Maryland vs. MI State

He returned to the game for the next series, but ESPN reports that Cook is still in considerable pain.

“It’s very comforting having a quarterback like that, having a leader like that in Connor Cook”, sophomore linebacker Jon Reschke said.

“I felt like I could have (played)”, Cook said.

Back on October 10, Rutgers on its final possession drove to the MI State 40 and seemed ready to tie the game.

“We will be alright, Connor will be alright”.

“It really didn’t affect me at all”, Cook said. He stretched out and made a diving, one-handed catch early in the second quarter against the Terps. After a designed quarterback run for Hills to pick up 32 yards and possibly look for a score before halftime, Maryland had their usual collapse.

The 14th-ranked Spartans will be tested again when they host Maryland on Saturday, a week after MI State was upset in a last-second loss at Nebraska. The National Football League quarterbacks that we’ve had here, I would say he’s right there with those guys. The redshirt junior totaled 39 rushing yards – 32 of which came on one carry – while connecting on 14-of-30 passes for 140 yards. Will Likely turned in another solid performance, although he received less snaps than usual because he was featured on offense more than he’d been in any previous game. The return man extraordinaire took a kickoff back 16 yards in the first quarter, making him the 12th player in Maryland history to eclipse 3,000 all-purpose yards. However, the offense could not sustain much outside of a single touchdown drive and consistently lost the field position battle due to turnovers (5) and poor punting. Rowe ended up throwing a pair of interceptions on the day. Anybody expecting MI State’s disappointment from the gut-wrenching loss in Lincoln to linger was mistaken. Cook, a dark horse Heisman contender, had thrown eight touchdown passes in MI State’s past two games. “Just to try to get everybody involved and make the right play every time”.

While Connor Cook’s situation is obviously important to watch, MI State may have finally found an answer to the running back carrousel. Holmes read his blocking well and ran hard, breaking tackles and dragging defenders with him at times. He did not play in the second half, though.

To emphasize that point, Dantonio didn’t have to go back too far to point to how a team can bounce back from a devastating loss. Will the Spartans trap or play defensively, or do you expect them to attack?

One other positive for MI State was the play of their special teams today. This was a big improvement from a group that was giving up nearly 14 yards per return coming into the game.

JD: Mason Appleton is a freshman from the USHL who has seven points on the season, including his first two career goals last weekend, and has been playing on the top line with Ferrantino and MacEachern. “I think he has taken what Kirk brought (MSU) what MI State was able to accomplish while Kirk was there and I think he’s taken it to new heights and another level”.