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    • Michigan State Football achieves Jonathan Smith’s ideal by beating Iowa
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    Michigan State Football achieves Jonathan Smith’s ideal by beating Iowa

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    EAST LANSING – When Aidan Chiles heard a reporter read his stats from Michigan State football’s 32-20 conquest of Iowa, a slight smile appeared on the second-year quarterback’s face.

    “That sounds nice,” he said late Saturday evening.

    When another member of the media reminded him of the synergy he had with wideouts Nick Marsh and Montorie Foster Jr. after they each eclipsed 100 receiving yards, Chiles cooed, “That’s beautiful, man.”

    Chiles couldn’t help but enjoy what seemed like a perfect night for the Spartans, as almost everything head coach Jonathan Smith had imagined about his young program began to become reality right before his eyes. It was all so sudden and unexpected, considering MSU had plateaued with three straight losses over the past month. But it seemed like a switch was flipped during the team’s farewell last week, and the Spartans emerged, revitalized, roaring and ready to go.

    MSU RANKINGS: Spartans learn how to finish on offense

    Over the next 3½ hours, they ambushed the Hawkeyes and defied the odds. A suspect blocking front that folded against Oregon and Ohio State opened gaping holes for Nate Carter and Kay’ron Lynch-Adams. The two running backs rushed through while leading a ground attack that averaged 5.3 yards per carry. All the while, they offered support to Chiles, the team’s freshman starter who was in a slump on Saturday. Turnovers had become his bugaboo, with 11 in his first six games at MSU. That’s why many outsiders believed the game against Iowa’s ball-hawking, zone quarters defense portended disaster. But it soon became clear that the ominous predictions were unfounded. Chiles looked calm and collected in the pocket as he went through his progressions and placed accurate throws into tight windows.

    He swept away an early interception to orchestrate MSU’s most complete offensive performance of the season. For most of the game, Smith said, Chiles was “the lights out.” It seemed like a fair assessment.

    The Spartans scored points on eight of their 11 drives, reached the end zone twice, and Jonathan Kim scored a school-record six field goals. The execution was consistent and relentless. With strength and power, MSU just kept coming.

    The Spartans advanced past the Iowa 38-yard line on 10 different possessions, all the while discovering the poise that had previously eluded them. Chiles completed 22 of 30 passing attempts for 256 yards and threw a beautiful strike from 18 yards to Foster in the third quarter, blunting the Hawkeyes’ first of several comeback attempts. He also made several key contributions to MSU’s ground game that yielded 212 yards and helped MSU nearly double Iowa’s time of possession.

    That ratio was perhaps the most telling statistic, showing that here, on the 329th day of Smith’s tenure, the Spartans had finally begun playing the style of complementary football he craved when he took the job.

    The crime dictated the terms. The defense dominated the point of attack. The Spartans turned off the main tap to Iowa’s no-nonsense offense and swarmed Kaleb Johnson, the nation’s second-leading rusher. It was as impressive as it was shocking, considering the Buckeyes and Ducks had recently stormed through MSU’s front in a deflating seven-day stretch in late September and early October. Until he scored on a 75-yard dash on his final carry, Johnson was thwarted at every turn, gaining just 23 yards on his previous 13 rushes.

    “We knew they were going to run the ball,” safety Nikai Martinez said. “It would be a bloodbath. Who would come out on top?”

    BIG TEN INSIDER: Michigan State Football has all the momentum heading into a matchup with Michigan

    That was the Spartans, who pressured the Hawkeyes like a boa constrictor during a first half in which they scored zero points while running just 19 plays.

    Former Michigan quarterback Cade McNamara struggled to keep Iowa’s offense going in his first appearance at Spartan Stadium since throwing the fateful interception that sealed the Wolverines’ epic 2021 loss to MSU. Apart from a brief flurry in the second half, he didn’t really play a role, completing just 47.8% of his attempts for 150 metres.

    “We played good team defense,” Smith said. “When you look at these numbers and what we’ve been able to do, I think it says a lot about the buy-in and the player-led culture here.”

    As Smith’s audience processed what they had just seen, it was hard for them not to come away thinking that MSU had made a major breakthrough. After all, this was the first time Smith’s winning blueprint was fully transferred from the drawing board to the field, where it was on display in living color.

    From the balance on offense to the physicality on defense to the high-level execution in all three phases, the Spartans looked like Smith’s best teams at Oregon State for the first time. In fact, in the end it seemed that they were cast in the image of Smith, their solid, steadfast and stable leader. The timing of all this couldn’t have been better as next up is Michigan, their rival who has suffered two straight losses.

    “There’s definitely momentum going into that game,” Foster said.

    It was built within a 3½-hour time slot on Saturday evening, when the Spartans hosted a visual feast.

    “It looked great tonight,” Foster crowed.

    Few anticipated that MSU would put on such an attractive football game against Iowa, a program known for blowing it.

    But there were the Spartans after their victory, who admired it as if it were a work of art.

    “When the energy is there and everyone is on the same page,” Chiles said, “it’s beautiful to watch.”

    As MSU fans would agree, it was a sight to behold.

    Now they just want to see it again… and again… and again.

    Contact Rainer Sabin at [email protected]. Follow him @RainerSabin.

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