The Spartans passed on the cupcakes and traveled out West to open the 2008 season against the Golden Bears, who were ranked as high as No. 2 in 2007. The Spartans made mistakes early and played catch-up from the opening quarter.
Top performer: Sophomore wide receiver Mark Dell, nine receptions, 202 yards and a touchdown
Quotable: “I’m tired of that. I’m not going through the same old as last year where every game was a close game and when we lost we were like, ‘OK guys, we were right in it,’ — I’m tired of that, we need to win.”
— Senior running back Javon Ringer after MSU lost its eighth consecutive game by seven points or less
The Spartans picked up their first win of the season in convincing fashion, as MSU leaned on Ringer for what turned out to be the first of many times.
Top performer: Ringer, 135 yards and five touchdowns
Quotable: “He can rest six days.”
— MSU head coach Mark Dantonio on Ringer’s workload of 34 carries
Try as she might, Mother Nature couldn’t stop Ringer as he poured in 282 yards and two touchdowns in a win over Florida Atlantic. The Spartans defense recorded its first shutout in nine years for MSU while limiting the Owls to nine first downs through a constant downpour.
Top performer: Ringer, 43 carries, 282 yards, two touchdowns, zero fumbles lost
Quotable: “We’re a running team. We like to establish the run first and with the weather conditions like this, it kind of suited us well.”
— Ringer on the ground game in poor weather
The MSU defense turned up the heat on the undefeated Fighting Irish, sacking quarterback Jimmy Clausen three times and consistently pressuring the young sophomore.
Top performer: Ringer, 201 yards and two touchdowns on 39 carries
Quotable: “Like I said before, I can do nothing without these guys standing next to me.”
— Ringer at the postgame press conference, where he brought out the MSU offensive line, tight ends and fullbacks to stand behind him while he spoke
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Ringer continued his record-breaking running pace with 198 yards on 44 carries as the Spartans opened the Big Ten season with a 42-29 win at Indiana. The Hoosiers kept close with the favored Spartans until the fourth quarter, when turnovers and penalties caught up with Indiana.
Top performer: Ringer — 44 carries, 198 yards, one touchdown, zero fumbles lost
Quotable: “You never want to be in a shootout game, but I think we responded today. It was nice to come out and play average and come away with a win.”
— Defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi on the MSU defense
MSU’s Homecoming came down to the final minutes, when Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz opted to go for it on fourth-and-inches from MSU’s 20-yard line instead of kicking a field goal. Junior middle linebacker Adam Decker stopped Shonn Greene for a 2-yard loss to turn the ball back over to the Spartans.
Top performer: Decker, eight tackles
Quotable: “I was worked up a little bit. I had to calm down afterward. All my teammates came around me and started hitting me in the head and it kinda hurt after a while, so I told them to stop.”
— Decker on his post-tackle celebration
In the Spartans’ most well-rounded performance of the year, MSU extended its winning streak to six straight games on the arm of senior quarterback Brian Hoyer and an opportunistic defense. The Wildcats committed three turnovers while Hoyer threw for two touchdowns.
Top performer: Hoyer, 14-of-20, 169 yards, two touchdowns, zero interceptions
Quotable: “All the credit goes to my offensive line. They continue to produce and continue to give me the holes that I need to be able to help move the ball down the field.”
— Ringer on MSU’s front five
Ohio State got out to a 21-0 first-quarter lead and never looked back as the then-No. 12 Buckeyes throttled the then-No. 20 Spartans.
Top performer: Redshirt freshman quarterback Kirk Cousins threw for 161 yards, a touchdown and an interception on 18-for-25 passing.
Quotable: “The object of playing top teams in your conference is to measure up. We did not measure up today.”
— Dantonio
Hoyer had a statement game and former walk-on wide receiver Blair White shone as the Spartans snapped a six-game losing streak to the Wolverines. The Spartans won in Ann Arbor for the first time since 1990.
Top performer: White, four catches, 143 yards, one touchdown catch of 61 yards
Quotable: “It’s big for this program. When we first came here as a staff, we pointed to this football game as a rivalry game. I have always believed that.”
— Dantonio on beating U-M
Junior kicker Brett Swenson hit a 44-yard field goal with seven seconds remaining to defeat the Badgers and avoid an upset.
Top performer: Swenson, 4-for-4 on field goals, including a career long 50-yarder in the fourth quarter
Quotable: “If he doesn’t make this kick, I’m going to choke him.”
— Junior defensive end Trevor Anderson on what he was thinking as Swenson lined up to kick the game-winner
The MSU seniors were sent off with a win at home against Purdue thanks to good field position on two touchdown drives and a defensive score. The win propelled MSU to a shot at the Big Ten championship despite four turnovers.
Top performer: Freshman cornerback Johnny Adams returned an interception 40 yards for a touchdown late in the second half.
Quotable: “We hurt ourselves, but I think it shows where our team is that not everybody has to have their best game for us to win.”
— Hoyer on MSU’s performance
The Spartans came to State College, Pa., with hopes of winning the program’s first Big Ten championship since 1990, but instead they grasped a firm view of where they stand among the conference’s elite.
Top performer: Sophomore linebacker Greg Jones, 15 tackles, 3.5 for loss, one sack
Quotable: “You have to beat teams like Ohio State and Penn State if you want to win this conference and we didn’t do that today. But I think we set a foundation of what’s expected around here and we put Michigan State where it needed to be.”
— Senior defensive tackle Justin Kershaw
