By Jeremy Harness
PASADENA – Kyler Elsworth entered college weighing 180 pounds, looking nothing like a linebacker. He immediately faced long odds as a walk-on of being a contributor for Michigan State’s football team.
Fast forward five years – and 45 pounds of solid muscle – and Elsworth was still fighting an uphill battle going into the 100th Rose Bowl Game. The fifth-year senior was thrust into a huge role in replacing All-American linebacker Max Bullough, and he came up with the decisive stop by stuffing fullback Ryan Hewitt on 4th-and-1 with 1:43 remaining to give his No. 4 Spartans a 24-20 win over No. 5 Stanford in front of 95,173 fans.
“Opportunities come for other players, and they have an opportunity to make good on it,” Spartans head coach Mark Dantonio said. “Kyler Elsworth got a chance to make a play, (and he) makes the play of the game.”
Stanford held a distinct advantage in the first quarter and held a 17-14 halftime lead, but Michigan State seized momentum in the second half, particularly on defense.
Gaffney finished with 91 rushing yards and a touchdown on 24 carries, but gained only 22 yards for the final three quarters. Particularly in the second half, the Spartans plugged up every single lane that Gaffney was able to run through in the first quarter, which significantly slowed down Stanford’s offense and resulted in increased three-and-outs and allowed the Michigan State offense to stay in rhythm.
“I told the guys (that) we had a heck of a year and got beat today,” Stanford head coach David Shaw said. “They played better. They made more plays. That’s the bottom line.”
Stanford, however, also didn’t help itself in certain areas. Although they only turned the ball over once – as did Michigan State – the Cardinal dropped two sure interceptions and committed eight penalties, one of which negated a Jordan Richards interception while several others kept drives alive for Michigan State.
Early on, however, Stanford looked like the fundamentally-sound team that took the Pac-12 title. The advantage that it appeared to have following Bullough’s suspension showed up on the very first drive, as the Cardinal sliced through Michigan State’s defense for 77 yards, a drive that was aided by Michael Rector’s 43-yard pass from Kevin Hogan.
Stanford picked up several first downs until Tyler Gaffney broke a tackle near the line of scrimmage and rumbled 16 yards to give the Cardinal a 7-0 lead.
Both teams got away with a turnover in the first quarter. Hogan coughed up the ball after being uprooted on a bootleg play in Michigan State territory, with two Spartan defenders having clear shots at the recovery.
However, neither came up with the ball, and Stanford recovered and continued the drive, which was capped off by Jordan Williamson’s 34-yard field goal.
On the ensuing possession, Stanford linebacker Kevin Anderson had an interception bounce off his chest and end up into the hands of flanker Macgarrett Kings, Jr. for a first down to keep that drive going. The Spartans parlayed that, along with a pass-interference penalty in the end zone, into a touchdown that cut Stanford’s lead to 10-7.
Anderson got another chance to redeem himself when quarterback Connor Cook committed the cardinal sin by backpedaling and throwing a desperation pass into the middle of the field. Anderson converted the gift into an easy 40-yard pick-six.
Cook, however, responded by taking his offense down the field and hit Trevon Pendleton on a 2-yard touchdown pass to again cut Stanford’s lead to three at halftime.
Besides a Michigan State turnover deep in Stanford territory, the Spartans controlled the third quarter and tied the game with a 31-yard field goal by Michael Geiger.
Meanwhile, the Cardinal picked up only two first downs in the third quarter and did absolutely nothing to even change the field position immediately following it. Michigan State got the ball back on the Stanford 27 to early in the fourth quarter and exclaimed the drive when Cook found Tony Lippett, who beat cornerback Wayne Lyons for a 25-yard scoring strike to give MSU a 24-17 lead.
Meanwhile, Lyons, who had two interceptions in the fourth quarter to seal Stanford’s win over Notre Dame in November, had a nightmare of a game. He was beaten several times on long pass plays and, like Anderson earlier, had a sure interception bounce off his chest in the third quarter.
It was a bitter end to the last game of the college careers of Stanford’s seniors, a class that includes Gaffney, linebackers A.J. Tarpley and Shayne Skov – who made several big tackles and had an overall great game – as well as kicker Jordan Williamson.
“Our group of seniors (is) the most accomplished group of football players to ever go through Stanford University,” Shaw said. “Regardless of (Wednesday’s) outcome, that’s just the truth. When you talk about the best teams of the BCS era, you have to mention Stanford University.”
