Iowa-Michigan State 2015 Big Ten title game classic still rings/stings with the Hawkeyes

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Really, in the end, after the other team danced in confetti and held a trophy they all held at least for a second in their mind's eye, it was like they had been bitten in half by a shark.

The Hawkeyes swam in the deep end. The Big Ten championship game is the deepest of waters around here. This particular group of Hawkeyes had yet to feel defeat in the 2015 season.

The group was so collectively fixated on the goal, it didn't see the shark.

They were so engaged in the moment. They saw the shark at the last second and still thought they could beat it back.

And they almost did.

Michigan State running back L.J. Scott reached his arm over the goal line with 27 seconds left and gave then-No. 5 Michigan State a 16-13 victory over then-No. 4 Iowa. It was the final push of a 22-play, 82-yard drive that drained 9:04 off the clock and left the Hawkeyes with that desperation lateral limbo that no one wants.

The Spartans advanced to the College Football Playoff. Iowa went to the Rose Bowl.

Some of Iowa went to the Rose Bowl. A lot of Iowa was left on the Lucas Oil Stadium field in Indianapolis.

Josey Jewell watched the 2015 Big Ten championship a couple of times this week. It was required viewing, with this being the first matchup between the Hawkeyes (3-1, 0-1 Big Ten) and Spartans (2-1, 0-0) since the 22 plays.

It's human nature to flash to the one thing that you think you could've done.

'You're talking about one play that really devastated you? That's tough,' Jewell said. 'You look back at that and you think about it all of the time. I think if you look at it like that kind of, it might make you better, too. If you're able to look at that and say that could've changed the game, but then you've also got to forget about it in the coming weeks and really the next day. You've got to forget about it and move on to the next game.'

You know how wolves in zoos wear grooves into the same path because they're in captivity and they don't know where else to go? This sounds like what the wolf would be thinking the whole time it's walking that path.

'You fall asleep remembering those plays,' Jewell said.

***

Understandably, not a lot of Hawkeyes made it to the postgame interview room. It was tickling midnight on this early December Saturday.

And that game.

From the archives

Hawkeyes had their say, almost had the last word

 

Hlas: Cruel tease, crushing elimination for Hawkeyes

The suddenness of the end, it really was like a shark bite. They were out there living and then they weren't.

No Hawkeye wore this so plainly than senior defensive end Nate Meier. He went into the Big Ten championship game with a groin injury and then there were the leftover effects of a shoulder injury that put him in a sling after the Maryland game on Oct. 31.

Those shark bites didn't dent him. This result bit him in half.

Meier was asked if the defense was hanging on for dear life during the 22.

'No, we were trying to stop them,' Meier said. 'Just like the coaches said, you stop them, they don't score, you win the game. That's what's going through our heads.'

Center Austin Blythe entered the postgame room with red eyes and a somber tone. The postgame room looked like a conference room in a hotel. It was the farthest thing from football and that game was the most football ever.

'The one thing I think we can live with is the way we played the game tonight,' Blythe said. 'We just gave our entire effort to this game. We were up to the task in this game. It's going to hurt.'

Cornerback Desmond King was in a daze. He sat at the table with the Big Ten backdrop behind him. His sleeveless Nike dri-fit shirt still was soaked with sweat.

He was asked if he had any idea how long the 22 was and how long it feels like in real time with a helmet on.

'They executed with the ball and with the time,' King said. 'They forced us to use our timeouts. It just came down to that last few seconds.'

It came down to Scott extending his arm and breaking the plane. Even that play seemed to slow down. A Michigan offensive tackle jumped on Jewell's back as he started to wrap up Scott. King had a shot. Linebacker Ben Niemann was on his knees pulling on Scott's waist. Safety Jordan Lomax put a shoulder into Scott.

'That's just his effort and his ambition to win the game,' King said.

***

This was almost two years ago. You know how players are, they already count it at two years. They round up.

We probably need to do a roll call.

Scott still is a Spartan. Scott rushed 14 times for 40 yards during the drive and finished with 73 yards and the game-winner. He had his best season as a Spartan in 2016, rushing for a career-high 994 yards. Scott has had trouble getting out of the blocks this year. He's lost three fumbles.

If you're an Iowa person, that is the shark bite of irony you feel right now.

'A little risky when he reached out to reach farther that one time, the ball could have come out but it didn't and everybody celebrated,' MSU coach Mark Dantonio said. 'So, sometimes it doesn't catch up to you until it catches up to you.'

Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz answered the 2015 Big Ten championship game like he had a game plan for it. And maybe he did.

'it feels like it was 10 years ago. It literally does,' Ferentz said. 'It's so far back. That one's ancient history.'

Niemann dutifully studied the 2015 MSU tape this week. He kept it clinical.

'Me personally, I was setting the edge on that play,' Niemann said. 'I was cut blocked by the fullback. There were four or five of us right there. We couldn't bring him down. The guy stretched his arm out and scored the touchdown to win the game.'

He kept it mostly clinical.

'We gave it all, we left it all on the field,' Niemann said. 'We gave all of the effort we had, everything in the tank. We just came up short. We've moved on and we're past that.'

Defensive end Parker Hesse was a redshirt freshman. He was way ahead of schedule in 2015. Hesse replaced senior Drew Ott, a force on the field and a fan favorite, and made one of the bigger plays of the season with a pick six to get Iowa rolling to a victory at Nebraska and a 12-0 regular season, a first ever for Iowa.

Remember, the Hawkeyes loaded a plane and flew home that night. The next day they learned they would be going to Iowa's first Rose Bowl in 25 years. That was nice, but the one thing the Hawkeyes didn't have in that moment was another game, something to bury their heads in and grind toward.

That wolf's path at the zoo grew deeper grooves in December 2015.

'It was just such an emotional dogfight,' Hesse said. 'It weighed on you.'

Boone Myers was a sophomore offensive tackle in 2015. He was a first-year starter. His matchup was defensive end Shilique Calhoun, who was the Big Ten's premier sack artist in 2015. Calhoun got to Iowa QB C.J. Beathard twice.

Myers kept it clinical and in the now.

'That was two years ago, we're two different teams right now and we have to treat it that way,' Myers said. 'Michigan State is Michigan State. They are who they are and they've always been that way. We are who we are. We've been the same way forever, really, and so have they. We both know it and it's going to be us vs. them and it's going to be a good battle.'

Myers kept it mostly clinical.

'We tried hard to focus on what was coming next and getting better,' he said. 'I don't know exactly how long it took (to erase the memory, or at least numb it) ...

'It's probably going to hang around for the rest of my life, honestly.'

That's just being human and walking this path.

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@thegazette.com