being the storm after adversity hit."
Cook and Calhoun are members of a senior class that became the winningest in school history with a four-year record of 43-10.
"As a senior class, this is where we wanted to go since we were freshmen," Allen said. "It's paid dividends to learn from older guys who've been through this program, and we just continued to excel year in and year out."
Pulling wins out of what appeared to be lost causes has become this team's specialty.
"It wouldn't be a Spartan game if it didn't come down to the last play," Allen said. "It was dogfight. That's probably one of the tougher teams we played this year and they came out the play the whole game, but I felt we kind of wore them down at the end."
That process actually began when MSU opened the second half with a nine-play drive that concluded with a Jake Hartbarger punt. After the Spartan defense forced Iowa to go three-and-out, the offense ended a taxing 11-play drive that tied the score at 6-6 on Michael Geiger's 29-yard field goal.
Michigan State again limited Iowa to three plays and punt, which it followed with a six-play possession that provided a 9-6 lead on Geiger's 47-yarder. Iowa's quick-strike touchdown actually played into the Spartans' hands because it put the Hawkeye defense right back on the field, and that's where it stayed for most of the fourth quarter.
"I couldn't ask for a better way to win this game, it was unbelievable," said left tackle Jack Conklin, who helped open the hole for Cook on fourth down. "You're out there, and you get worried, but we keep pulling them off somehow. You see the resilience.
"I think you saw our endurance and strength of our team being able to pound the ball in the fourth quarter. We didn't have any huge runs the whole game, but you saw the Iowa front seven get more and more tired, and that's what fuels us. You could see it in their eyes and there's a point in time when you see the tide turning. We were getting tired, but when you look at the guy across from you and see him getting tired, too, you know you've got something good going."
After the game, the Spartans joined Dantonio and Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany on stage set up on the field for the trophy presentation. The silver football from atop the trophy was passed from player to player and Allen was one of several who gave it a kiss. All of their names will be listed on a bronze plaque that will be placed along with those commemorating MSU eight previous Big Ten Championships on the outer wall of Spartan Stadium.
"I could only smile, really," Allen said. "There's really no way to describe it because it's such an unreal feeling knowing we're all going to get our names on the side the stadium forever now for a second time.
"That's something that's pretty cool."
