Swenson stars in MSU's 42-29 win at Indiana

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Bloomington, Ind. — In what has become a season-long trend, the MSU football team went into Saturday’s game convinced that special teams would make or break the game.

Although MSU’s special teams saw its fair share of dropped punts and missed blocking assignments against Indiana, junior kicker Brett Swenson and sophomore punter Aaron Bates did their share to ensure MSU’s 42-29 win.

“He was a key to us winning today,” MSU head coach Mark Dantonio said of Swenson, who made all four of his field goal attempts.

“We said coming into the game that special teams would be key (and) other than that blocked punt (late in the second quarter) we played very well on special teams.”

At the forefront of the special teams’ success was Swenson, who made field goals of 45, 48, 45 and 32 yards.

After missing his first field goal attempt of the season – a 39-yard attempt in the first quarter against California — Swenson has now made his last nine field goals. He also is a perfect 18-for-18 on extra points.

“It’s nice because you can get into a rhythm instead of sitting cold for the entire game and going out there and being expected to make big kicks,” Swenson said of playing a bigger role in the game. “It’s nice to be able to be out there and see more time and be able to make some kicks.”

Becoming balanced

Senior running back Javon Ringer once again carried the load for the Spartans, rushing 44 times for 198 yards and a touchdown.

Even with Ringer’s workload remaining consistent, senior quarterback Brian Hoyer also had a big day, throwing for 261 yards and two touchdowns.

Although Hoyer went 14-for-26 passing – for a completion percentage of 54 percent — a fair share of his incompletions were dropped.

“Brian Hoyer threw some tremendous passes today,” MSU offensive coordinator Don Treadwell said. “It was very frustrating early in the first half seeing some of the drops – things that we had been pretty darn good with during the week in practice. (But) it was nice, as always with Brian being a senior captain, (that he) kept his poise and kept coming back.”

After the game, Hoyer said he was surprised Ringer carried the ball 40 times, considering all the passes Hoyer threw.

The senior captain said he thought the Spartans could be very successful if they balance their offense similarly throughout the rest of the season.

“I feel like this is the most I’ve been in a rhythm all year long,” Hoyer said. “I think the play calling was great. I think we were able to mix it up and still be able to pound the ball — Javon still almost had 200 yards — and if we can stay balanced like this, if Javon’s running for over 100 yards and almost 200 and if I’m throwing for over 200, then we’re going to be hard to stop.”

Jack of all trades

The MSU defense was able to hold Indiana’s Kellen Lewis in check for most of the game, even though it might have been hard to find him.

Lewis, a junior quarterback, got on the stat sheet in a variety of ways Saturday.

Not only did he go 12-for-21 passing for 177 yards and two touchdowns, he also rushed for 35 yards and caught two balls for 17 yards.

In the third quarter, the Hoosiers lined up in shotgun formation on 4th down at the MSU 45-yard line. Instead of going for it, Lewis pooch-punted the ball to MSU’s 13-yard line.

“He’s a versatile player and we knew that he would be able to do that,” senior defensive tackle Justin Kershaw said. “He’s a running back, he’s a quarterback, he’s a wide receiver — he even punted the ball today. He’s a really impressive football player.”

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