The Spartans kept handing the ball off to Ringer and the senior back responded Saturday, rushing for 135 yards and a career-high five touchdowns as MSU beat Eastern Michigan 42-10 in their home opener at Spartan Stadium.

“I really didn’t even know how many carries I had, my body is feeling really good,” said Ringer, who had a career-high 34 rushing attempts.

MSU head coach Mark Dantonio said he wanted his team to make a statement about toughness in the game and put an even bigger emphasis on running the football. The plan panned out as the Spartans rushed 52 times while going to the air 16 times.

“He can rest six days,” Dantonio said of Ringer’s workload. “It’s not too big of a concern. He’s the kind of player that wants the ball and he’s not going to be satisfied to go into a rotation.”

The game started out tight, as Ringer fumbled at the goal line to end their first possession, but the Spartans got on the board two series later when Ringer capped off a 46-yard drive with a 4-yard run late in the first quarter.

Eastern Michigan quarterback Andy Schmitt tied the game with a 3-yard quarterback keeper in the first minute of the second quarter, but MSU took the lead for good on another touchdown by Ringer, this one from six yards out.

Ringer found paydirt for a third time in the first half, scoring on a 2-yard run with a little more than a minute to go to put the Spartans up 21-7 heading into halftime and give him more than 100 yards in the first half alone.

“He’s never tired, he’s a freak,” senior quarterback Brian Hoyer said of Ringer. “Javon’s in great shape. He’s very dedicated and very determined to be in there as much as he can.”

After forcing an MSU punt, Eastern Michigan’s second drive of the second half started at their own 3-yard line. The Eagles drove all the way to the MSU 10-yard line, but were whistled for holding, sending them back to the 16-yard line. Eastern Michigan got back to MSU’s 4-yard line, but a fake field goal attempt failed as the Spartans took over at their own one.

“That was huge, I was glad they faked it to be honest,” defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi said. “We were waiting for a fake. We knew special teams-wise they tried something all the time.”

The Spartans pulled away from there, as a 29-yard reception by sophomore wide receiver Mark Dell, followed by a 46-yard one-handed grab by freshman wide receiver B.J. Cunningham two plays later, put the Spartans inside the Eastern Michigan 10-yard line.

Ringer pounded it in from 1-yard out three plays later to extend MSU’s lead to 28-7.

A 78-yard punt return by senior strong safety Otis Wiley in the early minutes of the fourth quarter put the Spartans inside Eastern Michigan’s 10-yard line, and Ringer scored his fifth touchdown of the day on a 2-yard run to put the Spartans up 35-7.

The Spartans took out a majority of the starters during the middle of the fourth quarter, but MSU tacked on seven more points on a 4-yard touchdown run by freshman running back Ashton Leggett to make the score 42-7.

Eastern Michigan kicked a 24-yard field goal with less than two minutes remaining for the final margin.

Hoyer was 8-of-12 passing for 148 yards, while Dell caught three balls for 71 yards. Cunningham three catches for 71 yards.

Sophomore linebacker Eric Gordon led the team with seven tackles, while junior free safety Danny Fortener, starting in the place of injured senior Kendell Davis-Clark, had six.

Through two games, Ringer has 61 carries. Without former bruising running back Jehuu Caulcrick, the 5-foot-10, 202-pound Ringer will have to see his carries significantly increase from the 245 attempts he had a year ago.

While he his more than happy to shoulder the load, even Ringer admits he’s not sure how the toll of the extra carries will affect him.

“If my offensive line blocks for me like they did today, yeah,” Ringer said when asked if he could carry this big of a load throughout the entire season. “My offensive line did great today, so far, I feel pretty good and I’m ready for the next game.”