If the only thing I told you about Friday's Champs Sports Bowl was that Michigan State rushed for 172 yards against a Boston College defense that was giving up 68.1 yards a game, you'd probably assume that Michigan State took care of the Eagles. Then if I told you that Boston College only rushed for 27 yards of their own, you'd be convinced the Spartans won.Unfortunately for Michigan State, quarterback Brian Hoyer also threw 4 interceptions and fumbled once as the Spartans lost 24-21. Anytime your quarterback commits 5 turnovers it's probably going to kill your team. (I would know, I'm a Bears fan.) When you only lose by three points, you know it killed your team.
Brian Hoyer knows it as well, and he feels terrible about it.
"Obviously I'm disappointed," Hoyer, a junior, said. "It was bad day to go out and have the worst day of my career. The one thing I take from it is we had a pretty good season and always fought back, even today.Despite Hoyer's performance, there are still reasons to be optimistic in East Lansing.
"There's no way I couldn't take responsibility for the things I did. In the end, I was just trying to make a play. I'm just going to try to keep my head up because we have something forward to next year, but right now I feel terrible that the seniors had to go out with a loss in their first bowl game ever.
"It's a surprise because I definitely thought I was coming off two pretty good games (against Purdue and Penn State). In the end, it kind of came down to me forcing one or two throws. I can't think back all the way to Little League baseball that I had such a bad performance."
The loss gives Michigan State a final record of 7-6 on the season, but it was still a successful year. The Spartans played in their first bowl game since 2003, and it looks like Mark Dantonio has this team headed in the right direction.
Where the improvements need to be made will be on defense, where the Spartans allowed 26.8 points a game, and 351.3 yards per game. For the most part on Friday, the Spartans defense did play well. It wasn't until Matt Ryan connected with Rich Gunnell for a 68-yard touchdown that the Spartans defense broke. Even then, if you ask most Spartans fans they'll tell you Gunnell pushed off, so it shouldn't have counted.
After the game, Dantonio was proud of the way his defense played even though there were missing a few key players.
"I thought we did an outstanding job (on defense)," he said. "We pressured them for the most part. Although we knew we were going to miss those guys, they were here in spirit with us and it was not going to be a matter of 'we're not going to win because they're not here."On a whole, Michigan State exceeded my expectations this season. In a year where I thought teams like Illinois and Indiana would take a step towards bowl eligibility, I thought the Spartans would find themselves on the outside looking in yet again. Instead they became one of the most potent offensive teams in the Big Ten, and with a few more weapons and playmakers added to this roster, Mark Dantonio could have this program back on it's way to being a contender in the Big Ten.
