Michigan State football practices for Holiday Bowl, forgets Florida
EAST LANSING – It was back to practice for Michigan State in preparation for the Holiday Bowl.
The 19th-ranked Spartans’ sting of not going to Florida – and being bypassed for the Outback Bowl by Michigan – is starting to disappear. It’s quickly been replaced by an eagerness to get to San Diego and face No. 21 Washington State.
“It was maybe a little mixed (emotions) because I wasn’t too disappointed by the bowl game, I knew both were very prestigious and both were very fun ones,” sophomore quarterback Brian Lewerke said Friday after the Spartans resumed practice. “It was kind of the fact that the other team that we beat got into the one that we kind of wanted to get in. That was just the biggest thing.”
MSU (9-3) faces the Cougars (9-3) at 9 p.m. ET on Dec. 28 at San Diego County Credit Union Stadium (ESPN). It’s the Spartans’ first bowl game since losing to eventual national champion Alabama in the 2015 College Football Playoff semifinal almost two years ago.
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“You know, as a kid growing up and watching football and loving this game, the bowl games that are on the 1st have always to me been a bigger game. And you’ve always wanted to play on the 1st,” senior linebacker Chris Frey said. “At first, yeah, a couple guys were disappointed – we wanted to go to Florida. But when you sit back and you think about it, we’re playing a ranked opponent and we’re going to California.
“For me, to be able to go out to California and be able to spend my last couple days at Michigan State with these guys in California is gonna be unbelievable.”
Lewerke, who grew up five hours away from San Diego in Phoenix, Arizona, plans to have “a ton of people there” for the Holiday Bowl. That’s also something which wouldn’t have been possible in Tampa.
The Spartans had the pads on Friday and will practice again Saturday, then break for finals before getting more into preparing for Washington State and coach Mike Leach’s “Air Raid” offense.
“It was a competitive day definitely, the pace was good today. It feels good to be back out here,” sophomore linebacker Joe Bachie said after practice Friday. “Our Eagles Council sat down today, and we talked about win 10, number one, stay healthy, finish our academics. And just keep our momentum going into 2018.”
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SCOTT PLAYING
Running back LJ Scott said he “for sure” will play in the Holiday Bowl, then the junior decide whether or not to enter the NFL Draft a year early.
“It’ll be sometime after the season, I’m not sure when,” he said. “I’m just focused on the moment right now, focused on the bowl game. And I’ll handle (the NFL decision) when that time comes.”
Scott has 788 yards and six touchdowns on 183 carries this season, but he also has fumbled five times and lost four of them. The 6-foot-1, 229-pound Hubbard, Ohio, native has rushed for 2,481 yards and 23 scores. He has fumbled 10 times in 513 career carries in three seasons.
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari.