Unlike Wolverines, Volunteers or Seminoles, Spartans are Bowl Eligible

Think about this:Â Michigan State has secured bowl eligibility before Florida State, Michigan, Texas A&M, UCLA and Tennessee; and the Spartans are in the same

Think about this: Michigan State has secured bowl eligibility before Florida State, Michigan, Texas A&M, UCLA and Tennessee; and the Spartans are in the same eligibility position (at six wins) as Notre Dame and Georgia. Unlike any of these mentioned schools, MSU doesn’t have a history — recent or otherwise — hyped by the media or sit in a state that is a hotbed of talent.   Is it just me, or has the Michigan State football program taken a load of flack for being successful?

 

The accomplishment may be mocked by certain types of college football junkies, those who scoff while muttering, “pizza, pizza,” but even if MSU ends up only 80 miles away for their bowl trip in the always sunny and cheery Detroit City, the hard work this team put in throughout the season will have paid off in spades.

“It was … a big day for our program because it makes us bowl eligible,” Spartan Head Coach Mark Dantonio said after his team locked in bowl eligibility for the third consecutive season by beating Purdue on Saturday.

“When my staff and I came here,” Dantonio continued, “our goal was to start going back to bowls every year. Today marks the first time since the period of 1995 to 1997 that we've been to three straight bowls. It's huge for our program.”

A solid November is one of the reasons MSU reached six wins. Like a certain legendary basketball player alluded to, it’s all about how you finish. The Spartans are now 6-2 under Dantonio and company in the month of November, a stat that should forever put to rest that Same-old-Spartan mantra used so often in the past to describe a program that beat up the easy competition in the non-conference slate but struggled as the season wore on. Not anymore.

Another reason for the success, Dantonio insists, is because of the play of seniors.

“You don't win a game like this without great seniors,” Dantonio said. “This game could have gone either way, but with senior help we stayed composed and kept fighting. They gave an inspirational speech at halftime and we came out inspired in the second half.” The unorthodox request by MSU’s seniors was something new to Dantonio. “I've never seen anything like that before,” he said.  “It was the right time to do it. Football is all about timing and their timing was perfect.”

But perhaps the MVP of the Purdue contest, a game filled with big plays, was not a senior or even a junior. Super sophomore Keshawn Martin lit the Boilermakers up with 236 all-purpose yards, continuing a breakout season on which he has established himself as the newest Spartan game breaker, following in the footsteps of players such as Javon Ringer and Devin Thomas.

Martin, a wide receiver who is now third on the team in rushing with 217 yards on 14 carries (a 19.7 yard average), got it done on the ground against Purdue as MSU’s leading rusher with 70 yards and as a kickoff returner with 166 yards. Matin’s 85-yard return late in the fourth quarter set up the eventual game winner and vaulted the Spartans into postseason eligibility, a position many other marquee programs with nicknames like the Wolverines, Volunteers, Aggies, Bruins, and Seminoles look at with envy.

“Anytime you win a game its special,” Spartan quarterback Kirk Cousins said, summing up the significance of the program’s accomplishment, “but this one makes us bowl eligible so this one was really big.”