Indiana: The Takeaway

A few months ago, I wrote a pretty hearty rant about Bret Bielema. In that rant I got after him for beating Indiana 83-20 in 2010. After watching yesterday's game, I honestly wondered how Wisconsin A) managed to give up 20 and B) when going to run up the score only scored 83. Coming into this week Jamie Mac from the Just Cover Blog tweeted that Michigan State was 19-5 against the spread in it's last two Senior Days and 0-2 in it's last two. I figured we would not cover this week because we would run early and often against Indiana. I simply did not expect Michigan State to come out and dominate the way that it did.

Once Michigan State took it's commanding lead, that allowed the opportunity to allow the Seniors to all be taken off the field one by one. Cousins saluted the Spartan Helmet at midfield as he trotted to the sidelines for the last time. Joel Foreman got to take an end around for three yards. He was a block away from getting four or five more! Martin got a moment, Nichol got a moment. Celek and Linthicum got taken off together. It was very nice to be ahead comfortably enough to allow the Seniors to all have their moment.

There's not much statistically to be extracted from yesterday's game. We're a very good football team and Indiana is a very poor football team.  At this point in the season you're what your record says you are(I'm going to contradict this mildly later in the article). We are 9-2 and the highest ranked two loss team in the land.

I sincerely hope for Indiana that their program improves under first year coach Kevin Wilson. As fans there is nothing more frustrating than supporting a team that is terrible. The future is bright in that 30 of the players who saw playing time this year were true or redshirt freshman. These days of Senior day being a funeral send-off for us are over now and that feels amazing.

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The Rest

MSU became the inaugural winner of the Legends Division yesterday. We got a helping hand from our friends down the road in Ann Arbor, which was nice and a bit ingratiating. When asked if he was appreciative of UM's helping hand he said, "I play for Michigan State. We mow our own grass." Who do we play in the Big Ten title game? The winner of next weekend's PSU/Wisconsin game at Camp Randall. This puts the odds in Wisconsin's favor, but as the cliche goes "That's why they play the game."

Back to the two loss team thing real quick. Since 2008 each year I've felt like we were the best or worst of our particular Win-Loss record indicating we'd be either a pretender or contender in a battle of all teams of our record. In 2008, we were the worst 9-3 team in College Football, in 2009 the best 6-6 team, in 2010 the worst 11-1 team. This year we've broken that trend a bit, we're an above average 9-2 team for 9-2 teams. Oregon and USC are probably better than us, TCU, Clemson, Oklahoma and Kansas State are worse. Everyone else is probably an "Any Given Saturday" win on a neutral site. This is actually GREAT news. In the past three years, MSU had a season where it overachieved(2008 and 2010) and then a season where it underachieved. This year our record says 9-2 and we are a 9-2 team.

The Bowl Outlook: Win out and MSU is playing in Pasadena. A loss to Northwestern and a Win in the Big Ten title game and MSU goes to the Rose Bowl. A loss to Northwestern and a loss in the Big Ten title game means probably the Outback Bowl. A win at Northwestern and a loss in the Big Ten title game means most likely a trip to the Capital One Bowl. The Cap One Bowl outcome assumes an MSU loss in the title game and that Michigan wins out.

In short, for me, yesterday felt like a program victory. Five years and one day ago MSU finished it's season 4-8 with a 17-13 loss at Penn State. Yesterday MSU clinched it's path to win Back to Back Big Ten titles. How far things have come in so short a time. It kind of makes you wonder how much farther things can go, doesn't it?