“When you look at our special teams, we said we have to have explosive plays out there and superior special teams play,” MSU head coach Mark Dantonio said after his team’s 37-20 win over Northwestern on Saturday. “We did that and that can be as big as everything.”

Bates, who earned The Sporting News honorable mention Freshman All-America a year ago, had three of his four punts downed inside the Northwestern 20-yard line, including two at the Wildcats’ 2-yard line. So far this season, 11 of Bates’ 37 punts have been inside the opponents’ 20-yard line.

Swenson made field goals from 26, 42 and 34 yards out, extending his streak of 15 straight field goals after he missed his first attempt of the season. Swenson’s streak set an MSU record, which was previously held by Paul Edinger, who made 13 in a row.

“Swenson’s been lights-out,” senior quarterback Brian Hoyer said.

“I always tell him, ‘I hope you have fewer field goal attempts,’ but when he goes out there he’s producing and that’s what we need. If we can get all cylinders of the game clicking I think we can be a tough team to beat.”

Ringer keeps going and going …

On MSU’s second drive of the game, senior running back Javon Ringer became the first MSU back to have consecutive 1,000-yard seasons since T.J. Duckett in 2000-01. Ringer, who finished the game with 124 yards and two touchdowns, also moved into third place on MSU’s all-time rushing list with 3,873.

“Great game, tough game,” Dantonio said of Ringer’s effort against the Wildcats. “He got the tough yards (with) no fumbles. He’s a complete football player and went over 1,000 yards faster than anyone in MSU history. We’ve talked about Javon over and over and over again this season, but he really is a tremendous worker.”

Back to the postseason

With Saturday’s win, the Spartans are now bowl eligible for the second straight season — the first time MSU could appear in back-to-back bowl games since it made three straight postseason appearances from 1995-97.

Dantonio cautioned that there were some six-win teams who didn’t make a bowl appearance last year, and Ringer said the Spartans still have a long way to go in the regular season before thinking about their plans for winter break.

“It means a lot, this is definitely a big step for our program (and) a big step for our team — just seeing how everything’s fallen into place in our season thus far and I just thank God for that,” Ringer said. “But we’re not complacent, we haven’t settled, we’re not relaxing at all because we’re bowl eligible. We still know we have some big tests and we’re just now into the thick of the Big Ten schedule.”