Remembering the top 5 wins from the Mark Dantonio era

5. 2010 vs. Notre Dame

Coming in at No. 5 for me is the iconic Little Giants win against Notre Dame in 2010.

This game has to be included for obvious reasons because the fake field goal in overtime is one of the greatest trick plays in college football history, but beyond that this game in my opinion was the turning point of Dantonio’s era.

His tenure by no means was bad before this game, but MSU was yet to truly break through on the national stage up to this point. But this trick play put Michigan State on the map nationally and they then followed it up by winning Dantonio’s first Big Ten championship later this season.

Obviously with Notre Dame being a non-conference game this win had no impact on the Big Ten title race, but does MSU go on to win the Big Ten if they lose this game? Does the program still see the same rise to national prominence if they lose this game?

Thankfully we’ll never know because Michigan State did win this game and went on to find all the success that they did in the coming years.

Fun fact, last week was the 14th anniversary of this game which makes no sense to me how it was that long ago.