Throwback Thursday: Week 5: Michigan State Spartans

Written By Sammy Jacobs (@sammyj108) 

Welcome to the homecoming edition of our Throwback
series.  Today we are reviewing the
Hoosiers homecoming game against rival Michigan State in the battle for the Old
Brass Spittoon.  Once again it
would be a tale of two halves that is becoming all too familiar for these
Hoosiers.

Opponent: Michigan State Spartans

Location: Saturday October 6th | 12pm | Memorial Stadium | Bloomington, Indiana

Why They
Played:  The Hoosiers and Spartans renew their rivalry as part of a
protected cross over series.  Michigan
State has dominated the match-up with a record of 42-14-2 coming into the 2012
game. 

What The
Game Meant:

The game always means more when you are playing
for a trophy against a rival, but add in the fact that it was the Hoosiers’
homecoming and their home Big Ten opener this was a huge game for Kevin
Wilson’s squad. 

Top
Offensive Performer:

Cameron
Coffman, QB, Indiana– With
arguably his best performance of the year so far Coffman threw for 282 yards
and 3 touchdowns against the vaunted Spartan defense.  The biggest improvement was that Coffman did not turn the
ball over and kept the Hoosier offense attacking in the first half

Le’veon
Bell, RB, Michigan State– Bell had a down day by his standards, but
still steamrolled the Hoosiers hope for an upset with 121 yards and two scores
on the ground.  Even though the IU
defense did a pretty good job limiting Bell to 3.3 yards a carry, the big
bruiser from East Lansing made them pay.

Aaron
Burbridge, WR, Michigan State- Michigan State struggled to throw
the ball for most of the 2012 season, but against the Hoosiers this freshman
receiver had a break out game. 
Burbridge caught eight passes for 134 yards and kept the Spartans in the
game with many key grabs. 

Top
Defensive Performers:

Kenny
Mullen, CB, Indiana- The
defensive back tied for the team lead in tackles with eight, one for a loss),
and broke up two passes.  Mullen
was all over the field for the Hoosiers and came up with some big stops from
the secondary.

Max
Bullough, LB, Michigan State- The heart and sole of the Spartan
defense forced his will upon the Hoosiers, who were shut out in the second
half, with nine total tackles including one for a loss. 

Special
Team Performance

The Hoosiers were much improved in the kicking
game as Mitch Ewald converted all three extra points and both of his field
goals.  He even successfully pulled
off a surprise onside kick right before halftime that led to three points.  There was some bad news however,
starting punter Mitchell Voss went down with a leg injury, which turned out to
be a broken bone, and would be lost for the season.  Despite this back up punter Erich Toth filled in admirably
averaging 41.3 yards on seven punts. 
The Hoosiers did not get many chances to return a kickoff, the only
attempt gained a respectable 27 yards from Tevin Coleman.

Key Stat: 27-0

This is the amount of points the Hoosiers
scored in the first half next to the total points the offense put up in the
second half.  Indiana put up the
second most points the Spartans would give up in an ENTIRE GAME in just one
half.  To much dismay the Hoosiers
went on the put up a goose egg in the second half.

Turning
Point:

Can halftime be a turning point? Well, I am
making it one.  Indiana was rolling
in the first half, everything went their way and took a surprising 27-14 lead
into the locker room.  What
happened after that was ugly.  IU
would get shutout over the last 30 minutes and allow the Spartans to escape
Bloomington with a 31-27 win.

I Knew it
was over when:

Wide receiver Bennie Fowler hauled in a 36-yard
touchdown pass from Andrew Maxwell to give the Spartans their first lead of the
game with 6:35 left in the game. 
While there was still plenty of time left for a Hoosier comeback, all of
the positive energy was sucked from Memorial Stadium on that play.

Players of
the Game:

Indiana-
Cameron Coffman, Quarterback- The sophomore transfer did his
best to lead the Hoosiers to victory but fell short in the second half.  The Hoosiers executed their game plan
in the first half, but were out matched by a better defense the rest of the way.

Michigan
State– Le’veon Bell, Running
Back- The Hoosiers kept the big fella from a monster game, but Bell just
kept putting his head down and churning out the hard yards.  If not for the effort of the future
NFLer the Spartans probably would have lost the game.  Bell put up a workman like 121 yards on 37 carries

Wrap-Up:

As
disappointing a loss as this was, and let me tell you it was a heartbreaker,
there was a sense of optimism from the Hoosier faithful.  Indiana went blow for blow with one of
the big boys and sooner or later the Hoosiers are going to beat one of the
bigger names in the Big Ten.  The
loss dropped the Hoosiers record to a mediocre 2-3 (0-2) and they have now been
on the wrong end of three straight games. 
While some can look at it as just another game the Hoosiers flushed down
the toilet, others will point at the effort and say we can play with the big
boys.