Spartan WR Aaron Burbridge Leads #4 Michigan State To Victory Over Air Force 35-21

Spartan Stadium East Lansing, MI The #4 ranked Michigan State Spartans are not without their warts, but so is every other team. At least those warts aren’t

Spartan Stadium

East Lansing, MI

The #4 ranked Michigan State Spartans are not without their warts, but so is every other team. At least those warts aren’t showing against FCS schools or bad teams. The Spartans have faced three very talented teams including today’s matchup with the always difficult Air Force Academy Falcons.

It was the Aaron Burbridge show. The Spartan senior wideout had an amazing day leading the Spartans with 156 yards on eight catches while tying the MSU record for TD catches in a game for one player with three.

A stoic Dantonio couldn’t help but light up when asked about his star. “I've always thought Aaron Burbridge is an outstanding receiver, and we've had a lot of good receivers here. He's been playing since he's been a true freshman. He's had big plays here in the past. Tony Lippett got more balls last year, he's playing in the X position so there may be more balls coming to him by virtue of that position, but (Burbridge) had an outstanding game. What he does is he gets those 50/50 catches, those difficult catches, those acrobatic catches. People are hanging on to him and he's making the play. Great game and big plays. Big plays ultimately on the offensive side of the ball is what won the game. Great job there.”

Burbridge may have had the catch of the year so far in all of college football and a highlight that people will be talking about for decades. (CLICK HERE TO SEE THE CATCH NOW) While his body was parallel with the field he somehow, someway got a foot down for a TD catch that was ruled on the field not a catch. Luckily, there was a review because every person who saw it was amazed.

Dantonio said of the amazing catch, “I had to see the replay. It was a bang-bang play. When I saw the replay, I thought he was down, I thought he had the catch. That's why they made the call I guess. Great effort, but that's Aaron Burbridge. He plays with great effort and he's going to hang himself out there to make the catch.”

Air Force head coach Troy Calhoun was simply awed of Burbridge saying, “That wide receiver is a heck of a player, Burbridge.”

You know a player has transcended a game when the opponents and his teammates and coaches alike praise him. Connor Cook called it, “A circus catch,” and he was not practicing hyperbole. It was straight fact. He also said, “Amazing. I tried to put it outside in a safe spot where only he could get it and to see him go up and reach back and to still keep his foot in bounds - an awesome catch.”

The quiet CO-OC Jim Bollman, who is not one to say more than he absolutely must, said of his wideout star, “Obviously he had a pretty good day from what I recall. He made some big plays and he's been making big plays all year. Hopefully, he continues to do that.”

Air Force DB Roland Ladipo was reduced to a spectator on the same field with the Spartan star. He simply said, “He's the top receiver in the nation, one of the top. We just go up against him, thinking about all that and just do your responsibility, but he got the best of me sometimes and you just have to move on to next week and learn from it.”

The maturation of Burbridge has been stunning to see. As far as he has come on the football field, he has come even farther as a person. He came to MSU a very immature young person, but to his credit has grown into a fine gentleman off the field as well.

He was humble of his success simply saying, “I did make a catch but I don't think it was too spectacular. I had to make the play, I went up for it. It landed in my hand. I knew I was in. I knew I was in. I ran my route, he sent the ball in there late, so I'm just running. Then my hands were out and I caught it and tried to get a foot down. Then I'm watching it on the replay and I stood up and put my hands up. When we looked at the replay I saw I had my foot down, and it was a touchdown. I never thought it was anything special, I just wanted to make the play.”

Sure MSU put up 35 points, but Michael Geiger missed another field goal. This one he simply didn’t get up in the air high enough. Dantonio stood by his kicker, but clearly is frustrated. He was asked what he told him and he said, “The kick was very low. Obviously, I told him to get it up. But I said, more importantly, I just want the guys to compete. I don't care if you miss the kick, I don't care if we don't punt right, I don't care. I care that we compete. That's all I'm concerned about. You come and you compete. Stand down by me when we're getting ready to go into the kick. Don't stand down at the end and come on the stage. Get down by me and let's go kick the ball through the uprights. That's all I said.”

The Spartans also couldn’t muster a running game. That was more frustrating than anything. CO-OC Jim Bollman said of the anemic rushing game, “They did a great job of loading the box and they were pretty much blitzing us every play. I'm sure that we could've recognized some things better, could've watched some things better, and could've read some holes a little bit better. We have to improve. Did we expect them to do that to us? No, but we'd like to have a little more bounce than that. Thankfully, today was the day we could throw the ball effectively at times when we needed to. Had we not been able to, it would've been tough.”

I said before the game that MSU had to use the passing game to open the running game because Air Force was going to load the box. They did. Multiple times the Falcons had eight, nine, and even ten players in the box and the Spartans rather than audibling out of, stayed in the run. That is why they had only 77 yards. Madre London had 43 yards on 17 carries and LJ Scott had 28 on 11. The only bright spot in the running game was to see Connor Cook get into space and use his feet.

With just under three minutes to play Riley Bullough was flagged for a targeting penalty. I don’t like the rule, but the referee made the right call. Bullough was surreal when talking about it after the game. Unless the Big Ten steps in and makes another ruling on intent, he will miss the first half of the CMU game next week.

Bullough said, “From what I understand, they have to review it again to see if it was intentional and make a decision based on that. To be honest, I haven't even seen the replay yet, so we'll see what it looks like. They're going to make a decision and I'll just have to live with it.”

Earlier in the game when Bullough went down injured for a short time it was Shane Jones who took over the MIKE LB spot and did a solid job. CO-DC Harlon Barnett was asked if he would go to Jon Reschke or Chris Frey, Jr. to take Bullough’s spot should his 1st half suspension next week stand. He said, “That's a possibility as well as Shane Jones could come in there and be the backup. We have to look at it and see how they practice throughout the course of the week. We'll make a decision from there. I'm sure some form of those three guys, rolling in and filling in those positions, we'll go with.”

Dantonio was clearly unhappy, but resolved to the outcome being out of his hands. He said of the Bullough ejection, “I was disappointed because I don't think he intentionally targeted the guy. I think that's usually the rule. I think he was right under the ball when the ball was thrown and he's trying to make a play on the ball and they hit. I can't control those things. That's what they're there for, they're there to make the call and you have to live with the call. There's been other calls before in the past that were close calls. All of those are close calls. I don't think it was intentional, so we'll go from there.”

While MSU had a rough day rushing the Air Force Academy moved the ball at will. They had 428 total yards of offense compared to the Spartans 324. They piled up 279 yards on the ground and an astounding 149 through the air.

CO-DC Harlon Barnett said of the defensive team’s struggles that, “Absolutely. Number one, we did win the game. Sometimes when games end the ways this game did, even the Western game, coaches are nuts and we should all be happy we won, we won the game, but it's just tough. You want to see us finish better and do things a lot better. Our players are like that too. I guess if you want to cart yourself as an elite program, that's how you think. You know what I mean? We have standards to live up to and play buy, our guys do too. We're going to draw on some things and get better.”

The brightest spot on defense for the Spartans was S RJ Williamson. He starred all over the field. Dantonio said of his amazing game, “I thought he played very well. I thought he played pretty well on the whole defensive side of the ball. But big plays, the scoop for a touchdown then a big interception as they came into the red zone. Also, I thought the onside kick was another big play. So he has three big plays there in the football game. He's a guy who's played football for four years, he's a senior. If you're going to have great years, your seniors have to rise up and play their best. I think he's doing that right now. I'm sure there are some things he wishes he could do better but he's a confident player and he's a leader back there.”

Barnett said of Williamson’s play that, “He's a guy, a fifth-year senior, one of many that we have on our defense that plays a lot of football... He's a great leader on the defensive back and on the defense period, really on the team. He's seen a lot of different things. He understands the adjustments, the in-game adjustments, which are more important than anything, being able to communicate them to the other players as well as to the coaches, what he sees. You could see him and his game going to another level. He's seen so much over him time here. We're happy to have him on the team; he makes a lot of big plays. He's got a lot of touchdowns since he's been here.”

This was the first time that a US Military Academy has visited Michigan State. Dantonio had his Spartans join them after the game to honor America while they sang their alma mater. He said of the gesture, “Coach Burton, who coached at the Air Force Academy, said that's a tradition that's held at every place that they play. They wait until Air Force players go down and listen to their fight song, so we wanted to do that out of respect for them and what they mean to this country.”

Spartan Nation was respectful the entire time. In fact, as Air Force took the field the Spartan Nation cheered loudly for these American Heroes. Two live falcons were on hand honoring their team and multiple uniformed members of the Air Force commented on how special Spartan fans, coaches, players and employees made them feel.

The Spartans return to action next week against the talented Chippewas of Central Michigan at the High Cathedral of the Spartan Nation: Spartan Stadium.