Saturday was the kind of day when nature is trying to tell you to stay inside, take a nap and not play football. The kind of day when the only person smiling because of nonstop rain is an umbrella salesman. The kind of day when even Sparty, the most macho of mascots, had to don a poncho to stay dry.
MSU senior running back Javon Ringer knew what was coming when he saw the forecast for MSU’ s nonconference tilt against Florida Atlantic — a sloppy game that would be won on his legs and the push of his offensive lineman.
It was two years ago this month the last time Ringer encountered these conditions — a once-defining debacle against Notre Dame in the driving rain.
MSU’ s coaches were aware of the precipitation to come, and planned accordingly by soaking footballs in water during Thursday’s practice (although players and coaches admitted it probably didn’t help much).
By the end of four-plus hours in weather that MSU quarterback Brian Hoyer called “monsoon-like,” the Spartans’ emerged from the sloshy field with a 17-0 victory over Florida Atlantic.
Emerging the cleanest was the man who knew the game would be won and lost on his water-logged cleats.
Handling the ball
Saturday was the kind of day when those brave souls dedicated to the Green and White huddled under shelter or withstood pelting rain inside Spartan Stadium. The kind of day when offensive linemen buckle their chinstraps a little tighter because they know they’re going to be earning their dinner tonight. The kind of day when Ringer needed to go to work.
Ringer not only packed his lunch and punched in Saturday, he put in a few extra hours of labor and didn’t even ask for overtime pay. He took 43 slippery handoffs from Hoyer, ran behind an overpowering set of blockers and powered his way into the record books with 282 yards, fourth-most in MSU history.
Ringer and his linemen knocked Florida Atlantic in the teeth so hard that you hoped the visitors carried a dentist on staff.
The senior tailback hit his holes and never stopped churning his feet for the full four quarters. The first Owls defender rarely put Ringer on the turf. He broke long runs after struggling to bust open against Eastern Michigan last week, ripping off seven carries of 10 yards or more.
Most impressively, Ringer never fumbled in a game where other players put the football on the ground 12 times.
“My number one concern coming into the game with the weather was just making sure I held on to the ball,” Ringer said.
After 43 carries, Ringer could emphatically check off his main priority.
Owls go blind
Saturday was the kind of day that makes Florida Atlantic head coach Howard Schellenberger need to see a sleep doctor. The kind of day that makes running the spread offense, as the Owls do, as much fun as a bee sting. The kind of day that Florida Atlantic kick returner Jeff Blanchard didn’t plan for when proclaiming, “We will score a lot of points against (MSU).”
Florida Atlantic’s star quarterback, Rusty Smith, went 8-of-34 for 143 yards and said he threw all of four spirals in the game. The Owls’ star receiver with NFL potential, Cortez Gent, did not catch a pass. The visitors’ leading rusher, Charles Pierre, had 58 yards on 12 difficult carries.
Most noticeably, neither Smith, Gent, Pierre nor the rest of Florida Atlantic’s team scored one point, let alone “a lot.” Credit the MSU defense with tackling the shutout — and Mother Nature with an assist — in the stat sheet.
When the Owls couldn’t move the ball, they couldn’t stop the ball, either. Fumbles and dropped passes and wobbly throws kept the Florida Atlantic defense in the game, but Ringer and his friends up front ensured somebody would march toward the end zone.
“I think (Ringer is) very good and very blessed to be operating behind those five guys,” Schellenberger said. “When they all come off at one time, they look like a herd of water buffalo stampeding at you — and there’ s a gazelle somewhere in behind them.”
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Record breaker
Above all else, Saturday was the kind of day that the gazelle, Ringer, never imagined he would see. The kind of day that isn’t possible in the pass-happy system run by his former head coach, John L. Smith. The kind of day that Ringer did have, and the kind that will cement his place among the MSU running elite.
With his 282 yards, Ringer put himself along with the names of MSU legends — Lorenzo White, Eric Allen, T.J. Duckett and brother Tico Duckett.
“The thing about Javon is that he’s an extremely talented player, but what makes him an outstanding player and what sets him apart are the intangibles,” MSU head coach Mark Dantonio said. “It’s the toughness, it’s the attention to detail, it’s the confidence, it’s the work ethic.”
That work ethic will be tested in the next three months as Ringer shoulders a workload he has never thrown on his back. Critics might question the decision to keep returning to Ringer late in the game with a victory all but in the bank (Dantonio said he didn’t want to put a running back in the game who hadn’t been taking wet handoffs for four quarters).
But how can you starve the horse pulling your cart, as Dantonio often says?
After more than 40 carries and punishing a defense that looked like they were trying to catch a fish with their hands, how could anybody want to take Ringer out of Saturday’s game?
After all, it was that kind of day.
Javon Ringer’s day.
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