MSU head coach Mark Dantonio paces the sidelines in MSU’s 37-34 loss at Wisconsin Sept. 29.
After watching film of MSU’s nail-biting loss to Wisconsin last Saturday, junior quarterback Brian Hoyer couldn’t help but replay the game in his head while he tried to drift off to sleep.
There was one play he wished he could take back. One play that could have been the difference between being patted on the back for a valiant effort or being celebrated as victors when they returned to MSU’s campus late Saturday night.
On the final drive, a defender broke through to pressure Hoyer, and he dumped the ball off to junior running back Javon Ringer for a five-yard loss.
“If I had put some air on that, he might still be walking into the endzone right now,” Hoyer said Monday. “So that’s probably the one, if I could take back, that’s the play right there.”
Following the defeat, Hoyer said the attitude in the locker room was “completely different” from that of the first losses of past seasons.
“I would say when we lost last year people were down,” Hoyer said. “This year, people were just kind of pissed.”
The new attitude, he said, will be key in avoiding the snowball effect that has plagued Spartan football the past couple of years.
Last season, the snowball started its descent when MSU lost to Notre Dame at home, giving the Spartans their first loss of the season. The team went on to lose seven of its next eight games.
Then-head coach John L. Smith admitted he failed to mentally and emotionally prepare the team after their crushing loss to the Fighting Irish, but head coach Mark Dantonio has been preparing his players for this moment since spring training.
“We need to get back on track and worry about what we can control,” Dantonio said. “And what we can control is the future, not the past.”
Saturday’s game against Northwestern at home is a pivotal point in the Spartans’ season, he said. It will answer the question of “Are we going to flip? Or are we going to go this way,” Dantonio said.
“All indications that the coaching staff has and that our players have is we are going to remain positive and move forward.”
As the team gathered in the locker room following the Wisconsin loss, senior safety and team captain Travis Key spoke to his teammates about staying positive.
He said he knows how crucial it is to keep believing in the team even through the hard times.
“I just had to make sure everybody kept their heads up and make sure we didn’t fall apart at that point,” Key said. “Make sure nobody was pointing fingers and things like that.”
Senior running back Jehuu Caulcrick is personally attempting to make any idea of the snowball effect melt away from everyone’s conscience.
“Being a leader, I’m going to assure that it’s not going to be like last year,” Caulcrick said. “I can pretty much put that in writing for anyone.”
When Northwestern’s men in purple roll into town this weekend, they will be looking to avenge falling victim to the greatest comeback win in Division I-A history when they blew a 38-3 third quarter lead to the Spartans last year.
Ringer is not worried about MSU coming out flat against a revenge-hungry team.
“Northwestern is the biggest game of the year for us right now,” Ringer said. “This is our national championship game since this is the next game.”
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The pass pecking at the back of Hoyer’s mind may symbolize the evolving mentality of a new era in Spartan football. After all, MSU only lost by three to one of the top-ranked teams in the nation.
But this is not a team that believes in moral victories.
“We aren’t going into any game just hoping to compete with somebody, we’re going in to win every game,” Hoyer said. “Maybe in years past, we went in just to stay with somebody, and that’s not the case any more.”
