As the clock ticked down to all zeroes in Spartan Stadium, the crowd was ecstatic and ready to celebrate.

And so were the players.

There was Maverick Hansen, in the stands, taking pictures, looking around, smiling broadly.

Nearby was Ryan Eckley.

His day consisted solely of being ready.

Michigan State never punted once.

“My teammates love that, my mom not so much,” he said with a smile as he went back down to the field.

After singing the MSU fight song, several players congregated over in the corner of Spartan Stadium where they were chatting with their friends and family.

“We gotta go get Paul back.”

The Iowa victory was less than 10 minutes in the books and the players had their eyes set on bringing the Paul Bunyan Trophy back to East Lansing from Ann Arbor.

This win was a long time coming.

Literally.

It had been 35 days since these guys last tasted victory. The Spartans had traveled from the east coast to the west coast and were 0-3 against Boston College, Oregon, and Ohio State.

Yet they still believed.

Coming off a bye week, the players had a goal for the rest of the season: finish 6-0.

In the postgame press conferences, player after player mentioned it: win the next six games, starting tonight.

Tonight’s opponent swaggered into East Lansing confident from their shellacking of Washington (40-16) last week. Turns out that the Hawkeye yellow was fool’s gold.

The Spartans came out strong, putting together strong defensive stands and efficient offensive drives that moved them down into field goal range.

That’s where Jonathan Kim took over. Kim made six field goals and missed only one, a 55-yarder to end the first half.

“It’s an honor,” he said after the game. “I’m just happy to go out and help this team win."

Jordan Turner compared Kim’s kicks to the perfect release in a video game, saying they had confidence that he was going to go out there and moved the numbers on the scoreboard. Kim doesn’t play the video game, though, so he didn’t get the reference. But he was smiling ear to ear in front of the room full of media members, answering questions about what he just accomplished.

In case you weren’t aware, the kicker doesn’t usually come to the post game press conferences. But when you set a school record doing something that’s never been done before – making six field goals in a single game – you make the rounds.

As the time was clicking down, one Jonathan (Smith) came over to the other Jonathan (Kim) and shook his hand, acknowledging his huge impact on the game.

After the game, it was off to the postgame radio room for the interview with Blaha and the gang. He was the last of several players to take the mic in front of the dozens of cameras and media members.

- 42 yards

- 43 yards

- 36 yards

- 29 yards

- 55 yards

- 46 yards

Add it all up and you get 251 yards of field goals. That’s not really a statistic – but it should be. Kim wasn’t hitting chip shots out there. He went 4 of 5 from 40+ including 1 of 2 from 55 yards. The man averaged nearly 42 yards on each of his made field goals.

This was a game this team needed.

Not only did it move MSU to 4-3 on the season and put them on track to get to a bowl game (and earn the practices that come with it), it most certainly assisted the future of Smith’s program as it had a major impact on the recruits that were in attendance.