11/23/24
October 21, 2006
Spartans Complete Greatest Comeback Ever.: Michigan State comes back from 38-3 down to win in the greatest comeback in NCAA 1-A history.
posted by commander cody to football at 06:30 PM - 16 comments
I'm a Wolverines fan, and I still have to pat the Spartans on the back for that game. I pretty much wrote them off at halftime, and then the Spartans just woke up and started playing football! To hell with them, though! The least they could have done was cover the damned spread! Friggin' losers!
posted by wingnut4life at 08:07 PM on October 21, 2006
Northwestern can expect to be heavily scouted by the Arizona Cardinals in anticipation of drafting players with a tradition of choking.
posted by geekyguy at 08:32 PM on October 21, 2006
As a Northwestern grad, I salute the Wildcats for taking me back to my days there in the late '80s, when we couldn't even put up that big a lead to blow!
posted by ajaffe at 08:49 PM on October 21, 2006
Maybe this will save John L. Smith's job I hope not. John L. has gotta go!
posted by ledzep77 at 09:09 PM on October 21, 2006
I'm a U of M fan myself (M go blue!), but MSU has always been my favorite 2nd team. Glad to see they set a record, but I wish they'd make a serious run at the Big 10 title once in awhile.
posted by commander cody at 11:12 PM on October 21, 2006
I suppose this sort of makes up the 4 consecutive loses before this game and the National embarrassment they suffered by the hands of Notre Dame plus the complete whooping they received from U of M. I mean, its only a crippled NW squad still trying to recover from the tragic death of a beloved Head Coach. I feel bad for NW and totally ambivalent about this MSU win. It certainly doesn't mean much in the Big 10 standings but if it can give MSU Fans something to hang they're hat on so be it.
posted by skydivedad at 11:32 PM on October 21, 2006
A buddy of mine is a Mich State fan and turned the game off, disgusted, when they were down 38-3. He missed the entire comeback, and could not believe it when I told him the outcome. I only watched the fourth quarter and just got the feeling Northwestern was not going to hold on. I seriously doubt this saves Smith's job, though.
posted by dyams at 09:17 AM on October 22, 2006
It was the battle for worst big 10 coach.
posted by Bill Lumbergh at 11:37 AM on October 22, 2006
I've been dying to watch C.J. Bacher play I feel he is the wildcats best qb I didn't watch the game I slept in to watch the nd game anyhow what a pathetic team the MILDCATS are this year maybe they can still beat the illini but I doubt it good luck spartans maybe you can still go to a bowl game
posted by luther70 at 02:08 PM on October 22, 2006
A great comeback, even if it was against a weak team, and has been said, the DID go down 38-3 to NW to set it up. I hope John L. manages to drop at least two of the last four, I seem to recall a certain coach who is available thagt did fairly well out on the west coast who just might be able to be persuaded to join his long time friend as a Spartan head coach. (Hint: they share a hometown and both graduated from Northern Michigan University)
posted by elovrich at 04:29 PM on October 22, 2006
I think most comeback records like this are set by a team over one that's weaker for some outside reason. Nothing wrong with that though as it still goes in the record books. To say it's no big deal just because it's over NW is really sort of like saying your baseball team won it all because the Yankees had a lot of injuries. So what? The team that won is the team that won and there are just as many years when one team gets it all because another team had injuries as the other way around.
posted by commander cody at 07:07 PM on October 22, 2006
(Hint: they share a hometown and both graduated from Northern Michigan University................Good luck trying to lure "Mooch" to east lansing, I think he's looking for an NFL gig. how about John Cooper???
posted by bo_fan at 08:18 PM on October 22, 2006
Ugh. It's not much fun being a NW fan this year. Glad to see Bacher get in and do something though. Brewer had just been spinning his wheels. Speculation is that Fitz is going to have to clean house and get a new set of asst. coachs to replace the ones he got saddled with this year. The offensive coordinator has no experience in the position and would have had Walker as a mentor, but Fitz was a defensive coach and has plenty of learning to do on his own. NW definitely needs a more experienced OC. And don't even get me started on how rotten Greg Colby has been as the DC for the last few years. This year he's gotten the defense to barely adequate, which would have been great if we still had the offense we did last year with Walker's hand on it and Baz as QB.
posted by ursus_comiter at 11:25 PM on October 22, 2006
Let us put Michigan State's miraculous victory into perspective. As has been said already it was against a very bad team. And even though we have to give Michigan State a lot of credit for making it happen, we also must give Northwestern as much credit for blowing a 35-point lead. I'm not saying that to be mean. It's always been my opinion that any team that blows a huge lead did as much to lose the game as the opposing team did to win it. Heck, we Spartan fans only have to look back a few weeks to know how true that is. Furthermore, it was only one win. Senior center Kyle Cook was quoted after the game as saying, "We just saved our season." I couldn't help but shake my head when I read that. The truth is the Spartans haven't saved anything yet. It was one game. It was an exciting game, yes. It was an important win in the sense that it stopped a losing streak and keeps the possibility of a bowl game alive. But it was only one win. There are four games left to play. And Kyle, we won't know whether you've "saved" your season or prolonged your (and your fans') suffering until those four games have been played. You know, it's attitudes like that that are at the root of Michigan State's football woes. They win one big game (and I'm using the term 'big' very loosely in this case) and they think they've done something. It's that kind of attitude that causes Michigan State to do something like beat Michigan one week and then lose to Indiana at home the very next week. Michigan State's problems are more with their collective heads than with their collective talent. It's true they don't have the depth of talent that other programs have, but they do have talent. Their problem is that you never know what Michigan State team is going to show up on any given Saturday. It could be the team that is actually motivated to play as hard as possible to win. Or it could be the team who thinks all they have to do is roll their helmets out onto the field and they'll win. Or it could be the team that's so wrapped up in last week's huge loss that they forget there are still games left to win. You get the idea. And for all those who think it's John L. Smith's fault, remember, Michigan State has been doing this for 20 years. They were doing it when George Perles was here. They were doing it when Nick Saban and Bobby Williams were here. The thing is, it's something that somehow has been ingrained into this program. Even though the players and coaches change, the same problem remains. So for all those who say Smith is to blame and he's got to go -- he's really not. Michigan State was like this when he signed on the dotted line. The only thing he's really guilty of is not being able to come up with a solution. People are saying he looks clueless. I claim those looks on his face are more like, "I've tried everything I know how to do to turn this program around and nothing has worked. What the heck should I do now?" Don't get me wrong. I'm not actually defending Smith. My point is this: if Ron Mason fires Smith, who does he hire? Who is the magician who will be able to come to East Lansing and actually turn this program around? I tell you what. I don't know. Lots of people around here are high on getting Steve Mariucci. As fun as that sounds I don't think that's the answer. He's always been known as a player's coach -- a nice guy. I think a guy like that would have little success reversing the trend here. Truth be told the guy who came the closest to a turnaround was Nick Saban. And he was definitely not a player's coach. He was on his teams like white on rice for five years to play harder and be tougher and all that. And just when results began to show he left. Quite frankly I think if Mason decides to fire Smith he needs to find a replacement who's just like Tom Izzo. Izzo is just like Saban with respect to how he treats his team. He's very hard on them. The difference between Saban and Izzo is that Saban was always in it for himself. Everything he did he did for what it would get him. Izzo on the other hand is every bit as hard on his players, but he's hard on them for what it can get for his players rather than himself. Anyway, Mason needs to find a guy like that and give him at least five years, maybe longer, to wrench Michigan State into another direction.
posted by Greenmiles at 03:08 PM on October 23, 2006
Jeez Greenmiles, and here I thought Alabama had problems.
posted by Folkways at 05:37 PM on October 23, 2006
Makes me proud to be a Spartan. Finally, something positive for this once proud program to build on. Maybe this will save John L. Smith's job. Of course to set this kind of record you have to have stunk it up quite a bit to be that far behind. We should have beaten the Irish and that loss sparked some bad "mojo" for the Spartans. 4W-4L a couple of more wins to be bowl eligible. Hoping for the best for the school, the team and a stand-up guy, Drew Stanton.