When asked about the botched play after the game, MSU head coach Mark Dantonio couldn’t suppress a smile and laughter — which made his explanation all the more murky.

“That’s not a recovered fumble, that was a trick play,” Dantonio said with a smirk. “It was a staged fumble — he takes the ball and it hits the ground there. That’s a fake play; it’s a called play.

“It was an outstanding job selling it, and we’ve practiced that since spring. Every time it gets us.”

Media members didn’t quite believe the grinning Dantonio, so they decided to ask the players what really happened. The media, again, were surprised.

“That’s something we have in our trick book or whatever,” Hoyer said unflinchingly. “We’ve been waiting to run it and I think that was the perfect time to call it.”

But how believable was the fumble? Hoyer said he might have received some additional help from what happened earlier in the game.

“I just tried to make it look like I fumbled and I guess it helped that I fumbled on that first or second play of the game,” he said. “They might have thought I did it again.”

Double threat

With injuries to three of the four starting defensive backs, Dantonio’s options in the secondary were becoming limited. That’s why he looked to sophomore wide receiver T.J. Williams.

Williams, who missed the team’s first two games for undisclosed reasons, registered a tackle while playing cornerback Saturday. Dantonio isn’t a stranger to using players on both offense and defense – he has put Davis at defensive end this year and used current Carolina Panthers cornerback Chris Gamble at cornerback and wide receiver when Dantonio coached at Ohio State.

In his first game, Williams gained the respect of his new defensive peers.

“T.J., he’s a great athlete,” senior defensive end Jonal Saint-Dic said. “I can’t say enough about him.

“Not a lot of guys in college do that, play both sides. You have to be athletic and you have to have good talent, and he has good talent.”

Moving on up

With their win over Notre Dame and a 4-0 start, the Spartans received 60 votes in the Associated Press poll. Purdue and Miami are the only unranked teams ahead of MSU.