“We would just sit down on the couch when we were bored and just play with the football and make one-handed catches while sitting,” he said. “(We were) just trying to make acrobatic catches, and I feel like that helped me make those big catches in games, because we used to do it every night.”

As a member of head coach Mark Dantonio’s first recruiting class in 2007, he has been apart of MSU’s first Big Ten Championship in 20 years in addition to a long line of accomplishments with his senior class.

Tied for fourth most in MSU history, Cunningham has five 100-yard receiving games this season and leads the team with five touchdown receptions.

Pulling through in the clutch, Cunningham has earned a reputation in his four years for coming up big when it matters. He caught MSU’s only touchdown pass for 33 yards in the 10-7 win over Ohio State, had six catches for 102 yards against Wisconsin — one of which was a 35-yard touchdown reception — and went three grabs for 104 yards against Minnesota — including a season-long 69-yard catch.

He attributes much of his success to his chemistry with senior quarterback Kirk Cousins, and the pair always seem to be on the same wavelength.

“I’ve got a lot of confidence in him, and he’s a special teammate of mine,” Cousins said. “I’ve played a lot of football with a lot of different people, and I would put B.J. Cunningham as one of my favorite teammates I’ve ever played with.

“He’s a guy I just love to line up alongside and throw the ball to.”

Coming to MSU was the best thing that has happened to him, Cunningham said — still in disbelief that with every catch he makes, he breaks his own reception record.

Saturday against Indiana, Cunningham and the 16 other Spartans of the senior class will play at Spartan Stadium for the final time. He can remember first coming to MSU as a freshman — riding the bench and dropping passes — like it was yesterday, and can’t believe his Spartan career is coming to a close.

“It’s crazy; it’s kind of bittersweet,” he said. “I’ve been here a long time, and all of a sudden, now (Senior Day) is here, and time’s about to be up. It’s been a long road, but it feels good.”

Drawing strength from his family, Cunningham said his mother, Kim Cunningham, is his whole world, and with a tattoo reminder of her on his arm, he plays every game for her.

Kim Cunningham has missed just one game of her son’s in his time at MSU, and like him, she cannot believe he’s preparing for Senior Day and the end of his college career. She loves to watch him play and can see the man he’s become as he’s developed through Spartan football.

“I watch him out there, and he looks like a man,” Kim Cunningham said. “It’s kind of beautiful to see him transition from a young freshman being young and inexperienced and watching him now as one of the leaders on offense.”