Senior captain and offensive lineman Pete Clifford runs onto the field of the Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium Friday Dec. 28th.
Orlando, Fla. — In a testament to their fighting mentality, MSU battled No. 14 Boston College until the end, but then, the Spartans blinked.
“The difference between winning and losing is so small that if you blink, you’ll miss it,” head coach Mark Dantonio said Friday at the Champs Sports Bowl post-game press conference.
Behind five turnovers — all committed by junior quarterback Brian Hoyer — MSU fell just short of leaving Orlando as winners, losing 24-21 Friday night.
“If you look at it, we were our own worst enemy, I guess you would say,” Dantonio said.
Hoyer threw a career-high four interceptions, two of which were picked off by Eagles’ safety Jamie Silvia.
“It’s disappointing because there’s so much excitement coming into a bowl game, wanting to perform well,” said Hoyer, who finished with 131 yards and two touchdowns on 14-of-36 passing.
“I can’t think back ever since I was in little league baseball since I’ve had such a bad performance.”
While Hoyer may have been having one of the worst games of his season, he made one of his most outstanding plays of the year to get his team back in gear.
With 6:36 left in the game, the Spartans were down 24-13, and in desperate need of some of that Florida sun to shine on them.
It was 2nd-and-10 on the Boston College 14-yard line, and Hoyer dropped back to pass. Feeling a tackler from behind him, Hoyer rolls out right all the way to the sideline.
He looks for senior tight end Kellen Davis, but he’s covered. Then he points to junior wide receiver Deon Curry and throws a touchdown strike.
After converting for two points, the Spartans were within three, but Hoyer would throw another interception with less than two minutes left, sealing the Eagles’ victory.
“It’s sad, but I’m glad to see that we fought out there to the end like we did every game this year,” senior linebacker Kaleb Thornill said.
In the beginning, the Spartans exploded out of the gates, with junior wide receiver Devin Thomas’ 79-yard opening kick off return, setting up an 18-yard touchdown pass from Hoyer to Davis.
After jumping out to the quick lead, the Spartans would start to stumble.
Hoyer was intercepted by Silvia, and on MSU’s next possession, he fumbled the snap and the Eagles recovered it on MSU’s 11-yard line.
The turnover set up Eagles’ quarterback Matt Ryan’s first touchdown, completing a 1-yard pass to tight end Jon Loyte. Ryan completed 22-of-47 passes for 249 yards, three touchdowns and one interception.
Despite the absence of senior defensive end Jonal Saint-Dic, the Spartans forced Ryan to scramble many times, and brought him down for three sacks.
“(Senior linebacker) Rob Tabatchnik, I thought had a superb game I think he did a great job out there, made some great plays on the ball,” defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi said. “He had a nice sack on Ryan.”
While Boston College entered the game boasting the nation’s best run defense, the Spartans rush attack is what kept them in the contest.
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Junior running back Javon Ringer ran for 101 yards on 21 carries, and senior running back Jehuu Caulcrick added 59 yards on 15 carries.
“Running the ball is what got us here,” Ringer said. “We knew they were the number one running defense and that’s something we took as a challenge. A lot of people didn’t expect us to run the ball too well against them.”
In Dantonio’s first season as head coach, all six of the team’s losses have come by seven points or less.
“That’s been the spirit of our season this year,” Dantonio said.
“I said a long time ago we’re going to have growing pains here in this first season, and we need to get past that.”
