Sophomore running back Edwin Baker dives for the endzone Saturday afternoon at Beaver Stadium. Baker’s touchdown gave MSU and early and permanent lead over Penn State in the game, which ended with a 28-22 victory for the Spartans.
State College, Pa. — Minutes after junior quarterback Kirk Cousins gave his friends and family celebratory hugs in the endzone at Beaver Stadium, he couldn’t quite put the feeling he had during that moment into words.
But just before that, as he ran around the field Saturday afternoon — football in one hand, helmet in the other — celebrating with his teammates, Cousins yelled out three words Spartan football fans have been dying to hear for a long time.
“Yes,” Cousins yelled toward the MSU faithful. “Big Ten champs.”
Without a championship since 1990, No. 11 MSU (11-1 overall, 7-1 Big Ten) came into the game Saturday against Penn State (7-5, 4-4) with a chance to clinch at least a share of the conference crown. And by beating the Nittany Lions, 28-22, the Spartans did just that, putting their names in the history books forever.
“We’re Big Ten champions, no one can ever take that away from us,” Cousins said. “It goes on the wall of Spartan Stadium. We always talk about Big Ten championships, and we did it.”
MSU accomplished its goal of winning a conference championship using a dominant first three quarters of football. But not long after the Spartans took a 28-10 lead with 8:25 remaining in the game, it appeared MSU was going to hand it away.
After a touchdown pass from Spartans junior receiver Keith Nichol, Penn State running back Evan Royster ran for a 10-yard touchdown with 5:51 remaining to make it 28-16.
The Nittany Lions could not convert on a two-point conversion, but it did not seem to matter as MSU got the ball back with a chance to ice the game away.
However, a little more than three minutes later, Spartans sophomore running back Edwin Baker coughed up the football, giving the ball back to the Nittany Lions. And just when junior Trenton Robinson appeared to have sealed the game with an interception in the endzone, he ran the ball out and fumbled, allowing Penn State to score another touchdown and pull to within 28-22 with 1:01 remaining.
But on the ensuing onside kick, MSU senior tight end Brian Linthicum, who brought in four passes for 42 yards against Penn State, caught his most important ball of the day when he charged forward to grab Collin Wagner’s kick.
“I told myself, ‘If it comes to you, it’s yours, grab it, that’s the game,’” Linthicum said. “Onice I knew I had it secure, it was the greatest feeling I had in probably my whole life.”
Following Linthicum’s onside kick recovery and two kneels by Cousins, the Spartans finally could celebrate their first Big Ten title in two decades in a stadium they hadn’t won in since 1965.
“This hasn’t been done in 20 years,” Dantonio said. “And when you do something like that, it’s a moment that you remember for the rest of your life.”
While MSU didn’t finish as well as Dantonio would have liked, he could couldn’t have asked for a better start to the championship-clinching game.
On the first snap from scrimmage, sophomore running back Edwin Baker carried the ball 16 yards. Eight plays and almost four minutes later, Baker, who led all rushers with 128 yards on 28 carries, also ended the drive with a seven-yard touchdown run to put the Spartans ahead, 7-0 early.
“That run I had was huge,” Baker said. “I feel like that sparked the team’s energy.”
And with MSU struggling at the beginning of games in recent weeks, Cousins said the first score also gave the Spartans the confidence they could win in an environment such as Happy Valley.
“That opening drive calmed a lot of nerves,” Cousins said. “I think it gave confidence to this whole team to really believe we could do what we came here to do.”
Penn State was able to respond on its opening drive, converting on a field goal to take away some of MSU’s early momentum.
But less than five minutes into the second quarter, following a 35-yard reverse by junior Keshawn Martin, Cousins hit junior receiver B.J. Cunningham for an eight-yard touchdown to make the score 14-3.
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MSU increased it’s lead to 21-3 when Cousins found Cunningham for the second time on a 24-yard toucdhown with 1:43 left in the third quarter.
It was the first multi-touchdown game for Cunningham, who caught three passes for 33 yards.
Although the Nittany Lions would make their rally after that score, Dantonio said he never thought the Spartans lost control of the game.
“I thought we were in charge, pretty much the whole football game,” Dantonio said. “I think if you watched that game, you felt that way as the game continued.”
Now, Dantonio and MSU can return to East Lansing to celebrate with “Big Ten champions” written on their hats, something senior linebacker Greg Jones said he has been looking forward to four years.
“All of our games so far this season have led up to this, and it is a truly amazing feeling right now,” Jones said. “It’s something we can enjoy forever.”
And after setting that goal for a conference championship as a team all the way back at the beginning of the year and working for it ever since, Dantonio said it’s something the Spartans have been waiting to to enjoy for a long time.
“We’ve been saying all year long, ‘We will be champions,’” Dantonio said. “It’s nice to be able to say, ‘We are champions.’”
