Spartans' 'season' comes to Kinnick

This is Michigan State's "season."

Iowa fans, you remember the "season." You enjoyed it for the first nine games of 2009, when the Hawkeyes burst to a 9-0 start and national headlines. The crescendo came in East Lansing and at Michigan State's expense. Ricky Stanzi to Marvin McNutt on the final play.

This is Michigan State's "season." At least so far.

The No. 5 Spartans (8-0, 4-0 Big Ten) had a scare last week on their way to Kinnick Stadium this weekend for their matchup against No. 18 Iowa (5-2, 2-1), a possible Big Ten championship elimination game for the Hawkeyes.

MSU quarterback Kirk Cousins matched or surpassed career highs with 29 completions, 43 attempts and three TD passes in the Spartans' 35-27 victory at Northwestern. The Spartans trailed 17-0 in the first half and 27-21 with 9:47 remaining. Cousins' final TD gave the Spartans their first lead with two minutes left.

"The way you go 8-and-0 is with players who can lead and when you build a program where there is a ripple effect from top down and where people believe in what is going on," Spartans coach Mark Dantonio said. "Kirk Cousins is an unbelievable leader. Players follow him. Players make plays."

Iowa's "season" took a turn when quarterback Ricky Stanzi suffered an ankle injury against Northwestern.

The Spartans avoided a "turn" last week. Now, Iowa and then the world.

After the Hawkeyes, Michigan State's schedule goes Minnesota (0-4 Big Ten), idle, Purdue (2-1) and then a season finale at Penn State (1-2).

The 8-0 is MSU's best start since 1966. This is the Spartans best shot at a league title since the Spartans' last in 1990.

MSU is in the strongest position among the remaining true contenders. Iowa, Wisconsin and Ohio State have one loss apiece and need help. The Spartans beat the Badgers, 34-24, so hold the head-to-head tiebreaker. They don't play Ohio State, so if MSU stumbles, a BCS berth might come down to highest BCS ranking with Ohio State.

"Last February, we talked about it being a special football team and we continue to prove that over and over again," Dantonio said. "We came in at halftime about if you want to win big, if you want to win championships, if you want to go 8-and-0, you've got to do it the hard way at some point. Nothing is going to be easy."

Dantonio's story is a "season" unto itself. On Sept. 19, after the Spartans' overtime victory over Notre Dame on a fake field goal, Dantonio suffered a heart attack. In subsequent weeks, he had surgery on blood clots. Last Saturday, he was on the sidelines for the first time since the heart attack.

That storyline is a distant echo compared to the "season" that's unfolding for the Spartans.

"We just have to keep pushing," Cousins said. "We said it at Big Ten Media Days back in August that this team thought and found a way to learn how to win by going through some lumps last year and I think we displayed that once again [Saturday]."

MSU's trio of running backs Edwin Baker (97.4 yards a game), Le'Veon Bell (71.8) and Larry Caper (22.3) have led the Spartans, but the last two weeks, teams have loaded the line of scrimmage. Illinois held MSU to 93 rushing yards and Northwestern held it to 105.

That put it on Cousins, who's come through as you'd expect from a fifth-year senior enjoying one of those "seasons."

Receivers Mark Dell and B.J. Cunningham have watched their profiles grow. Against Northwestern, Dell had nine catches for 109 yards and two TDs. Cunningham had eight for 113 and they became the first MSU receiving duo to exceed 100 yards together since 2007. 

"I think that great teams in special seasons find ways to win and [last week] we found a way," Cousins said. "I don't really know how. I'll have to go back and watch the game to figure that out, but I just know that we ended up with more points on the scoreboard when the clock said zero."

Saturday is the "season," for the Spartans and the Hawkeyes. In a lot of ways.