Notre Dame-Michigan State: The 2017 Redemption Bowl
Photo by Bill Panzica
Two years ago on Thanksgiving weekend, No. 6-ranked Notre Dame and Michigan State were bona fide contenders to make the four-team College Football Playoff. The Spartans did make it as Big Ten champions.
What a difference one football season can make.
One year later, no two teams among the then 128 in the Football Bowl Subdivision had a more precipitous fall from the 2016 preseason expectations than Notre Dame and Michigan State.
The Fighting Irish were ranked No. 10 and were projected to have their first back-to-back double-digit win campaigns since 1992 (10-1-1) and 1993 (11-1). Instead, they became the fourth Fighting Irish team ever to lose a minimum of eight games with an inexplicable 4-8 outcome.
Meanwhile, Michigan State began the season at No. 12 and moved up to No. 8 after a 2-0 start that included a 36-28 victory at Notre Dame.
From there, the walls came crashing down almost like never before in Spartans football annals. Michigan State lost seven in a row after the triumph at Notre Dame and finished 1-9 the rest of the way. It joined the 2-9 MSU team from 1982 as the only two in the program’s history to lose nine games in a season.
For the first time in head coach Mark Dantonio’s 10 seasons at East Lansing, the Spartans did not get invited to a bowl game. In the six previous campaigns under Dantonio from 2010-15, the Spartans captured three Big Ten titles, two New Year’s Day bowl games (Rose and Cotton) and won at least 11 games five times.
In a remarkable stretch from 2013-15, they finished No. 3, No. 5 and No. 6 in the final Associated Press poll when the talent level was upgraded with the likes of first-round corners such as Darqueze Dennard and Trae Waynes, game-changing linemen Shilique Calhoun and Malik McDowell, first-round offensive tackle Jack Conklin, and quarterback Connor Cook.
“This team looks a lot more similar to some of his earlier teams,” said head coach Brian Kelly, referring to the Spartan units from 2010-12 that were still a solid 29-11 (.725 winning percentage). “Extremely disciplined, hard-nosed, play to the echo of the whistle.”
Physicality on both sides of the ball is the hallmark of Dantonio teams, especially on defense.
“They’re stingy against the run,” Kelly said. “They’re very physical in the back end. They play tight man coverage. They mix it up very good with their pressure package. … They’ve always been very good defensively.
“Structurally they’re very similar to what they’ve done in the past. They’re built inside-out, two inside linebackers, really strong defensive tackles. They’ve had some outstanding edge players in the past. Now they are really solid players on the defensive end position. But they just look structurally all together. It looks like 11 guys working together play after play.”
On offense, Kelly said the Spartans offensive line, led by center and two-time All-Big Ten pick Brian Allen, is more athletic than in years past, and the return of LJ Scott and Gerald Holmes in the backfield is all that needs to be known by Irish defenders. The duo combined for 198 rushing yards and three touchdowns — including a 73-yard scoring jaunt by Holmes — in the win at Notre Dame last year.
“We’ll have to play a lot better to contain those two backs,” Kelly said.
Interestingly, the leading rusher during the 2-0 start this year has been quarterback Brian Lewerke with 150 yards and 8.8 yards per carry. The sophomore started two games last season and performed relatively well before incurring a season-ending injury against Michigan.
“If you fall asleep in zone option, he’s going to pull it,” said Kelly, noting Lewerke’s 61-yard scoring run earlier this season versus Western Michigan. “He’s more than just a manager of the offense, he can throw it. Highly accurate. I think he has more than just ‘escapeability.’ He’s fast.”
Although Michigan State didn’t make the sweeping changes in the coaching staff like Notre Dame did after last year’s meltdown, it was an even more tumultuous offseason in East Lansing.
• Two projected starters, outside linebacker Jon Reschke and offensive lineman Thiyo Lukusa, left the program. Reschke departed with what he described as an “insensitive and totally regrettable” remark about a teammate.
• A support staff member of the football program was suspended on the heels of sexual assault charges against Larry Nassar, a former MSU doctor who also worked for USA Gymnastics.
• This summer, three top players — including 2016 Freshman All-American wideout Donnie Corley — were dismissed from the team after they were charged with criminal sexual conduct back in January. Also released were sophomore defensive end Josh King and sophomore cornerback Demetric Vance, all part of the highly heralded 2017 MSU recruiting class.
• Earlier that spring, another top sophomore defensive recruit, Auston Robertson, was dismissed for sexual assault.
The changes and revamping of the culture at Notre Dame this past season have been well documented, and Michigan State had to undergo much of the same in different ways.
“Sometimes you’re measured a little bit by how you handle the problems not just in all the good times,” Dantonio said at the Big Ten Conference media days this summer. “We’ve had some good times, and it’s easy to stand up there and sing the fight song and put a hat on. It’s not as easy when you are going through these type of things. … I was hired to solve problems, and that’s what we’re going to do.
“We established ourselves as a championship program inch by inch. There was nothing ever given to us, and that’s how we’ve handled it. We have to go back to that mindset, understand that things don’t come easy.”
Notre Dame is only 4-10 in its last 14 games in the opponent’s home stadium, but Kelly said last week’s 49-20 victory at Boston College should serve as beneficial preparation for the trip to Michigan State.
“With our guys being on the road for the first time last week — a lot of guys for the first time — it was a great kind of entry into going into an even more hostile environment, if you will, playing at Michigan State,” Kelly said. “It’s a raucous atmosphere. They've had a week to prepare for us. They’re going to come out with a lot of energy. They probably got the first 10 plays scripted since May. They’re going to look like really good plays.
“We’ve got to sustain things for the first few minutes and just hang in there. When the game settles in, if you’re doing really well, it starts to quiet down in that stadium. If you’re not, it’s really loud.”
A victory by either the Irish or Spartans would help apply salve to last year’s wounds in what can be classified as a September “Redemption Bowl” for both teams.
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