Let's Go Bowling...

It's been a heart-testing year for us Spartans. A season of ups and downs, finishing 7-5 and tied for fifth place in the Big Ten in Mark Dantonio's first season looks in hindsight to be a positive year for MSU. I can easily say that this is the best 7-5 team we'll probably ever see. After all is said and done, we ended up 24 points from a perfect season. We lost to then #5 ranked Wisconsin by three points at Camp Randall, to #1 ranked Ohio State in Columbus by 7 and had a big one stolen at the end by those boys in blue at home. Beyond going to a bowl for the first time since 2003, there are some amazing individual stats to remember about your '07 Sparatans.

1) MSU is the only team in the entire BCS division to have a QB with 2,000+ yards, a running back with 1,000+ yards and a receiver with 1,000+ yards.

2) Brian Hoyer is the #2 passer in the Big Ten with a 138.9 rating.

3) Javon Ringer and Jehuu Caulcrick are the #3 and #9 running backs in the Big Ten. Caulcrick has also scored 21 rushing touchdowns making him #3 in the entire BCS Division while setting a new MSU record in the process.

4) Devin Thomas is the #1 receiver in the Big Ten with 1226 yards and averaging 102.2 yards per game. He also led the conference with 957 yards on kick returns. He is also the #3 receiver in the entire country for total receiving yards. He leads the Big Ten in all purpose yards, 2,370, averaging almost 200 ypg.

5) MSU leads the Big Ten in points scored per game averaging 34.1 ppg.

On to the bowl outlook. MSU is ranked #36 overall in the BCS standings and #6 in the Big Ten.

See : http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/polls?poll=4&date=2007-11-18

There are 7 bowls that have contracts with The BIg Ten, so we are definitely playing another game this year. Being ranked 6th in the Big Ten by the BCS computers and having beaten Indiana and Purdue, the two next closest teams, it looks like chances are good that we'll get the call to go to the desert on New Year's Eve and play in the Champs Insight Bowl in Tempe, Arizona. Start packing Spartans!

2007-8 Spartans Basketball

I had a chance to watch MSU's game last night with Chicago State. One thing struck me very hard, all this talk about State being deep this year is totally true. I've never seen so many talented players on one team. They kept coming off the bench in waves. Each one as smooth, powerful and in control as the last. The freshman class this year paired with the Seniors will be fun to watch. Remember these names : Roe, Lucious, Lucas, Summers, Allen, Morgan, Grey, Walton, Neitzel, on and on.

JoePa on Playing at MSU

Michigan State has been a very tough place for your teams to play since you joined the Big Ten. What about Spartan Stadium makes it difficult for you there?

I think all the Big Ten stadiums are tough to play in. Michigan State has a great tradition. Somebody asked me one time which was the best team we ever played against, and I thought about it, and I thought we could put three or four in that category. Syracuse in '59, Michigan State in '64/'65 was probably as good as you're going to...Bubba Smith. They had three or four first round draft picks. They give us a good licking, and I mean a good licking.

The coach, Duffy Daugherty, if he hadn't been from Pennsylvania, he probably could have scored 100 points on us that day. They have had a really great tradition, and they have had some great coaches. And one of the guys I respect as much as anybody, George Perles, who was the head coach at Michigan State when we got into the Big Ten...Nick Saban was there...They're tough to play because they have good athletes. They have great fan support, and they have good coaching. So I think that combination makes it tough any way you play it. The Big Ten has got enthusiastic crowds; they're big time crowds.

All Your Eggs.

Hey Wolverines. I watched one set of plays from your game yesterday, the one inside your own five yard line at the end of the game. Watching that, wondering where Mike Hurt was, and Henne was, I realized Bored Carr put all his eggs in one basket last week to beat us Spartans. Was that a good move? That was a big win for you guys and I congratulate you on that again.

Now, Hart will be forever known as an injured also-ran (nice rushing pun, huh?) and next week should be a blast.

After all the bowls are played :

UM finishes season 8-5
State finishes season 8-5

SpartyOn

The 2007 MSU v UM Game : Post a comment here...

Just click on the link below that says 'comments' to tell your friend in Green or 'brother' in Blue what will go down tomorrow or just something funny about past clashes.

Regarding the 2001 T'J' Duckett Last Second Win

First of all, guess what UM fans, you lost the game this article refers to. When you lose a game, good sportsmanship means saying congratulations to the winner and trying harder next year. Good sportsmanship is not whining about referees, clocks or the sun in your eyes.

Now, we as Spartans know we suck this year and have for awhile now. But you know what? There is a good feeling being the underdog. We don't have a whole lot left to lose, while you UM folks are just hoping that you can go into the OSU game undefeated in the Big Ten.

Everybody keeps mentioning App State (and they will for years to come, by the way) but what if you lose to us lowly Spartans who have only two wins in the Big Ten over the past two seasons so far? App State may not feel so bad.

I hope Hart plays, I hope Henne plays, I hope the weather is perfect and the last ten minutes of the game mean nothing. I hope State plays like they are capable of playing and we finally have something to smile about this year. But hope can only get you so far, Hoyer has to step up and make the snap decisions we all know he can and the defense has to stop Manningham and stop giving up the long run. They can do it.

Two overtime losses and losing by three to Wisconsin tells me that if it comes down to it, it's our turn to win the close game at the end.

SPARTY EATS WOLVERINES FOR BREAKFAST

Prediction = MSU 27 v UM 24

UM Women

Q: What do you call a good looking girl on the University of Michigan campus?

A: A visitor

Nightmare on Elm Street : MSU v UM 2007

from The Sporting News

If Michigan State had a mobile quarterback and a spread offense, we'd tell you to go ahead and sleep, Spartans -- no nightmares or bad man with a hand full of knives waiting around the bend for you. Yet, nothing about Michigan's early-season losses -- the catastrophe against Appalachian State or the beatdown by Oregon -- looks to be present here with the immobile Brian Hoyer handing off out of ace and I-formations to the backfield duo of Javon Ringer and Jehuu Caulcrick.

Yet remember: Freddy dies at the end of A Nightmare on Elm Street. Michigan State's season is this game -- one game shy of bowl eligibility and teetering on the verge of doom with the apparent beginning of their annual late-season collapse. The Spartans look as dangerous as any team in the college football dreamland, playing a traditional rival and possessing a running game good enough to keep them in the game.

(Full disclosure here: We have a perpetual "man crush" on power backs, and Caulcrick is a bowling ball runner who looks like 240 pounds of angry ham rolling downhill. We don't even know what that means besides this: He's huge, and we like him.)

Michigan State has lost five in a row to the Wolverines, a nightmare that will end Saturday. Michigan has a very, very bad dream and gets the script unexpectedly flipped on it on the road in East Lansing, Mich. The pick: Michigan State, wearing a red-and-black sweater and black leather fedora.