Michigan State football clinches 10-win season, rolls past Penn State, 30-27

EAST LANSING — Snow squalls and snowballs didn’t matter.

Injury and illness rumors and a host of third downs didn’t, either.

No. 13 Michigan State football found a way to get to 10 wins and put itself in position for a return to a New Year’s Six bowl game.

Payton Thorne threw a pair of touchdowns to Jayden Reed and Tre Mosley, Kenneth Walker III kept churning and the Spartans fought through flurries to finish perfect at Spartan Stadium this season with a 30-27 victory Saturday over Penn State.

"That out there was hard work, mental toughness, a sense of urgency, attention to detail, teamwork," MSU coach Mel Tucker said. "That's what you saw there. And that's what we're all about."

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Seniors made critical plays, from tight end Connor Heyward’s clutch catches and blocks to Noah Harvey’s fourth-down stop of Keyvone Lee early in the fourth quarter, deep in MSU territory, to Drew Beesley’s sacks and fumble recovery on PSU’s next possession.

Midway through the fourth, Thorne converted a third-and-2 screen to Heyward, who directed traffic for a 25-yard gain. A few plays later, the Spartans appeared to be stopped, facing fourth-and-15 at the Nittany Lions’ 20. But after a timeout, Thorne launched a pass to Reed at the front pylon; he boxed out Johnny Dixon for the touchdown with 5:10 to play. The score locked up the win for the Spartans, making Tucker the fastest MSU coach to achieve 10 wins, in just his second season.

The Spartans (10-2, 7-2 Big Ten) now await their bowl destination, potentially as high as New Year's Six games such as the Peach Bowl or Fiesta Bowl, or possibly the Outback Bowl or Citrus Bowl, depending on what happens over the next seven days.

"That stage, I've never played on that kind of stage or in that kind of bowl game. I'm very excited for that," said Reed, who had six catches for 89 yards. "We will have guys back that you guys haven't seen in a long time. So you'll see the pieces put back together that you'd seen earlier in the year."

Thorne was 10-for-14 for 171 yards on third down alone. The Spartans converted nine of their 18 third downs and three of four fourth downs. The sophomore quarterback finished the game 19-for-30 for 268 yards, two scores and a pick-six.

"Obviously, not being able to convert on fourth-and-1 and give it up on fourth-and-15 against this type of opponent on the road is going to make it difficult to win and be successful," Penn State coach James Franklin said.

Tucker confirmed his team was battling illness late in the week, and Thorne said Walker, Kevin Jarvis, Jacub Panasiuk and others were among the sick. All played Saturday.

"Just battling through the adversity this week threw at us was a great job," said Thorne, who also ran for a 1-yard touchdown.

Walker, still in contention for the Heisman Trophy, finished with 138 yards and a touchdown on a career-high-tying 30 carries. Both Walker and Reed said they plan to play in MSU's bowl but did not know if they would opt to enter the NFL draft after it.

Penn State's Sean Clifford threw three touchdowns and finished 24-for-34 for 313 yards; he's the fifth straight quarterback to eclipse 300 passing yards against MSU. But the Spartans sacked him four times and held the Nittany Lions to just 5-for-13 on third downs.

"The snow was actually a lot of fun to play in there. It was slippery, but I had fun," said Beesley, a sixth-year senior who tied a career high with seven tackles and added 1½ sacks. "And I made sure I savored every moment after we got that win with the fans and the student section. I thank God for an amazing end to my MSU (home) career."

Less than 24 hours after a report that the Spartans might be without a number of players, Walker and Thorne put up a pair of touchdowns on MSU’s first two drives.

Thorne hit tight end Maliq Carr for a 40-yard pickup on third-and-8 to get the Spartans into PSU territory, then Walker capped the eight-play, 76-yard opening march with a 2-yard scoring run around the right end.

After the defense held the Nittany Lions to a three-and-out on their first possession, MSU was pinned inside its 1. It didn’t matter to Walker, who immediately ripped off a 35-yard run. He flashed more power and speed with a 15-yard burst on the next play.

Thorne converted a critical third-and-7, hitting Reed for 23 yards through heavy hand fighting with PSU’s Joey Porter Jr. On third-and-goal, Thorne did it again, shuffling to his left to buy time for his receivers to break free and threading a 9-yard touchdown to Mosley along the end line. Matt Coghlin’s second extra point made it 14-0 MSU and closed a school-record 99-yard, nine-play drive in 4:01.

The Spartans’ season-long issues in pass coverage returned on the next drive. Clifford hit tight end Brenton Strange for 21 yards, then delivered back-to-back throws to the dangerous Jahan Dotson for 18 and a 27 yards, the latter a TD over the coverage of cornerback Chester Kimbrough to pull within a touchdown.

Likewise, early in the second quarter, Clifford hit Dotson again for a 30-yard touchdown from the slot over the coverage of Darius Snow and Xavier Henderson.

The Spartans got another clutch conversion from Thorne to Heyward on fourth-and-6 later in the half, then reclaimed a 17-14 lead on a 22-yard field goal by Coghlin. However, Coghlin, a sixth-year senior, was injured and left the game.

In the third quarter, Penn State’s Daequan Hardy picked off Thorne on a poorly thrown out pass to Reed and returned it 17 yards for a touchdown to make it 20-17 Nittany Lions.

"Things like that happen in a game," Walker said of Thorne's interception. "But we know to keep going and keep chopping, through the positives and the negatives. So if something like that happens, you gotta keep going."

The Spartans bounced back with their longest drive of the season, a 15-play campaign that took 8:53. Thorne ran for a fourth-down conversion and hit Reed for 21 yards on third-and-11, then Reed drew a third-down flag in the end zone. Thorne’s sneak with 2:14 left in the third quarter gave MSU the lead for good, 23-20 (after Evan Johnson’s missed extra-point attempt).

After Reed's touchdown catch, Penn State (7-5, 4-5) scored late, with Clifford throwing a 15-yard touchdown to Parker Washington with 43 seconds left. But Reed recovered the onside kick to send Walker and their teammates diving and sprawling onto the field, making snow angels after the final horn.

Tucker made a case for the Spartans to get the best possible bowl game, a public pitch for his program to be among the New Year's Six invitees.

"We're extremely motivated. And if anyone is looking at our team now, they'll see a resilient team that plays hard for each other," Tucker said. "It's an exciting team to watch, and we have some some big-time playmakers — Ken Walker is obviously an elite level player — and we're gonna have some key guys back in the bowl game. I think we have a very exciting and attractive team. Our fans are tremendous and they travel well.

"And we're hungry. And our fans are hungry. "

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari. Read more on the Michigan State Spartans and sign up for our Spartans newsletter.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State clinches 10-win season with 30-27 win vs. Penn State