In the ninth football preview of the sports podcast, sports editor Chris Vannini and football reporters Jeremy Warnemuende and Jeff Kanan talk about the No. 5 MSU football team’s game at No. 18 Iowa on Saturday (3:30 p.m., ABC).
A win would make MSU 9-0 and better its chances of winning the Big Ten. The Spartans fell last season against the Hawkeyes on the last play of the game in a 15-13 loss to a Hawkeyes’ team that finished 11-2 last season.
The guys talk about the team’s reinstatement of senior cornerback Chris L. Rucker and what kind of impact it will have on the team and make predictions for Saturday’s game.
For MSU senior safety Marcus Hyde and junior quarterback Kirk Cousins, Saturday’s highly anticipated game between No. 5 MSU and No. 18 Iowa is even more significant as the two have personal connections to the Hawkeyes.
Hyde’s brother, Micah, is a starting cornerback for the Hawkeyes, while Cousins’ grandfather played for Iowa during the 1940s.
Marcus Hyde knows family bragging rights will be at stake when he lines up opposite the black-and-gold clad Hawkeyes on Saturday at Kinnick Stadium.
“It’s a blessing,” Marcus Hyde said. “I’m happy for him, and my mom’s really proud to us.”
Marcus Hyde has five pass breakups and two interceptions and has helped the MSU secondary turn from the conference’s lowest-rated pass defense last season to the second-most efficient one this year. He is three years older than his brother. Marcus Hyde noticed Micah Hyde’s athleticism when the two were growing up.
Last season, Micah Hyde, who played in every game last year as a true freshman, bumped into Marcus on a special teams play when both players were on the field. Marcus Hyde turned around and when he spotted Micah, both players laughed.
“It was funny,” Micah Hyde said in a teleconference this week. “I don’t necessarily cheer for MSU. But my brother’s on the team, and I want him to do well. Saturday, it’ll be all for the Hawkeyes.”
Marcus Hyde recorded an interception on Oct. 16 against Illinois, the same day Micah recorded one in Iowa’s win at Michigan, drawing excitement from their mom.
“I haven’t talked to him about it,” Marcus Hyde said. “I got about eight texts from my mom. She was pretty excited because she was at his game. I was happy for him.”
Hyde’s mother and other family members will be at Kinnick Stadium on Saturday, cheering for the brothers to succeed.
Cousins’ grandfather, Ralph Woodard, played end for Iowa in 1945 and from 1947-49, and his mother was on Iowa’s dance team. Cousins grew up listening to Iowa chants and is prepared to play at Kinnick Stadium on Saturday, where the Spartans haven’t won since 1989.
“There’s some deep black-and-gold connections in my family, but they’ve turned green and white because family blood runs so much deeper than alumni blood,” Cousins said.
Cousins was outstanding against Northwestern last week, and will look to follow up his performance in front of family members Saturday.
After severing ties with Iowa, he hopes all his family members attending Saturday’s game will be wearing Spartan colors.
“Right when I came here, I decided to stop rooting for them and cut all ties there,” Cousins said. “If there was any warm feelings, those kind of ended after last year’s tough loss.”
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