Party Like it's 1999. A Look Back at a Magical Season! Part Four
The Proper Time for Road Rage
The Spartans came off their dominant victory over Ohio St. with a newfound purpose, to carry their momentum forward and avoid a looming trap game. It was time for Spartan Football to grow up and not suffer another letdown against a lesser opponent. One of the biggest things that kept Spartan Football in mediocrity through the earlier 1990s was a tendency to follow up a great team performance with a subpar effort. There's no need to reset the numerous examples of this phenomenon, as you no doubt already have a handful swirling through your head. MSU needed to prove that they had learned from their earlier mistakes and could go out on the road and win a game they should.
Led by Wildcat legend Darnell Autry and future College Hall of Famer Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern rose to the top of the Big Ten in the mid 90s. But by 1999, the Wildcat football program was somewhat hung over from their surprising run of success. Then NU Head Coach Gary Barnett had left after the '98 season, taking his gimmicky offense to Boulder to ride with the Colorado Buffaloes. Northwestern took a big step back, and has struggled ever since to stay consistently competitive in the Big Ten.
NW came into the '99 contest at 3-6, struggling with talent deficiencies, depth issues, and later injuries. Worse, NU was set to face an inspired Spartan squad with so much to prove. The Spartans were greeted in Evanston on that warm November day to about half the stands decked out in Green and White. Spartan Football was also well aware of what the faithful were looking for from them. "Coach Saban emphasized what we had at stake," Sr. DB Amp Campbell said after blanking the Wildcats 34-0. "Everyone talks about how inconsistent we are after a big game. We did not want to play a mediocre game. We wanted to come out and get a big win."
Offensively, this one broke open when the Spartans scored 10 points in a 1:36 span in the second quarter, and never looked back. It was another big day for "Big Game" Plaxico Burress, who a caught 35-yard touchdown pass from Sr. QB Bill Burke, as well as a 35 and 84-yarder from So. QB Ryan Van Dyke. Burress' three touchdown grabs gave him an MSU record with 9 for the year.
Much lot of the credit for Burress' success at MSU should go to Nick Saban and his staff. Saban knew from the beginning of his recruitment that Plaxico could be the best Wide Receiver prospect in the nation. But he also knew Plaxico would be a handful. Since leaving Saban's reign, Burress has struggled at times to fulfill his full football potential.
It had been twelve years since an MSU defense hung a road shut on a Big Ten team. Saban and his Defensive staff had pointed towards a shutout all year, coming within 3 points during the Homecoming rout of Iowa. Coming off the domination of Ohio St., the Spartan defense was thriving behind Senior leadership from players like LB T.J. Turner. Turner had a career day in Evanston, returning a fumble for a touchdown and later an interception for a six more. Stopping Northwestern cold at 34-0 might have been MSU's best defensive effort of the year.
Carrying Away the Nittany Lions, and the Land Grant Trophy
With NW out of the way, the last game of the '99 regular season was a big one as Penn St. made their way to East Lansing. The Nittany Lions were loaded with NFL talent, but wounded from recent struggles. Penn St. had dropped two straight, and thus fallen from 2nd ranked in the nation down to 13th. The Lions hadn't lost their last three games to finish off a regular season since 1914. And no, Joe Pa wasn't Penn St.'s head coach in 1914. There was a sense of underachievement in Happy Valley at that point, but also an opportunity to bounce back as the Land Grant game was for second place in the Big Ten and at least a New Year's Day bowl trip. There was a significant adjustment to the BCS formula in '99, so no one was quite sure how the BCS selections would end up, going into the season's last game.
The Lions featured three All-American and future 1st Round NFL draft picks in LB LaVar Arrington, DE Courtney Brown, and LB Brandon Short. The trio presented the Spartans with as tough a blocking task as they'd faced all year. There was no question that Arrington was the difference maker of the bunch. Arrington dominated college football games in '98 and '99. His presence on the field changed play calling, game plans, and most importantly changed outcomes. At that time, he was the closest anyone had seen to a clone of NFL Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor. But Arrington came into Spartan Stadium nicked up, and didn't play much in the game. But when he got in, his presence was instantly felt.
There was a memorable atmosphere around campus that late November afternoon. There's simply nothing like college football Saturdays in the fall. This one was a classic. Though not frigidly cold, it was a 3:30 kick off in late fall, so the lights were again in place above Spartan Stadium. The energy built up around the stadium all day, and poured into the fired up crowd that was looking for a satisfying end to the exciting '99 season.'
They say that part of the charm of living in Michigan is the weather. The Penn St. game is memorable to many as the "mist game," because an odd sprinkling foggy mist began to fell sometime during the day, and continued throughout most of the game. Nearly 75,000 sat through it, squinting at times to see the corners of the field, and eventually getting a little wet. It wasn't enough to get anyone soaked, but enough to add some atmosphere to the already hyped contest.
This one started off with a bang thanks to a quick 51-yard kickoff return by Spartan So. Herb Haygood to open the game. After two pass completions, Fr. RB T.J. Duckett got his career changing day going by charging through the middle on the Lions' defense for a 20 yard touchdown. After just the start the Spartans needed and the Lions feared, MSU fired off another special teams bullet as Sr. WR Gari Scot caught a PSU punt and sprinted up the middle for a 64-yard touchdown near the end of the first quarter. The Senior, Scott, picked a great time to collect the first punt return touchdown of his fine Spartans career.
The Spartans continued to roll through the second quarter, opening up an impressive 28-7 lead. Duckett continued to pound out yards, and the MSU Defense slowed the Nittany Lions offense to the point of frustration. The game was going so badly that some Penn St. faithful, who had travelled as many as twelve hours to Spartan Stadium, actually left. Many decided that Penn St. was too far back, and if they headed for home on that early Saturday evening, they could salvage the back half of their weekend. Those that stayed for the second half wouldn't be disappointed, as Penn St. would rally to make it classic Land Grant battle.
Penn St. came out in the second half and made a valiant effort to get back into the game. The Lions made adjustments that worked, as PSU ripped off 20 straight points to eventually bring the game to even. PSU dominated the third quarter and cut the Spartan lead to 28-17 Spartans. A suddenly tight Spartan offense couldn't do much to move the ball on the revived and inspired Penn St. defense. After two WR Eddie Drummond touchdown passes from PSU backup QB Kevin Thompson, PSU PK Travis Forney eased a 21-yard field goal through the uprights to tie the game midway through the fourth quarter. As well as the first half had gone, the second half was growing into a disaster. The Spartans had lost a three touchdown lead, and had no momentum.
After the tie, MSU still couldn't move the ball well enough to keep possession. The Lions then started the series that would determine the outcome of the game. By moving the ball efficiently past Spartan defenders all second half, Penn St. unquestionably had the game's momentum. But the momentum swung back Michigan State's way for good after Spartan DB Richard Newsome recovered a PSU fumble on the Penn St. 39-yard line, which set the stage for "the run," eight plays later.
Having already plowed the stellar PSU defense for more than 100 yards and three touchdowns, T.J. Duckett had every reason to be confident he could over power the Lions in crunch time. The Lion defenders had long grown tired of trying to pull the big guy down. To them he seemed to get bigger and stronger as the game went on. For Duckett, "the run" was one of the first big highlights in a terrific three-year career at MSU. Plus, it's a very nice compliment to "the catch" from 2001.
As the final drive took shape, there was little question where the ball was going. With the help of an excellent offensive line, Penn St. was worn down from tackling Duckett as he neared approached his 20th carry of the day. Standing on the PSU 11 with less than 3:00 on the clock, the Spartans again had regained the edge, but needed to put the ball into the end zone to end the hopes of an amazing Lion comeback.
As Duckett took the handoff on the now famous run, Penn St. defenders seemed to swarm him from everywhere. The Diesel seemed to run through all eleven Lions on the run, breaking about six tackles and carrying one last PSU DB from the 5 yard line. As he hit the 5 yard line, Duckett turned towards the goal and ended up with his back facing the end zone. He had to give it one final backwards leap to get over the goal line and in Spartan Football lure. The leap was a great metaphor for the '99 season; it was all about getting over the humps to success.
For the game, Duckett carried the rock 22 times for 159 well earned yards, and 4 touchdowns. "The run" also happened to be the last touchdown the Penn St. defense would give up that year, as they went onto blank Texas A&M in the Alamo Bowl. What a satisfying way to cap off the regular season for the program. For Duckett, it was an exclamation point on a life changing year. When it mattered most, Duckett had made his impact on Spartan football as a Running Back.
One of the things that PSU LB LaVar Arrington dominated at the college level was special teams. Arrington was lightning quick off the snap, and threatened to block just about every kick that was attempted against the Lions. Late in the MSU game, having sat out nearly the whole contest, #56 in Blue and White trotted onto the field to defend a Paul Edinger field goal attempt with less than a minute to go that would've put the Spartans up 10. No one in the stadium missed Arrington's entrance. Yet, MSU still couldn't really contain him. Arrington used his force to push off a blocker and elevate for a block. His presence seemed to influence Sr. PK Paul Edinger's effort, as he missed the kick wide. While this missed attempt didn't end up having a real impact on the final outcome, I reset that play to illustrate the impact and dominance of LaVar Arrington. Had he been able to play the balance of the contest, there's no telling how the score would've differed, but you can safely bet Arrington would've had an impact.
For Spartan Football, the win over Penn St. meant a New Year's Day bowl was assured. MSU had its first nine-win regular season since the National Champion 1966 team. It was the first time since 1965 that Michigan State has defeated Notre Dame, Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State in the same season. MSU finished its home season a perfect 6-0, going undefeated at home for the first time since 1966. For Saban, he had finally brought MSU Football to the level he knew he could achieve when he took the job in 1995, but everything was about to change.
Next Saturday Jon Will Have the Fifth and Final Part of this Great Series.
Add us as a preferred source on Google