East Lansing, Mich. - After awhile, I couldn’t tell if I was watching a college football game or a Hallmark holiday movie.
My apologies if you aren’t familiar with the sappy, seasonal, feel good, made-for-TV movies that always follow the same script.
But if you are familiar with these cheesy flicks, and my condolences if you are, then you recognized some of the characters and the storylines that were meandering toward a guaranteed, predictable happy ending at the Spartan Stadium snow globe on Saturday evening.
There was a hearty group of seniors, playing in their final football game at the old stadium. And a swell group of underclassmen willing to sacrifice for those seniors.
There was Drew Beesley, the sixth-year, walk-on defensive end and economics grad. Eight weeks ago, they carted him off the field after he jacked up his knee during the Nebraska game. He didn’t go off the field on the flatbed rear of the cart. He insisted on riding shotgun, in the passenger seat, next to the driver. We’ve never seen that before.
While in the cart, he didn’t give a good-bye wave. He didn’t accept that as a possibility. Not yet. He pledged to return, even before hearing the somewhat favorable prognosis - that he MIGHT be able to return to play this season, IF he busted his rear in rehab at every waking moment.
He made a vow to himself to return in time for the Michigan game. He did, and served as a gameday captain in helping usher the Spartans to victory over the Wolverines.
He wasn’t as good as the pre-injury Beesley on that day against Michigan, or the next week against Purdue. He started to gain traction against Maryland, and then had a sack against Ohio State. Then against Penn State, on his Senior Day, he played like the old Beesley. Very fitting for his last time in pads at the old grounds.
He had seven tackles, 1.5 sacks, a pass break-up and a fumble recovery.
At the end of the first half, with Michigan State clinging to a 17-14 lead, Beesley made two huge plays to keep Penn State out of the end zone. On second-and-goal at the 7-yard line, Penn State ran a quarterback sweep to the left. Breesley beat his man, set the edge, and hemmed in the QB for no gain.
One play later, Beesley got home for a coverage sack and a loss of a two.
Penn State missed a field goal on the next play, and Michigan State went into halftime for cookies and hot chocolate with a 17-14 lead.
After the game, the bearded and dimpled Beesley said it was fun to play in the snow.
* Then there was Connor Heyward, a smiling, cheerful kid, far from his Georgia home, who once upon a time decided to leave our merry town. Then he changed his mind, and wanted to stay. But he was afraid it was too late.
Then a new boss was hired. He and the new boss knew each other from back home in Georgia. They had a talk. Heyward said he wanted to stay. Mel Tucker smiled, extended his arms wide and said, “Sure kid, we want you to stay.” (In real life, Heyward had a year to prove himself, of course. This is football, remember. Not a movie).
Heyward became a leader, but wasn’t quite good enough to remain a starting running back, even after leading the team in rushing with 529 yards way back in 2018. So someone got the bright idea to move him to tight end during training camp. It worked like a repaired string of Christmas lights. Heyward was a bright, energetic help to a passing game that has needed production at the tight end position since long before Tucker arrived.
Heyward had four catches for 60 yards in his final game in Spartan Stadium. He turned a middle screen on fourth-and-six into a bustling 19-yard romp to the Penn State 17-yard line, keying a field goal drive late in the first half.
During Michigan State’s final scoring drive, on third-and-one, offensive coordinator Jay Johnson dusted off an old favorite from his workshop. It’s called the huddle.
Michigan State, a no-huddle team all year, huddled. Just once. They signaled it in from the sideline. Quarterback Payton Thorne called them together, just like in the old days. And then they broke out of the huddle, into a double-wing formation, and quickly snapped the ball.
Thorne faked a handoff, and threw to Heyward on a swing pass in the left flat. An old toy in brand new packaging. Heyward rambled 25 yards to the Penn State 15-yard line. Four plays later, Michigan State took a 30-20 lead on a 20-yard TD pass from Thorne to Jayden Reed.
Heyward finished the regular season with 30 catches for 289 yards, the most by a Spartan tight end since Josiah Price in 2016.
Five days ago, Heyward was invited to play in the Senior Bowl all-star game in February. That’s a major step toward realizing his dream of playing in the NFL with his brother, a goal which seemed impossible just a short time ago. In two months, the townspeople will bid him farewell as he sets off on his professional journey as a well-adjusted, well-equipped young man capable of doing well for others in a new town.
* And then there was sophomore quarterback Payton Thorne. He’s the leading underclassman in this story, a likable but flawed supporting character in the script. He’s not a senior, so naturally the writers had him deliver the biggest screw-up moment of the game.
Thorne threw an interception which was returned for a touchdown early in the third quarter, giving Penn State its first lead at 20-17.
“Terrible play by me,” Thorne said. “I kind of threw us under the bus with that dumb play.”
Flawed, but he’s refreshingly self-aware. For his mistake, he felt bad for his friends, his family, the townspeople in the square, the wildlife and all the local businesses.
Like all good Hallmark scripts, the dark moments of conflict didn’t last long. Our flawed but relatable supporting character set out to make things right. Immediately.
Thorne piloted a 15-play, 75 yard TD drive which ate up eight minutes and :53 seconds, the longest drive of the season for the Spartans. He turned in a determined 5-yard run on fourth-and-three during the drive.
And then on third-and-goal at the 1-yard line, Thorne was trusted to carry the ball on a quarterback sneak. Touchdown. Michigan State led 23-20. And the townspeople were back to singing football carols.
* And then there’s Matt Coghlin, a sixth-year senior kicker who played hurt. When have you ever seen a kicker play hurt, and then nearly have to be helped off the field after making a 22-yard field goal? Only in a football Hallmark classic.
That field goal, by the way, tied Coghlin with Brett Swenson at 377 points to become the school’s all-time leader in points scored.
Coghlin has been in town so long that he has had three nick-names.
Riley Bullough used to call him “McLovin,” back when Coghlin was a cheeky freshman who looked like a pre-teen.
Mark Dantonio misunderstood, wasn’t familiar with the movie “Superbad,” and thought they were calling him “McMuffin.” So that’s what Dantonio called him.
Then Coghlin became a man, kicked a bunch of field goals, grew an orange beard and long hair. Then he met the new boss, who is familiar with other movies.
“Have you ever seen ‘Teen Wolf?’” Tucker asked Coghlin during August camp. “That’s you. Look it up.”
Teen Wolf could ball when dialed in. But there’s no room for a Teen Wolf in a Hallmark Classic.
Cut the laughs and cue the dramatic adversity.
Coghlin had to watch the rest of the game from the sideline rather than break Swenson’s record on Senior Day. Coghlin doubled over in anguish when someone named Evan Johnson missed an extra point for the Spartans after Michigan State took a 23-20 lead in the fourth quarter.
Coghlin’s usual replacement, someone named Stephen Rusnak, left the game after making a stiff tackle on kickoff coverage in the first quarter.
So that left kicking chores up to Johnson. He’s a local boy who played at Holt High School. He connected on 6-of-7 field goal attempts at Division III Hope College, where presumably the field goal posts are a lot like ours at the snow globe.
He enrolled at Michigan State in 2019 and decided to go out for the varsity football team. He dreamed of this opportunity. But in his dreams there wasn’t an inch of snow on the ground.
Anyway, Johnson missed an extra point during his first day ever taking the field for the Spartans. The townspeople were disappointed, but understanding.
On the sideline, teammates were puzzled.
Thorne asked aloud, “Did we just miss an extra point?”
“Yes,” said a teammate.
“Who kicked it?” Thorne asked.
“Evan Johnson,” the teammate replied.
“Who?” Thorne responded.
Exactly.
But Mel Tucker patted Johnson on the back, and said something encouraging to him as he came off the field following the missed extra point. Tucker had no other recourse. Tucker figured he might need Johnson for a game-winning kick. And Tucker needed the kicker to know that Tucker was a nice, supportive person. And Tucker needed Johnson to know that he probably knew his name.
* And then there were the anonymous extras, the good people in the background who happen to have a lot of helpful power tools. During TV time outs, they were using leaf blowers to dust off the yard lines, doing laps back and forth like Olympic swimmers. All to help the script move along toward its destined happy ending.
* And then somewhere in the background, newly-minted athletic director Alan Haller was well-groomed, smiling, in a perfect sweater, shaking hands like a benevolent mayor with a 100 percent approval rating. So very Hallmark.
* And then there was a not-so-Hallmark moment when Jacub Panasiuk shouted angry words at members of the Michigan State defensive backfield after they botched another coverage and allowed Penn State to tie the game at 14-14.
An ABC sideline reporter said Panasiuk confronted his teammates, including safety Xavier Henderson. Henderson angrily responded with, “We’re trying!” And the two teammates reportedly had to be separated.
This is football, remember. The Hallmark script can’t be all ginger and tinsel. Sometimes there are angry elves in Santa’s workshop.
The Michigan State defensive backs deserved Panasiuk’s reckoning. It’s one thing to get beaten athletically. It’s another thing when players are blowing assignments. Assignment breakdowns weren’t a problem in the first half of the season, but it’s been a weekly issue since the Purdue game.
Tucker said he wanted no finger-pointing following the loss to Ohio State. But he also says he wants a player-coached team. Well, sometimes you can’t have one with out the other. Panasiuk did the right thing.
And the elves went back to work.
Tucker replaced cornerback Chester Kimbrough with walk-on Justin White in the second half.
MSU’s pass defense was not great from that point forward, but at least the Spartans were assignment-sound.
* Then there’s Noah Harvey. He’s a senior linebacker who started every game last year, and had his struggles. Then he lost his starting job this year to Cal Haladay.
Other players left the team and transferred out when they lost playing time. Not Harvey. And he lost more playing time than anyone.
He kept working, and improved. He never beat out Haladay for the starting Mike linebacker job. But when Tennessee transfer Quavaris Crouch was left off the dress list, for an ailment or something, Harvey was right there to move over to the Will linebacker spot and start alongside Haladay. Happy friends, cooperating in the snow to get the job done just in time for the holidays.
Harvey has started three straight games, including two wins. He had a heart-warming interception in the Maryland game.
And then in this snow globe game, he keyed a key stoppage on fourth-and-1 at the 16-yard line early in the fourth quarter.
Michigan State led 23-20 at the time. Sophomore Jalen Hunt collapsed the Penn State offensive front, slanting to the Nittany Lions’ center and two-gapping him backward into the backfield. That cleared room for Harvey to arrive and make the tackle on Penn State running back Keyvone Lee for no gain and a pivotal turnover on downs.
Then on Penn State’s next possession, here came Beesley again. Beesley recovered a fumble on a third-and-one stoppage at midfield as MSU’s short-yardage defense Grinched the Nittany Lions' hopes for a second time.
This time, Jacob Slade penetrated with a one-gap move, and Haladay came flying in to put a strike on the ball and knock it loose for a fumble. (Actually, I think a Penn State offensive lineman accidentally jarred the ball loose from the ball carrier, but in this Hallmark script, we’ll credit it to Haladay, and I think the official scorekeeper did as well.)
You know Haladay. He’s the hard-working, soft-spoken son of a chicken farmer from Elysburg, Pa. He grew up 90 minutes west of State College, Pa. He and his parents had to drive past Penn State in order to take recruiting visits to Michigan State. Penn State never offered a scholarship. He posted a team-high 11 tackles against them on Saturday. Perfect side storyline for the football snow globe.
* And then when the home team needed another touchdown, a little more insurance on the scoreboard, the relatable, likable, flawed supporting character, Thorne, got help from an old high school buddy who just happens to be in town, too, Jayden Reed. Reed delivered an amazing, maybe legendary, leaping, 20-yard touchdown catch, rescuing the Spartans from what appeared to be a hopeless fourth-and-15 situation.
Reed’s touchdown gave Michigan State a 30-20 lead with 5:10 to play. Cue the football carols.
Reed celebrated the touchdown by running across the end zone, waving to the fans in the north side of the stadium with an outstretched arm, like Tinkerbell at the close of another happy day at Disney World.
A few minutes later, after a Penn State touchdown, Reed fielded an on-side kick, which secured victory.
Then Spartan players of various ages and classes ran and belly-slid across the snow-covered field. Kenneth Walker III did a snow angel. He had never played a football game in snow.
Then they ran over to the band to join the younger townspeople of The Deep End in more football carols, especially the one that ends with the words, “Victory for MSU!”
* And then there were the seniors and underclassmen who came down with the flu just before Thanksgiving. There were concerns that none of them would be well enough to help in time for Saturday’s football holiday pageant at the snow globe. The townspeople prayed.
And then almost all of them miraculously felt fine just in time for kickoff. The two or three players who weren’t well enough to join at the snow globe watched on TV from home, probably with impossibly comfortable quilts around them. One of them probably shed a tear.
* And then finally you have the beloved, hard-working CEO, whom everyone was concerned might get lured away to a bigger city by a richer contract. But then a windfall of support fell from the Spartan athletic heavens, thanks to boosters Mat Isbhia and Steve St. Andre. Mel Tucker signed a 10-year, $95 million contract on Wednesday.
Some townspeople furrowed a brow and said that seemed like too much money, too soon. But, like player-coached teams, you can’t have it both ways. You can’t be afraid that you might lose the guy, and then crinkle your nose when things are done to compete with the market rate.
Led by Haller, Michigan State began contract renegotiations with Tucker’s representatives at some point before or after the victory over Michigan. The talks went back and forth, with Michigan State boosters providing economic backing for Haller.
It’s my understanding that at some point, Ishbia stepped forward, and went to Tucker, or Tucker’s people, and asked point blank, “How much is it going to take to keep you here?”
A figure was forwarded. Ishbia, along with St. Andre, said, “Done.”
And it was done.
Tucker has been amazed by a lot of things at Michigan State since coming aboard as head coach. He genuinely likes this place even more than he thought he would. He loves it, loves what the university has been and what it has stood for, and loves what it can be from this point forward. And he wants to do his part to help drive it there.
Tucker is a savvy business man, shrewd about football enterprises from top to bottom. He can work the X’s and O’s, or a recruiting room, or strut the modern brand when necessary. But he’s a humble, hardscrabble guy from Cleveland at his core.
If I didn’t know better, after this game, with this being his first public appearance since the contract was finalized, it seemed to me that he was almost embarrassed about the richness of his new deal. He had to do what was best for his family, and his family’s future families, and submit a figure when asked what it would take to stay and dedicate his prime years to this school and its football program. And when offered that figure, he had to accept it. But in this moment, after a victory, he lowered his chin and spoke with humility.
“I’m very grateful to be the head coach for this group of guys,” Tucker said. “This is a special place.”
He was asked about his thoughts on the contract extension, and what it means that the university showed that he is appreciated and valued, especially as a Black coach.
“I really haven’t had an opportunity to reflect on that yet because the preparation for the game was our main focus and my main focus and the only focus, really,” he said. “That’s what it was all about.”
I believe him. That type of focus is what has enabled him to wring the utmost potential out of this revamped roster and his coaching staff.
Tucker has shown that he can confront and demand, and kick some people out along the way, and have a program that is both nurturing and exacting. He has done it without making the players feel like numbers, which was Nick Saban’s biggest failure in his first four years at Michigan State.
The current Spartan players are playing for each other. There is a team heartbeat. They play through pain, they strain to achieve.
It’s a cliché to say that one team wanted it more than the other. I’m not sure I’ve seen that be the case in many games I’ve covered over the last 30 years. But I felt that was the case in this Hallmark Classic on Saturday. Michigan State came out punching, and never stopped swinging. The Spartans scored touchdowns in the red zone against the best red zone defense in the Big Ten. The Spartans ran the ball and stopped the run, and owned key short-yardage plays. MSU’s problems on pass defense remained an issue, but dissipated through much of the second half.
Tucker and defensive coordinator Scottie Hazelton made the decision to leave two safeties deep for most of the game, deploying both of them behind the linebacker level to help fortify the pass defense. That meant Michigan State would need to stop the run with the standard number in the box, rather than getting safety help against the run.
MSU’s deployment of a lighter box caused Penn State play callers to probe the run game more often than they normally might. Penn State has had a poor run offense all year. And Michigan State’s two-deep look enticed Penn State to attempt 26 running plays despite averaging just 2.3 yards per carry.
Penn State thought they should be able to put a hole in MSU’s light-box run defense. But they never got it done, and wasted some valuable downs trying.
The key stoppage on second-and-one, and the fumble on the next play on third-and-one at midfield with 8:45 left in the game and Michigan State up 23-20, were conducted with Michigan State defensive linemen and linebackers. No extra help in the box. Michigan State defensive linemen beat people up front, and the linebackers filled with physicality. They all tackled well.
Michigan State set out to do it the hard way this week. Tucker and Hazelton challenged the defensive linemen to be more forceful and productive than they had been in recent weeks.
They challenged the offensive line to carve out the run game in a growing snow storm.
They challenged skill players to make plays.
If you had the flu, you were asked to give what you could.
“We knew that they would give everything that they had, the guys that could play,” Tucker said. “It’s been a next-man-up mentality for the last three or four weeks. They have done what they needed to do to prepare to win a game like this, which was a very important game.”
The game was more important to Michigan State than Penn State, and the Spartans played that way. They needed to. Michigan State had the better record, but I think Penn State had the better talent.
“The power of a team, we really tapped into that this week,” Tucker said. “You have to have some intrinsic motivation and pride as an individual, as coaches and players, and you have to help each other out.”
He gets them to play hard. He can lead.
In addition to all of the stuff on his resumé, the X’s and O’s experience, the apprenticeships under Saban, Jim Tressel and Kirby Smart, none of that works if the man can’t lead.
He has shown this year, and especially on this day, that he can lead young men to dig down. Some day soon, that pass defense needs to get fixed, and it won’t get done on recruiting alone.
In the meantime, on Saturday, exiting the stadium, he felt good for the achievers.
“It might not sink in to them now but as time passes and they look back, they will say, ‘Man, we had a really solid year. We did some special things.’
“It helps lay a foundation for the future and really shift a culture and cement that culture because that out there was hard work. Mental toughness, a sense of urgency, attention to detail, teamwork. That’s what you saw out there.”
Tucker can see more from here.
“I’ve said from the beginning that I believe Michigan State is a destination job,” he said. “It is not a stepping-stone. And we want to bring a National Championship to East Lansing. That’s the goal and that’s the plan. We want to be in that conversation year-in and year-out and obviously there is a commitment to do that.”
And that’s not Hallmark fiction.