Saturday, November 1, 2008

This week in MSU football, rebuilding the Blue Wall, plus: Coming up, Wisconsin

I've meant to write in this blog earlier this week, but am just now getting around to it.

What a strange week it was for MSU football. Immediately following the Spartans win over Michigan, the "Blue Wall" was being reconstructed. Ancient Detroit sportswriter Jerry Green rose from his crypt and treated us to this column:

(The following URL is no longer valid. If you want to read this column--I don't know why you would, but if you do--find the Detroit News microform in a library).

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081025/OPINION03/810250452/1004

Then, fellow Detroit News scribe Rob Parker stated on Detroit TV that MSU backup quarterback Kirk Cousins was involved in a fight involving Spartan football and hockey players. His information was bogus, and he apologized in the middle of the week for getting the story completely wrong. (I will give Mr. Parker credit for at least apologizing for his mistake).

On Monday, I made the egregious error of listening to Grand Rapids sports talk show host Huge (aka Bill Simonson) while he went on a diatribe about how MSU still "hasn't beaten anybody" and ripped MSU and its fans for getting overly excited about beating a bad Michigan team. Ugh! I really wanted to get on here and write after listening to that nonsense. Let's just say that Huge showed us his true (maize and blue) colors.

On the subject of the Michigan game, I must admit that I did not actually start watching the game live until the Spartans went for it on 4th down late in the 4th quarter--and even then I thought I'd have a heart attack if State didn't convert. I'm sorry, fellow Spartan fans, I was a WIMP. I did, however, watch the replay in its entirety on ESPN 360, and I gotta tell you it's probably for the better that I didn't watch the game live because I definitely would have had a heart attack. Pylon Pete's phantom touchdown call, combined with Hoyer's questionable fumble (resulting in another Weasel TD) and MSU's unfathomable placekicking woes would have certainly put me over the edge. I'm glad we at least had the highlight reel of Blair White and Javon Ringer to fall back on.

By the way, I view the Spartans win over Michigan more as relief than triumph.

Today, the Spartans are taking on Wisconsin and I will be at the game. Folks, I have not witnessed a Spartan win in person since 2002, so I sure hope my luck changes NOW. The Badgers should give State all they can handle, but I'm hopeful for a Spartan victory this afternoon--finally putting to rest all that "Same Old Spartan" talk.

I have gone to at least one MSU football game every year for the last 16 seasons, and I'm really looking forward to today's game, not just for the contest on the field, but the whole spectacle and atmosphere of college football. I love the Spartan Marching Band, and hope I'm able to see them march from Adams Field, past "Sparty" and to the stadium. I'm also excited to witness the football team take the field, because I know they'll receive a wildly enthusiastic welcome from our fans.

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