Could history repeat itself when Central Michigan visits Michigan State football?
EAST LANSING — Courtney Hawkins gave a short chuckle under his breath.
“I just KNEW this was coming,” he said Tuesday.
The legend leading Michigan State football’s wide receiver room once stood in his players’ cleats, preparing to face Central Michigan to open the season. Only back then, there was no history leading into the first meeting between the two in-state programs.
But plenty of history was made Sept. 14, 1991. The Chippewas walked into Spartan Stadium and pulled off a stunning upset and thorough 20-3 victory over George Perles’ defending Big Ten champions.
So what lessons did Hawkins take from that loss heading into Friday night’s season-opener at Spartan Stadium? And what are the former NFL wideout’s lasting memories of that day 32 years ago?
“Honestly, nothing. Honestly,” he said. “I mean, some things you erase from your mind as a ballplayer.”
Unless you’re on the winning side.
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CMU coach Herb Deromedi called it the biggest win in his program’s history. Then the Chippewas returned 364 days later and repeated the feat, 24-20, on Sept. 12, 1992. And 17 years later to the day, Antonio Brown and coach Butch Jones stunned Mark Dantonio’s team, 29-27, with a touchdown, recovered onside kick and field goal in the final 32 seconds on Sept. 12, 2009.
While coach Mel Tucker the past week has played video for his players of the current Chips, he also had them watch a brief snippet of the past games. Just not those 1991, 1992 or 2009 losses.
The Spartans lead the all-time series 8-3, having won the past four meetings — 2011, 2015 and 2018 at MSU, and the 2012 game that is the only time the schools played in Mount Pleasant.
“We showed the players I think maybe the last time that Central came here, and really tight games from the highlights. And we showed them the commentary that the Big Ten Network had after the game, just to make sure that everyone understands the challenge at hand,” Tucker said Monday. “I think it's good to be able to play in-state schools. It's important to us, it's important to them, and it's good for our state. It's gonna be a dogfight, it's gonna be a challenge. There's no doubt about it. Always has been.”
This year’s MSU team, like it did in 1991, will be breaking in a new quarterback — most likely either junior Noah Kim or redshirt freshman Katin Houser — along with a number of other personnel changes. Unlike that first meeting, the Spartans are coming off a pedestrian 5-7 season in 2022. And CMU, which went 4-8 a year ago, also will have a new quarterback – a choice for fifth-year coach Jim McElwain between sophomore Jase Bauer and redshirt freshman Bert Emmanuel Jr.
“This is gonna be a real big opponent for our guys,” McElwain, who was an assistant coach at MSU under John L. Smith from 2003-05, said via CMU’s Football Insider podcast. “I know they’re looking forward to playing in Spartan Stadium. … It’s a couple things that jump on each other. Obviously, it’s the first game, which is always exciting. And then to do it in a place where – of course we have a ton of kids from this area on our football team that probably grew up watching games there. So for them, it’s gonna be pretty cool.”
Tucker said one of the ties he is relying on to ingrain the importance of the game for the Chippewas comes from MSU’s head strength and conditioning coach Jay Novak, who worked at CMU from 2015 until he was hired by the Spartans in early 2020. Novak was part of the Chippewas’ program that lost in East Lansing in both 2015 and 2018.
“He knows all about it,” Tucker said. “He knows how they see the game, what their mentality is towards this game. So that's important for our guys to understand that. And also to make sure the players understood what our mindset is going into the game as well.
“It's gonna be a tough battle. We're expecting it to be a four-quarter game. And we need to play harder for longer.”
MSU enters Friday’s 7 p.m. kickoff (FS1) as a 14½-point favorite. That is a touchdown less than the 21½-point spread Hawkins’ team had going into the 1991 game. But CMU running back Billy Smith overpowered Perles' Gang Green defense for 162 yards on 40 carries, including a touchdown, and the Spartans would go on to finish the season with a 3-8 record.
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Tucker said his team must be prepared mentally and physically at all times, and that takes even more importance knowing CMU comes in with something to prove after giving top-15 opponents Oklahoma State and Penn State a tough time on the road but coming up short last season.
“I told the players yesterday, I said, 'Hey, listen, I'm not one of those guys who's gonna come in here and rant and rave and yell and scream in front of you and try to scare you to get you ready for a team because you might take them lightly,'” he said. “We're not good enough to take anybody lightly. We never have been, and we never will be. … (The Chippewas’) belief level is going to be super high. They're well-coached — Coach McElwain, I mean, he's a coach, he's gonna scheme you up. The guy knows what he's doing, and he's proven that. They have good players, we showed them that.
“It's just delivery of the information to make sure that the players are informed and that they're prepared. I don't anticipate anyone not being prepared and ready to go on Friday. I mean, that's our job, to make sure that we're able to put our best foot forward. And so that's all part of the preparation, showing them hey, this is what you can expect.”
Yet Hawkins has no plans to bring up his experience as a player to the current Spartans, the one he claims to have wiped from his memory bank. (“More importantly,” he added, “they haven't brought it up with me.”) Instead, he knows as a coach that history does not matter once the ball is snapped.
“That's 30-some odd years ago,” he said. “They were just better on that day. I can't recall about our preparation, injuries or anything like that. I'll just say that day, they were better. And our deal is to challenge our guys to be at the top of our game across the board — special teams, defense and offense. …
“Outside of that, we're just worrying about Friday. We haven't really had any focus on a lot of things that have happened in the past.”
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari.
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For openers: Chippewas
Matchup: Michigan State (5-7 in 2022) vs. Central Michigan (4-8 in 2022).
Kickoff: 7 p.m. Friday; Spartan Stadium, East Lansing.
TV/radio: FS1, WJR-AM (760).
Line: Spartans by 14½.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Could history repeat itself when CMU visits Michigan State football?
