Michigan State’s loss to Iowa on Saturday evening was a familiar feeling for Spartan fans.
A game that was in the Spartans’ grasp was ripped away in the final minutes thanks to poor coaching, and it feels like this might (should) be the end of the Jonathan Smith era.
Also, for the second time in three games, the Spartans were on the wrong side of a horrific missed call. While that’s not the reason Michigan State lost (you can blame Smith, Brian Lindgren, and Chad Wilt for that), it was a serious game-changer in the final minutes.
Michigan State was driving with a chance to get in field goal range on the final Spartan possession, and Alessio Milivojevic threw the ball over the middle of the field toward Chrishon McCray, but he was draped by an Iowa defender near midfield. That should have been one of the easiest pass interference calls possible, but it was blatantly missed.
The reason for the miss? The ref was hiding from the ball coming his way.
Ref in the Michigan State-Iowa game misses important blatant pass interference because he’s scared of the ball pic.twitter.com/RZIaKWoNUN
— dunc 🌎 (@SpartyWRLD) November 22, 2025
That tweet summed it up perfectly: the ref missed the call because he was scared of the ball. That’s just inexcusable, and the back judge should have thrown the flag, but apparently it wasn’t blatant enough — it was.
The fact that the back judge missed the call has to be punishable. Smith should be on the phone with the Big Ten first thing when he gets back to East Lansing, although that’s probably the least of his worries. We’ll see if he has a job on Monday after yet another disastrous loss, but this missed call was just insanely bad.
Michigan State fans are numb to these sort of losses. But it gets exhausting to have to rely on an official to make the right call when the game was lost with numerous coaching gaffes.
Still, it’s just hilarious that the official missed the call because he was ducking from the ball. McCray had a great game and a catch there would have probably made him the hero.
Unfortunately, the Spartans will have to wait a little longer to see that losing streak come to an end — but that’s not guarantee next weekend against Maryland.