Party Like it's 1999: A Ten Year Look Back at a Top 10 Spartan Football Team Part Two
Momentum Builders
After polishing off Eastern Michigan at home 51-7, the Spartans appeared confident and poised for a battle with their classic national rival Notre Dame. Though not the Irish's glory days, Notre Dame in 1999 was a more respected and credible program than it is now. And anytime you're playing in South Bend in front of a national television audience, it's a big deal for the program.
A memorable moment from this game occurred at halftime. Nick Saban walked off towards the locker room and did a brief interview with the NBC sideline reporter. Some of you probably already remember this incident. The interviewer asked Saban about being the Spartans decent first half effort, to which "The Legend" (in both good and bad) replied by dropping a friendly four letter "S" bomb while remarking there was still another half to play. In fairness to Saban, it was a simple accident, and apparently not malicious. Saban quickly asked to excuse the slip up, but it is still one of the funniest moments of '99.
The football highlight of that game was of course the pass play that broke the game open from Sr. QB Bill Burke to Sr. WR Gari Scott. I remember that play clearly each fall, as so many other Spartan fans, because of its execution. Scott got free underneath the Irish Defensive Back coming across the middle, and Burke feathered the ball out far enough in front so Scott could catch it and still make a turn up the sideline. As he made the turn, Scott shook off the ND defender with an impressive tightrope-balancing act to stay in bounds. Scott then took off straight down the sideline, separating from the Irish for good and putting MSU out front to finish off a key 23-13 victory.
Another stand out effort from the ND came from DE/LB Julian Peterson. While the Spartan Nation had been first introduced to him in the '98 Ohio State upset, the '99 ND game was Peterson's national introduction. NBC lead announcer Dick Enberg was blown away time and again by the pure speed and athleticism of a young Peterson, noting throughout the game that Peterson seemed to be everywhere for the Spartans.
All the sudden the Spartans stood at 3-0 with a mountain of momentum building from the Campbell fumble return and the Scott touchdown catch. Around campus there was a feeling that things were finally coming together for Spartan football after the past seasons of disappointment. Around the Duffy Daugherty building, the Spartans were eliminating mental mistakes, improving on team chemistry, and perhaps most importantly to Saban and his staff, taking ownership of their football team.
Coming off the big plays early in '99, the Spartans rolled into Illinois and the Big Ten opener with a chance to declare their interests to the Big Ten conference. The questions facing the team before the season were successfully being answered by the Illinois game. Burke proved to be a tough and dependable signal caller who could get the ball to his NFL caliber playmakers like Plaxico "Big Game" Burress, Gari Scott, and Chris Baker. Clemons was proving a solid and reliable runner, while Duckett had transformed into the Diesel battering ram that could bulldoze over linebackers and secondary that couldn't match his size, speed, and agility. Meanwhile, the Spartan defense was experienced and talented enough to shape into one of the better squads in the country. The 27-10 win over the Illini had firmly set the '99 team's identity in place.
The '99 team was loaded with impressive talent, and guided by competent coaching. By winning the conference opener on the road in solid fashion, the Spartans were quickly making rumblings around the Big Ten and throughout the nation as a team to keep an eye on. More attention began to turn towards the looming home date with Michigan, which was then only a couple weeks out. Saban and his staff worked harder than ever to make sure their players stayed focused on the next game, which was Iowa. They wanted the Spartans to continue the maturing process by taking care of business with Iowa first before turning their focus on what stood to be the biggest home game in years.
The Spartans didn't disappoint in the Iowa game. The conference home opener was a homecoming to remember as MSU applied a hefty coating of wax to the lowly Hawkeyes, hammering them 49-3. The statement had been made; their focus had been sharp. The Saban era was starting to hit on all cylinders and the results were showing up all across the program. Now it was time to really take stock of where this program stood on a national level.
They hadn't looked ahead to Michigan and fallen into a trap game as had happened in the years before. Stellar assistant coaching from the likes of future Spartan head coaches Mark Dantonio and Bobby Williams, along with Defensive Coordinator Bill Miller, a young Grad Assistant named Josh McDaniels, and many others, provided the team with the level of instruction and discipline needed to compete with College Football's best teams. And Strength and Conditioning coach Ken Mannie's fitness system had now been completely ingrained into the program as the Spartans approached their biggest test of the year. It was time for Michigan week.
The Michigan Mid-Term
I remember the buzz across the MSU campus awaiting the bitter rival and heavy weight match up between two top 10 teams. I lived in the area of campus where most on campus athletes were housed, so it was more than commonplace to bump into players and get a decent feel for how things were going. Everyone knew it was Michigan week. And everyone knew how much this game meant to MSU football.
But I also remembered the '97 game that had become famous for the successful fake field goal MSU ran, but more infamous for Charles Woodson picking off what seemed like two dozen Spartan passes. The Spartan Nation hadn't forgotten the '97 Michigan game either, which was well documented from the inside the MSU camp in a classic Sports Illustrated feature article. Nor did they forget the '98 contest in Ann Arbor, which seemed to slip away quickly after a non-penalty call on a Paul Edinger field goal attempt, and subsequent long run by Michigan RB Anthony Thomas. To say that the '99 game was shaping up to be a "program game" was an understatement. It was a measuring stick to see how far this program had come.
The crowd back in '99 was probably louder than crowds in the modern natural grass era of Spartan Stadium. I'm no acoustical engineer, but I think the sound reverberated more off the hard Astroturf than it does off the natural grass. The plush grass and soil seem to absorb more sound than they reflect. I've noticed this both from field level and the stands, but should leave it to a sound expert to explain. The '99 Michigan crowd was as intense and noisy as any I can remember in my fifty plus games in Spartan Stadium. It had an impact on the outcome.
In 1999, Michigan was little more than a season separated from a National Championship. The Wolverines were loaded with NFL prospects, accomplished coaches, and more than a little traditional maize and blue arrogance. But MSU felt from the beginning that they could beat the Wolverines. They knew they could, and had pointed to the game for a long time. The Michigan game was just a much a measuring stick to Saban as it has become to his eventual successor Dantonio. MSU had designed trick plays and running attacks specifically to attack the staunch Wolverine defense. They had also designed blitz schemes and coverage packages to shut down the Wolverine passing game, no matter which QB was under center.
The game certainly lived up to expectations, and is probably among the very best of the 101 games the two sibling-like institutions have played. The Spartans importantly got off to a strong start as Bill Burke was sharp and "Big Game" Burress asserted himself as a dominant force that could not be stopped or covered well. After Burress caught a deep ball off well-executed flea flicker early in the game, he didn't look back. And the Wolverines failed attempt to put WR David Terrell on Burress as a defender seemed suspect and desperate. Anyone in the Spartan Nation that didn't know Plaxico Burress well up to that point certainly knew him after that game as Plaxico went for a then school record 255 yards and caught a key touchdown in the Spartans' 34-31 victory.
A memorable moment from the '99 Michigan game came at the end of the first half when the Wolverines trotted Hayden Epstein out to attempt a 56 yarder directly into a firm breeze coming out of the south end zone. It seemed like it was a fake from the get go. I remember sitting in section 10 yelling "fake! fake!" to those watching with me as the Wolverines set it up. Nick Saban commented on his coaching show the next week that the staff thought it could've been a fake due to the distance and conditions. But all credit to Epstein as he boomed a boring shot through the uprights, leaving many quite surprised. It still stands as one of the most impressive kicks I've seen in Spartan Stadium.
The '99 Michigan game has always stood out to me as a game that didn't seem as close as the final score. If you recall, the supposed golden boy. QB Drew Henson was trading series with a Sr. QB named Tom Brady. That plan didn't work well. Henson came in the game, got chased around, banged up, and was left rattled and dazed. He couldn't handle the intense Spartans pressure.
The rotation severely disrupted the rhythm of the Wolverine offense, and probably cost Henson some confidence as a QB he never gained back at Michigan. Just revisit a few of the You Tube clips out there of Henson barely collecting a snap before the Spartan defense provided him a close personal introduction to the Spartan Stadium turf. The game changed for good when Henson scrambled from a tremendous rush late in the third quarter and was picked off by DB Aric Morris deep in Michigan territory. Three plays later, Burke found Burress wide open in the end zone for a 15-yard touchdown and a 27-10 lead with 3:02 left in the quarter. The game had been essentially locked up at that point.
The Spartans seemed in control from the game's outset. And the outcome seemed all but certain heading into the fourth quarter when Michigan finally got out of their own way and began to take what the Spartan's stingy defense would give them. After Lloyd Carr realized his young QB was in over his head, he put Brady back on the field. Michigan then began to move the ball with what seemed like a thousand flat passes and screens to wide receivers. Those simple but effective plays began to move Michigan down the field and kept them within reaching distance. But MSU continued to counter the Wolverines' scoring drives enough to end with a satisfying 34-31 victory over a very solid team. The Mid-Term was passed Spartan football was for real.
The Spartans were half way through the '99 season and rolling at a pace that hadn't been seen in decades. The program's cobwebs and booby traps of the early 90s finally seemed to be disappearing. The Spartans were 6-0, atop the Big Ten Conference, and ranked 5th in the nation. They had just convincingly beaten a top 10 team who happened to be their closest rival. The momentum of the program was soaring by the week. The Spartan Nation was beginning to believe in this team and talking seriously about the Rose Bowl and New Years plans. Spartan football had finally turned the corner and was back on College Football's national map.
Parts three and four of the recap of the special 1999 season will be posted next Saturday and Sunday. As the Spartan's March towards what many feel could be a special 2009 season, enjoy this recap of the magical 1999 season.
Add us as a preferred source on Google