Spartans head to Iowa with a hunger

Michigan State's football team hasn't won at Iowa since 1989.

Iowa defeated the Spartans last year in Iowa City, 37-6. It was MSU's only regular-season defeat.

Michigan State leads the Big Ten's Legends Division at 4-1. Iowa is tied for second with Michigan and Nebraska at 3-2.

Add that up, and you have all the motivation a team could need Saturday when it returns to Kinnick Stadium. Detroit newspapers carried comments that show you what the Spartans are thinking, as if we didn't already know.

"It's a new team this year on both sides of the ball," MSU senior quarterback Kirk Cousins said after his team edged Minnesota Saturday, 34-27. "Obviously we want to make it personal each and every week to find as much motivation as possible, and with last year's result we can find a way to make it personal."

Cousins had the worst game of his career last year at Iowa, throwing three interceptions, including one Micah Hyde returned 66 yards for a first-quarter touchdown. MSU scored at least 26 points in each of its other regular-season games.

"We were embarrassed there last year," Spartan linebacker Max Bullough said Saturday. "Having to walk off that field, hearing the crowd chant, 'Overrated,' it kind of sits spoiled in your stomach."

That "Overrated" chant, by the way, is tired and strange. If your team beats a highly rated team, don't you demean your win by suggesting the team you beat wasn't as good as advertised?

Anyway, MSU will be fired up Saturday. But it's not like the Hawkeyes will just show up for the Seniors Day ceremony and then cede revenge to the Spartans. The situation is spelled out pretty clearly for Iowa: Win, and it's a viable contender for the Legends title. Lose, and it's done.

Unless you think Michigan State will lose to both Indiana at home and Northwestern on the road after it plays Iowa.

So, we have a whole week of hyping up this game for the Legends lead, even though ESPN/ABC thinks so little of it that it put the game at 11 a.m. on ESPN2 and assigned Michigan-Illinois to its 2:30 ABC slot. Not that Iowa and Michigan State should feel slighted, since Nebraska-Penn State is also an 11 a.m. game even though Penn State is 5-0 in the conference.

The Big Ten title race has seven teams, and none that look like a shoo-in. Penn State is 5-0, Ohio State and Wisconsin 3-2 in the Leaders, and I think the Buckeyes and Badgers have better chances of getting to Indianapolis on Dec. 3 for the league championship game than the Nittany Lions.

Penn State has Nebraska at home, then closes at Ohio State and Wisconsin. Ohio State sandwiches the Penn State home game with trips to Purdue and Michigan. Wisconsin is at Minnesota and Illinois before finishing at home with Penn State.

It's possible the Ohio State-Michigan game will determine which of those two goes to Indy. It's possible Wisconsin could beat Penn State by 40 points and still watch the Lions go to Indy. It's possible the Iowa-Nebraska game will be for the Legends crown. It's possible a rematch of the great Wisconsin-Michigan State game will be held at Lucas Oil Stadium.

In the last two weeks, Iowa lost at Minnesota and Northwestern won at Nebraska. Anything's possible in the three Saturdays ahead.

But let's remember Alabama played Penn State at State College and dominated, 27-11. That's Alabama, the second-place team in the SEC West.