MSU head coach Mark Dantonio smiles after being drenched in Gatorade by his players. MSU earned its seventh victory of the season with a win over Penn State, 35-31.
With MSU’s 35-31 victory Saturday over Penn State, the Spartans finished the regular season 7-5 and all but solidified a bowl game selection.
The two most likely destinations are Tempe, Ariz. for the Insight Bowl and Detroit for the Motor City Bowl. While Detroit is a short drive from East Lansing and home to one of the few cold-area bowl games, the Spartans said they don’t care where they play.
“It doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is that I’m going to be with these guys one more time,” senior linebacker Kaleb Thornhill said. “They’re my family, they’re the guys I hang around with every day. As long as I’m with them, I’ll be just fine. We’re going to have some good times.”
MSU will hold at least 20 more practices until its bowl game, wherever that may be. And while practice can seem like a chore after a while, the players are looking at it as another way to spend more time with departing seniors. The team also gets to play another game of football, which is something the seniors will cherish.
“We get to go to a bowl game and I really don’t care where we go. We could play at Okemos High School, it doesn’t even matter,” senior defensive end Ervin Baldwin said. “I’m just happy to be playing a 13th game and to spend another month with the guys in that locker room. I love those guys.”
The name or site of the bowl game doesn’t matter to MSU head coach Mark Dantonio, either. He said the reality that MSU will play in a bowl game makes a positive statement about the team and the program’s direction.
“To do what this football team has throughout the entire season — to play in every single game, and not to come away flat, having an opportunity to win in every single game,” Dantonio said, “to win seven — and to get to a bowl game — is going to be tremendous for our program.”
Thomas on top
Junior wide receiver Devin Thomas broke the MSU record for receptions in one season, tied the school record for touchdown receptions in one game and set a Spartan record with his seventh 100-yard receiving game Saturday.
Thomas, who had seven receptions for 139 yards and three touchdowns, broke former Spartans wide receiver Charles Rogers’ previous 2002 record of 68 receptions. Thomas now has 75 receptions this season for 1,226 yards and eight touchdowns.
Thomas set the school record for all-purpose yards in one season last Saturday against Purdue, finishing the season with 2,370 all-purpose yards.
“When he’s hot, he plays football at a different level,” offensive coordinator Don Treadwell said. “We needed him to do that at this point in time and he was up for the challenge.”
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