Another week, another victory, and another hurdle cleared. MSU now finds itself one step closer to national prominence after a 26-6 victory over Illinois on Homecoming at Spartan Stadium, and what's more, this team showed almost as much toughness as they displayed in their triumph over the Wolverines last weekend.
The Spartans overcame a slow, sluggish first half to score 23 unanswered points-so far, MSU has been able to overcome almost any difficult situation this year, including today's predicament. Even when Michigan State ran for only 93 yards and threw for just over 200 (extraordinarily low numbers when compared to their previous averages), they still delivered a 20-point victory, which says a great deal about this team's character and talent. They received contributions from special teams in the way of four Dan Conroy field goals, and shut down a fast-paced Fighting Illini spread offense. Both of these bode well for the squad's upcoming Big Ten games.
In talking to ESPN's Jemele Hill (during the Shine Lecture on Sports Journalism Ethics at MSU this past Friday), she stated that Michigan State "would have to guard against the letdown....that traditionally comes after the Michigan game," and that the Spartans would have to play with the same physicality and emotional investment that propelled them to a win in Ann Arbor. After today's result, its apparent that MSU was able to do both of those things, and in the process set up themselves up for a potentially promising opening position in the BCS polls.
The BCS rankings debut tomorrow at 8:15pm on ESPN-look here for more reaction on the polls and the latest college football and NFL scores.
--Beau
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