When the No. 13 MSU football team (7-2 overall, 4-1 Big Ten) heads back to Iowa, the stakes, as well as emotions, of the game still are high, but Cousins and his team have spent the week making sure history doesn’t repeat itself.

“You’re coming down to your last stretch, and you want to make the most of it; you want to finish as strong as you ever have,” Cousins said in a release from the athletics department.

“Certainly I’m being coached to make sure I don’t hurt my team with my emotion. It will be important going forward to just use my passion and channel it to turn into wins for our team.”

MSU likely will have to win the remainder of its games this season to play in the Big Ten championship game on Dec. 3, and players have said they’re determined to get there.

The Spartans are looking for senior leadership through the final stretch of the season, and they’re ready to step up to keep their hopes of playing in the championship game alive, senior wide receiver B.J. Cunningham said in a release from the athletics department.

Based on film, the team has seen on what Iowa’s defense has to offer this year, Cunningham said the Hawkeyes run a 4-3 base defense, and they have an athletic front seven and a tight defensive line.

“There comes a time in the game when the receivers need to make a play down the field,” Cunningham said. “The quarterback is going to put the ball up, and we have to be aggressive, go up and make a play.”

While MSU’s offense is working to make sure it doesn’t have last matchup’s struggles, the Spartans’ No. 2 defense in the nation will have its hands full against Hawkeye quarterback James Vandenberg and running back Marcus Coker.

Vandenberg averages 232.1 yards per game and maintains a 62.6 completion percentage. This season, he has thrown 12 touchdowns to help the Hawkeyes boast a 3-2 record in the Big Ten (6-3 overall).

“He’s been consistent, and I think he’s been a good leader for them,” sophomore linebacker Max Bullough said in a release from the athletics department. “He doesn’t have a lot of experience, but then again, I have the same amount he has.”

Captaining Iowa’s running game, Coker leads the conference in rushing yards with 1101 overall and averaging 122.3 yards per game.

Head coach Mark Dantonio said Coker is an impressive, physical runner, and when he was watching him play, he said Coker reminds him of former NFL running back Jerome Bettis.

“He’s got two hands on the ball, he’s got his uniform on and he’s a downhill runner,” Dantonio said. “You better buckle up because if he gets through the line and he’s not touched he’s not trying to go around you. He’s trying to go through you.”

In preparation for the game, the Spartans are using their frustrations from last year to make sure they don’t make the same mistakes twice. However, they have struggled on the road this season — with both losses this season being away — but Bullough said they’ll be drawing on successful road tests in the past for inspiration.

“Going back to the game last year at Iowa, that was really disappointing for us,” he said. “We had the Rose Bowl in our sights going into that game, and we kind of let it slip away.”

“We didn’t show up the way we wanted to, so this year it’s an opportunity to get that back.”