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Football

FOOTBALL

Connor Cook wins 2015 Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award

Senior quarterback Connor Cook has been regarded as one of the best quarterbacks in the country all season long, Tuesday afternoon that talk was validated with some hardware. Cook's play this season has earned him the 2015 Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, presented annually since 1987 to the nation’s top college quarterback.

FOOTBALL

MSU football's miraculous 2015 journey continues with the College Football Playoff

When freshman running back LJ Scott scored MSU’s game-winning touchdown during MSU’s Big Ten championship victory over Iowa Saturday night, a 6-foot-2 and 268-pound Hawkeye defensive end went on a string to jostle Scott’s extended arm, but Scott moved the ball at the perfect time to evade a devastating turnover and reach it over the goal line. Twenty-seven seconds later, the MSU players stormed the field, reaching their helmets high into the air to celebrate a 16-13 victory over Iowa. They knew what this win meant — a College Football Playoff spot — and the eventual selection on Sunday proved this true as No. 3 MSU (12-1) will be playing No. 2 Alabama (12-1) in the national semifinals — the Cotton Bowl, which the Spartans won last year over Baylor 42-41.

FOOTBALL

MSU football coaches and players look ahead to Alabama during Sunday press conference

In the first press conference after the Spartans were officially named as the #3 seed in the second annual College Football Playoff, the focus was less on the previous night's triumph and more on the challenges to come. "We've got a great opportunity against the University of Alabama," Dantonio The Hawkeyes were awarded the #5 spot in the final College Football Playoff rankings, and they will head to Pasadena, CA to face #6 Stanford in the Rose Bowl on Jan.

FOOTBALL

Places to be in Indianapolis for the Big Ten championship

Numerous Spartan fans making the trek to Indianapolis for Saturday’s Big Ten championship, and the game pitting No. 4 Iowa and No. 5 Michigan state is bound to be great, with the winner being as close to a lock for the College Football Playoff as they could. As for the fans getting to Indianapolis on Friday or early Saturday, multiple events are taking place to enjoy the festivities before the game.

FOOTBALL

Football runs in the family for MSU wide receiver Monty Madaris

Monty Madaris, redshirt-junior wide receiver and defensive back at MSU, played for the skinny bricks alongside his cousin Rodriguez. Lined up across the backyard on the roughnecks were the boys’ other cousins, Greg and Michael Means Jr. While also in the Eastside of Cincinnati, their cousin Isiah Gentry was growing up a few years behind the six-year-olds’ makeshift league. Madaris, Means Jr. and Gentry, all products of Archbishop Moeller High School in Cincinnati and all wide receivers, now play NCAA Division I football across the Midwest, with Means Jr. being a redshirt-junior at Akron and Gentry a redshirt-freshman at Minnesota.