EAST LANSING - Michigan State is proving to be a good mudder in the 2017 season - and in the process, the Spartans are forging a pretty good season.
Playing in foul weather for the fourth time - this time in cold rain, then snow, and some November mud - the Spartans applied the all-weather tires and trudged through a 17-7 victory over Maryland, Saturday before a sparse group of hearty fans at blustery Spartan Stadium.
Like a racehorse that performs well on a muddy track, the Spartans adapted to the cold, the wet and the wind and out-gained Maryland on the ground, 271-83 - not needing much from the arm of Brian Lewerke and his talented receivers.
“Hey, we scratch and claw for wins,” said head coach Mark Dantonio. “That’s all I can tell you, and (we’re) excited about that opportunity to play for nine wins next week.”
In addition to this victory, three other Spartan wins in 2017 have been played in bad conditions - including a rain storm for a win at Michigan, a lightning delay and rain at Minnesota, and a three-hour delay during the victory over Penn State three weeks ago.
No. 17-ranked Michigan State improved to 8-3 with the Senior Day victory. Maryland's hopes of a second straight bowl bid came to an end, falling to 4-7.
Junior running back L.J. Scott rushed for 147 yards on a career-high 29 carries. Scott’s 2-yard TD run gave Michigan State a 7-0 lead in the first quarter.
Lewerke, the nation’s hottest quarterback at the beginning of November, was 2-of-14 in challenging conditions for 20 yards.
But Lewerke rushed five times for 63 yards, including a crafty zone read keeper for a 25-yard TD run which gave the Spartans a 14-0 lead early in the second quarter.
“That’s going to be an answer to a question some day,” Dantonio said. “Who threw for 400 (yards) and won a game, and who threw for 20 and won?”
The answer is Brian Lewerke, a warm-weather QB from Arizona who had never played in snow prior to Saturday's game. But now he's part of a group that learned to embrace bad weather during the bounce-back season of 2017.
They wore lightning bold lapel pins on their suits. Dantonio handed them out a few days ago, tell them to not only embrace the storm.
"Be the storm," said senior center Brian Allen.
They won this one for the seniors, some of whom were part of the Rose Bowl year, as well as two Cotton Bowls, a College Football Playoff appearance, and last year’s 3-9 debacle.
“They’re the bounce-back class,” Dantonio said. “They came in this year with a lot of younger players, not a very big senior class and they had to make something out of it. It starts with them; it starts with their leadership.
“At the very beginning, who were our leaders? They were our leaders. They wanted to set things right and they have been able to win at least eight games, and we have sort of turned it back in the right direction. They’ve done that.”
Senior running back Gerald Holmes rushed for 64 yards on 11 carries. But he fumbled at the 1-yard line in the second quarter, negating a chance to go up 21-0 before halftime.
“Good hit by them, the ball comes out. So we deal with it,” Dantonio said.
Michigan State out-gained Maryland 291-204 and dominated play for three quarters before the Terps rallied through the air in the fourth quarter as the wind died down and snowfall decreased.
In the third quarter, Michigan State kicker Matt Coghlin missed a 32-yard field goal but got another crack at it at 27 yards due to a running into the kicker penalty. The second chance proved to be big on the scoreboard, giving MSU a 17-0 lead and making it a three-score game - something that didn't seem like a big deal at the time but turned out to be valuable in the closing minutes.
After the field goal, Michigan State shut it down, played the conditions and the clock. Dantonio said the Spartans didn’t want to risk an interception by throwing downfield and instructed offensive coordinator Dave Warner to call plays with that in mind.
“I looked up when there was snow coming down and it was difficult just to see through the snow,” Dantonio said. “We weren’t throwing the ball well.”
Maryland quarterback Max Bortenschlager warmed up in the fourth quarter and led a TD drive, cutting the lead to 17-7 with 9:50 to play.
But a pass break-up by Justin Layne in the end zone and a batted-down pass by defensive tackle Naquan Jones turned away Maryland in the red zone with less than three minutes to go, leading to a failed field goal.
Then Michigan State secured victory when Scott converted a third-and-two on an inside zone run behind a double team block by Allen and junior guard David Beedle.
The stadium was almost completely empty by the time the players sang the fight song near the south end zone in celebrating the victory. Just cheerleaders and band members remained in that corner of the stadium. But seniors such as Allen, Holmes and Chris Frey sang it loud and with emotion.
“Everything I did today, I stopped and thought to myself, ‘This is the last time I’m ever going to do it here,’” Allen said.
And now that they have accomplished quite a bit in 2017, they feel more comfortable talking about last year, and what needed to be done this fall.
“Our guys came back with the idea that last year was not normal,” Dantonio said.
Closing out a winnable game such as this one, with an eye on another one next week at Rutgers and then a bowl game, makes the potential of a 10-win season the norm in East Lansing again. The Spartans are trying to get to double-digit wins for the sixth time this decade.
“I’m very proud of our team because it’s a bounce-back year,” Dantonio said. “There’s just a good feeling about it.”
Even after last week’s 48-3 loss at Ohio State, the largest losing deficit of the Dantonio era.
“Coming out of last week’s game, my biggest concern was: How are we going to respond?” Dantonio said. “If we had won that game (at Ohio State), we would be playing to represent the (Big Ten) East today. I didn’t know how our guys were going to respond. What’s to play for now?”
They played or the seniors, as it turned out.
“I’m very proud of how we embraced everything and played with a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of energy,” Dantonio said. “That sideline was live.”
The paid attendance was announced at 70,216, but it might be stretching it to say that a quarter of that number showed up for the game. Dantonio appreciated those that came, and said - once again - that those who stayed made a difference.
“They were the passionate fans,” Dantonio said. “Those were the ones. It was loud out there. I couldn’t yell to the players on the field.
“They were passionate Spartan fans. That’s another part of this. They embraced it. They had a little bit of will, as well, to stay in the elements. So they should be congratulated. The win is their win as well. So they have eight as well. It sets up No. 9.”
And if they keep winning, a finish in the Top 10 by the end of the year isn’t out of the question.