Michigan State Football: Top 10 games of the Mark Dantonio Era
5. Georgia (2012 Outback Bowl)
Michigan State had gone four years under Dantonio without a bowl win and were coming off one of the most humiliating bowl losses the year before in which the Spartans fell 49-7 to Alabama in the Capital One Bowl. Arguably, that Alabama team was the best in the country and was loaded with professional-level talent.
Getting paired up with the SEC’s Georgia Bulldogs created a lot of buzz around the Michigan State program as the Spartans were looked at as huge underdogs in the Outback Bowl against Aaron Murray’s team.
Much like the rest of the games on this list, the Spartans were given little to no chance to win, yet prevailed in triple overtime.
This was one of those bowl classics which you could watch over and over again and it would never get old. Michigan State was looking lifeless through the entire first half, trailing 16-0 at halftime. However, the Spartans got a spark from a Darqueze Dennard pick-six and Michigan State was right back in it, trailing by two heading into the fourth.
On a day in which Le’Veon Bell couldn’t get anything going on the ground, Kirk Cousins stepped up and really delivered, giving the Spartans a 33-30 win.
It wasn’t easy, though, as Michigan State threw an interception in the first overtime only to see Georgia miss a field goal and then block the Bulldogs’ tying three-point try in the third overtime to win.
Next: 4. Iowa in Big Ten title (2015)