This was their season. On one play, No. 1 Michigan's national championship season was in the balance. It was all or nothing against MSU at Michigan Stadium on Oct. 13, 1990.
After U-M pulled to within a single point of the visiting Spartans with a late touchdown, first year head coach Gary Moeller made a choice: Go for the 2-point conversion and keep their championship hopes alive.
"I'll give credit to Moeller, he could have tied the game, but he went for the victory - which he should have done," former MSU head coach George Perles said in a phone interview Monday. Perles coached MSU from 1984-94.
"They needed a win in order to keep their ranking and that was important to them," he said.
At the time, tie games were still possible as there was no overtime and a tie would have probably hurt the Wolverines in the polls.
A successful conversion would give U-M a 29-28 lead with six seconds left, all but ensuring a gut-wrenching loss for the Spartans.
As the rival teams took the field, MSU cornerback Eddie Brown lined up opposite Desmond Howard, the Wolverines' most feared weapon and the eventual Heisman Trophy winner.
"The scouting report said they like to run fades on the goal line," Brown said Tuesday.
U-M quarterback Elvis Grbac took the snap and Howard made a quick step toward the outside, put a move on Brown, giving him an advantageous position on the inside of Brown.
"He gave me a nice little swim move underneath," Brown recalled. "When I peeked back, I saw Elvis Grbac getting ready to throw."
The rest is MSU-U-M rivalry history.
Grbac threw to Howard, and Brown - knowing he was beat on the play - intentionally fell into Howard, Brown said, setting a domino effect into motion that ended with Howard on the ground, without the ball, expecting a pass interference call and another chance to win the game.
"After the play, they were running around celebrating," Howard said in post-game interviews. "I saw yellow pompons on the field. But I could not believe there were no flags."
Howard could not be reached for comment but Brown said the two have since met and there are no hard feelings.
The MSU win in 1990 was an instant classic. The controversy at the end is most remembered (replays of U-M's missed 2-point conversion were replayed numerous times this week), but memories of U-M's No. 1 ranking and the Spartans' Big Ten Co-Championship later that year aren't quite as prominent.
"It was one of the best wins in Michigan State history," former MSU running back Tico Duckett said on Tuesday. "We celebrated about that game the rest of the season."
Perles, who said that U-M was about a 27-point favorite that day, could not see the play because of the crown of the field and where he was standing. Perles knew the conversion attempt had failed once the referee signaled the pass incomplete.
A little farther down the sidelines, Duckett, then a sophomore, had a little better view of the play.
"I was closer down the field than (Perles) was and I saw the play as it happened and saw the ball come out," Duckett said. "Then I jumped for joy. It was an awesome feeling.
"There was a penalty on the play but what it came down to was, the ball hit Desmond in the chest and he should have caught it."
Duckett's 9-yard touchdown run with 1:59 left in the game turned out to be the game-winning touchdown. All Duckett remembers Perles telling him was "hold onto the ball." After he scored, Duckett said you could hear a pin drop in Michigan Stadium.
After the game, however, Moeller and U-M fans' complaints were loud and clear. In the days after the game, David Parry, the Big Ten's supervisor of officials, publicly stated the officials on the field made a mistake in not calling pass interference. Perles immediately expressed his disappointment in Parry's decision to go public.
Parry, who still holds the same position, declined an interview through Big Ten spokesman Scott Chipman. Chipman said league officials generally don't comment on judgment calls on the field of play.
Both U-M and MSU went on to lose the next week and both recovered to win the rest of their games after that, earning a share of the Big Ten title, along with Illinois and Iowa.
Although the controversy looms, it doesn't take away from MSU's win - at least not to Perles, Duckett, Brown and Spartans everywhere.
Current MSU junior wide receiver Kyle Brown remembers that day and Howard dropping the pass - as a 6-year-old Wolverine fan.
"I remember that," Brown said. "I was a Michigan fan and we were over at my grandmother's house and when we thought he caught the ball, I jumped up and then the ball fell out and (U-M) lost."
Since that game, MSU has not won at Michigan Stadium. Six unsuccessful tries by three different coaches have left Spartans fans wondering if MSU will ever win in Ann Arbor again.
Duckett had some advice for current Spartans players.
"The one thing we have to do as Spartans is expect to win in the Big House," Duckett said. "Don't worry about their ranking - that old phrase any given Saturday or any given Sunday a team can win - it's right."
If the Spartans do win Saturday, they would break at least one of those streaks and, who knows, they might even play in the greatest Michigan-MSU game ever. You never know - Duckett sure didn't.
