MI State-Ohio State clash on the marquee; a look at

A sportswriter for a local newspaper thought that name was too long so he looked back at the contest’s entries and chose “Spartans” from the list, and started referring to the teams as such in his articles. “Spartans” caught on as the de facto team name until it was later made official. And what better way to do it than with a win over MI State. That’s bad form; you never give yourself a nickname. MI State has beaten the Buckeyes 10 times when Ohio State entered as a ranked team….

But so is Saturday’s opposition in MI State.

“Oh, it’s big-time”, senior linebacker Darien Harris said of the importance of Hicks in this game. What an exciting ending.

If the Wolverines beat the Nittany Lions in State College, the late-afternoon game between MI State and Ohio State will take on far more significance for them. I’ll remember that moment for the rest of my days. The win came after being defeated themselves a week prior by Nebraska if only by the smallest margin of one point (39-38). There have been a lot of close games for MSU this year.

Play makers making plays: I want to see an absolutely dominating performance by Zeke, Thomas, and Miller. They would be 11-2 with MI State and Ohio State at 10-2. Z-villers have a heck of a drawl. “I don’t know. They’re both passers or throw the ball”.

Kevin Hervey scored 18 points, Erick Neal added 17 and Texas-Arlington handed Ohio State a 73-68 loss on Friday night.

Daniel Giddens then powered in a shot off the glass with 37 seconds left to send Ohio State to the locker room with a 34-32 lead.

“People not giving us the respect, we like being in the situation we’re in”. Believe in the fact that this coach and team have shown time and time again that it simply wins. This is kind of like that game for me.

“I think we have talent to play with the top-10 teams in the country, I do”, said Dantonio, whose team is 5-1 in its last six games against top-10 teams. Of all the run-of-the-mill traditions at MI State, there are a few that stand out. That’s all you can ask for.

A year ago, OSU averaged 2.8 passing touchdowns a game. This is a fairly pedestrian tradition, but as a huge AC/DC fan, I have to appreciate it. I saw AC/DC twice on one tour at the Gund Arena, in 2000 and 2001, and it was awesome. He leaned on his former offensive coordinator, Houston head coach Tom Herman. He lost his starting job to J.T. Barrett last month.

There’s still a mathematical chance that both of their recently disappointing teams can win their way into a Pac-12 Championship Game, and still (most likely) get to a Rose Bowl Game after that, so it’s not like there isn’t plenty at stake in this one. Quarterback Connor Cook’s right shoulder is the big question. Coming into the game, Cook has completed 174 of 310 passes for 2472 yards, and 21 touchdowns.

NOTES: Ohio State RB Ezekiel Elliott was held to 33 yards and had his consecutive streak of 100-yard games stopped at 15…. There’s no doubt that they need a win, but entertaining thoughts of canning a coach who is 110-31 at the school is a little bit of an overreaction. Burbridge is no joke, either. The timeout didn’t do much good for the Buckeyes, as the Mavericks took their biggest lead of the game at 48-39. “He was here when it was at rock bottom when they went 6-7”.

This is going to be a good one. If Northwestern loses, I think they go with Iowa here meaning the Hawkeyes would not be back in Tampa for at least five years.