Notre Dame game of 2006 unforgettable

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I couldn’t speak.

My eyes were sprung open wide as a garage door, my legs seemingly bolted to the ground beneath me and my breathing heavy and panicked.

My arms and legs didn’t respond to the triggers coming from my brain at their regular speed and the combination of soak, cold and shock had completely overcome my 18-year-old figure.

But worst of all, I couldn’t find the capacity to articulate words.

I could not speak.

Now stop and rewind about eight hours.

Notre Dame 2006 was my first MSU football game as a college student.

I’d never tailgated before (What’s going on at those tennis courts? That looks fun!).

I’d never stood in a college student section (First down, WHAT?!).

And I’d never seen a team lose like that.

It’s a tale of two blurs. The first third of the game — Matt Trannon throwing touchdowns, the Spartans running over and flying around a favored Notre Dame team that was reeling after an upset at the hands of Michigan. The Spartans had garnered such success in South Bend, Ind., for almost a decade, could this really be the year we do it at home? Under the lights? On national television?

Nah.

MSU put up 260 yards of offense in the first half alone, scooting out to a 17-0 lead in front of a nighttime crowd that was so dru … er … happy that it could barely fathom what was happening in front of its own eyes.

Receivers were throwing touchdowns. Quarterbacks were running for scores. And a freshman kicker no one had heard of started out on the first leg of what would be a remarkable and record-breaking journey.

And then the rains came. Literally.

The skies and the MSU defense opened up simultaneously.

Brady Quinn finally checked into the game while John L. Smith did what he did best — shatter the hopes and dreams of MSU fans everywhere.

And that was that. Thousands of soaked MSU fans — some shirtless, many weary-eyed — walked out of Spartan Stadium in the same condition as me: eyes wide open, legs and arms responding only slowly to my brain’s commands, and without words.

I stumbled into my dorm room, where a concerned girlfriend interrogated me.

“Are you hurt? Are you sick? Were you in an accident? Did you witness a murder?!”

Worse, I told her.

I had officially been welcomed into the MSU football fan fraternity.

Joey Nowak is the State News sports editor. He can be reached at nowakjo2@msu.edu.

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