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A team for the ages

MSU team from '99 won key games, had big-time players move on to NFL

November 29, 2009

Former MSU head coach Bobby Williams celebrates after a play in the second quarter of the Florida Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Fla. “I am extremely proud of the way our team fought back and the way they competed the entire game,” Williams said of the 37-34 win over the Gators.

Photo by State News file photo | The State News

Ten years later, the players that comprised the 1999 MSU football team still cause Spartans’ fans to shake their heads in awe. Plaxico Burress. Julian Peterson. T.J. Duckett. Renaldo Hill. Robaire Smith. Chris Baker. Amp Campbell. Ten years later, what that team accomplished has yet to be matched by other MSU teams.

Wins against Notre Dame, Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State in the same season for the first time since 1965, and the only time since. The first 10-win season since 1965, and the only time since. A national ranking as high as No. 5. A thrilling Citrus Bowl win.

And what those players accomplished in the years after they left MSU — 15 drafted into the NFL, five Pro Bowls, two Super Bowl champions — continues to awe not only fans, but also the players themselves.

“Years later, you look now and those guys have been in Pro Bowls, won a Super Bowl and have played in the league for many, many years,” Duckett said. “I think that’s also what made us so good is we thrived off each other.”

The talent

Duckett came to MSU as a two-way recruit from Kalamazoo, Mich. But for all his accolades, he admits he had no idea what college football entailed.

Then he stepped on the practice field.

“I didn’t know what to expect, and then I came in and playing behind Julian Peterson, it was unbelievable,” Duckett said. “It was amazing the stuff that he was doing, and I was like, ‘Alright, this is what it is. This is what college sports are.’”

Duckett, who spent seven years in the NFL before being released by the Seattle Seahawks this preseason, wasn’t the only one amazed. Even veterans were impressed with so much talent on one field.

Hill said he and Burress often joked about going one-on-one against each other every day. But years before Burress scored the game-winning touchdown in Super Bowl XLII and Hill became a nine-year NFL veteran, the two knew they were benefiting from one another’s presence.

“In practice, it felt like you were getting prepared to play for the Super Bowl or national championship each day,” said Hill, who has started all 11 games for the Denver Broncos this season. “I didn’t know, going into a tight game, if I would ever face a receiver as good as Plaxico. So when I got the chance to go up against him it just made the game that much easier.”

The season

At Big Ten Media Day, only two coaches — then-head coach Nick Saban and Minnesota’s Glenn Mason — considered the Spartans Big Ten contenders. Out of eight preseason polls, only the Phil Steele College Football Preview magazine had MSU ranked, and that was at No. 24.

Then the season began, and the climb commenced.

An emotional 27-20 season-opening win against Oregon completed the comeback of Campbell, who fractured two vertebrae and underwent spinal fusion surgery the year before. The Spartans followed with a rout of Eastern Michigan, before beating No. 24 Notre Dame a week later to move into the polls. The next week, MSU beat Illinois, then throttled Iowa to improve to 5-0 for the first time since 1965.

That set up an undefeated matchup between No. 11 MSU and No. 3 U-M on Oct. 9 at Spartan Stadium.

Bill Burke threw for a school-record 400 yards against U-M — 255 of which went to Burress, also a school record — as the Spartans beat the Wolverines 34-31.

The win moved MSU to No. 5 in the country, the first time the Spartans were ranked in the top 10 since 1990. They also were ranked No. 1 in the Anderson and Hester/Seattle Times computer rankings, part of the formula that dictated the standings of the Bowl Championship Series.

It was a big win for the program, perhaps the biggest in a decade. But after the game, Saban reminded players, media and fans the Spartans were still only at the season’s halfway point.

Saban proved to be prophetic.

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The next week, the Spartans were trounced by the Drew Brees-led Purdue Boilermakers 52-28 in West Lafayette, Ind.

Defensive back Aric Morris called for a players-only meeting the next day, where the seniors reminded the team its goals — a Big Ten Championship, a Jan. 1 bowl game and top 25 finish — still were in sight.

“We knew we had to bounce back, we couldn’t look at it like, ‘Oh the season’s over with,’” said Peterson, a five-time Pro Bowler currently with the Detroit Lions. “We knew that everything we had worked hard for didn’t go down the drain and we could bounce back.”

But the road didn’t get any easier, as the Spartans faced Wisconsin and eventual Heisman Trophy winner Ron Dayne. The Spartans entered the game giving up an average of 39.9 rushing yards per game, but were throttled 40-10 by Wisconsin, which was led by Dayne (214 yards, two touchdowns).

After two straight losses, the Spartans were 6-2 and fell all the way to No. 19. With three regular season games remaining, Hill said players realized it was now a new season.

“Sometimes, the saying is, ‘Don’t drink the Kool-Aid,’ and I think we kind of let that get to us. We were full of ourselves just a little too much,” Hill said. “It was humbling, but we just said we have to get back to what we know and what we’ve been doing, and it started on the practice field. We just dedicated the rest of the season to not slacking off and staying hungry and finding a way to be ready.”

The Spartans did just that, finishing the season with wins against Ohio State, Northwestern and Penn State to finish 9-2 and tied for second in the Big Ten.

On Nov. 25, it was announced the Spartans would face Florida in the Citrus Bowl on Jan. 1.

The departure

Five days after accepting the bowl invite, the Spartans were in the market for a new coach.

During a whirlwind Thanksgiving weekend, rumors swirled that Louisiana State’s chancellor and athletics director had flown to East Lansing to offer Saban the Tigers’ head coaching position. Monday evening, Saban officially told players he had been offered the job, and informed both schools he would make a decision by 7 a.m. the next day.

On Nov. 30, 1999 — 10 years ago today — Saban announced he had signed a five-year, $6.25 million contract with LSU, making him the second-highest paid coach in the country behind Florida’s Steve Spurrier. Saban’s MSU contract paid him $697,330 a year, which included a base salary and radio, television and show endorsement contracts.

After Saban’s announcement, Campbell had a private meeting with his former coach. According to a State News report, Campbell left the meeting with tears flowing from his eyes and said, “It’s hard, man. You just feel like your mom and dad got a divorce. It’s really tough that he’s leaving.”

Ten years later, Campbell still is confused with how the situation unraveled. But he understands Saban’s decision.

“It was a weird situation, looking back at it now, and it still is to this day,” Campbell said. “He told us, ‘Michigan State wouldn’t give me the contract I wanted and I had to do what’s best for me and my family,’ and I totally understand that. Looking back now, do I wish Michigan State would have given him that contract? Yeah, I do. He was a great football coach and, looking now, his track record proves that and what he has accomplished proves that. If he would have stayed here I think Michigan State would be at where he is now.”

Since his departure, Saban has spent five years at Louisiana State (winning one national championship), two years with the NFL’s Miami Dolphins and currently is the head coach of No. 2 Alabama.

The perfect ending

Bobby Williams, the associate head coach and running backs coach, was named interim coach the day Saban left. Five days later, the interim label was removed.

“At the time, it was very exciting. It was a very emotional time,” Williams told The State News earlier this year. “It was really captured by the entire university, the entire community and the state. We were just coming off a very good season that year and we were going to the Citrus Bowl and going to Florida. You can imagine the excitement. We hadn’t really been to a bowl game of that magnitude in a long time, really since the Rose Bowl.”

In the Citrus Bowl, MSU and Florida put on a wild show that saw six lead changes throughout the game and 31 combined points in the second quarter.

Down 34-26 with 10:46 remaining in the fourth quarter, Burke and Burress hooked up for a 30-yard touchdown pass to put MSU within two. The Spartans converted a two-point conversion to tie the game, and a 39-yard field by Paul Edinger with no time on the clock gave the Spartans a 37-34 win against the Gators, ending MSU’s season at No. 11 in the nation with a 10-2 record.

10 years later

Four months later, Burress and Peterson were selected in the first round of the 2000 NFL Draft, two of seven Spartans selected that year.

By the time everyone’s eligibility ran out two years later, 15 players from the 1999 MSU football team had been drafted into the NFL.

For all the talent the team knew was on its roster, Peterson said talk of everyone succeeding at the next level never entered players’ minds while at MSU.

“We did the living. We were having fun,” Peterson said. “I’m happy that everyone’s having fun and doing great for themselves, but at that time we were just having fun, there was no talk about that.”

Athletes often say they develop a brotherhood with their teammates that extends well beyond their time together on the field. For the players who made up the 1999 MSU football, that undoubtedly is the case.

“Oh yeah, we all keep in touch, there’s no doubt about that; we’re always going to be in contact,” Hill said. “I don’t run into those guys often, but that’s my family.”

And when something happens to a family member — like Burress, who currently is serving a two-year prison sentence for two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree and a single count of reckless endangerment in the second degree — the rest of the family is there. Peterson spoke to Burress before he began his prison sentence, while Campbell sent Burress a letter just last week.

“I just wanted to let him know I’m here if he ever needs me for anything,” Campbell said.

Rarely is it the case that a team so talented also has so much chemistry and family values as a group. But the 1999 MSU football team banded together during a time that could have ruined a spectacular season and created a bond that has remained for 10 years and counting.

“All of us are still friends, like Robaire and myself, a lot of (the 2000) basketball team,” Peterson said. “We talk about that whole year all the time because we were a family. A lot of people say that, but we really were like one big family. We talk about that all the time, and how (1999) was one of our best years.”

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