Michigan State at Iowa

October 5, 1985

One of the most exciting, back and forth games I have ever witnessed took place at Kinnick Stadium on a gray October afternoon in 1985.

Michigan State brought a 2-1 record into Iowa City to face the 3-0 Hawkeyes.

The high scoring Hawks outscored their non-conference opponents 163-23. Chuck Long led the way with ten touchdown passes. Backup quarterback, Mark Vlasic, threw for more TD’s (3) than the Iowa defense allowed during the non-conference season.

The ground game was headed by all-around superstar, Ronnie Harmon. Harmon had rushed for 253 yards and four TD’s and caught 11 passes. He was one of the most dangerous all-purpose backs in the country. The defense was led by a slew of all conference performers including all-American, Larry Station.

Michigan State was no toothless dog though. It featured one of the nation’s leading runners in Lorenzo White as well as future all-pro wideout, Andre Rison.

It was White who was Sparty’s star that day. White rushed for 226 yards on 39 carries and two touchdowns. Bobby McAllister was just as efficient at QB where he passed for 275 yards.

Iowa took the early lead on a long pass from Long to Robert Smith. The two teams punched and counter-punched and after one quarter the Hawks held a slim 7-0 lead. Tight end Mike Flagg drug a handful of Spartan defenders into the end zone in the second quarter as the Hawks bolted to a 13-0 lead only to see MSU come back with ten unanswered points and the half ended with the Hawks holding on to a 13-10 lead.

Back and forth the teams went, like Ali and Frazier in Manila. Both teams landed blows, but refused to give in to the other.

With the game on the line, Iowa took possession on its own 21 yard line. The Chuck Long led offense faced a tough challenge as they trailed 31-28 with only four minutes left to play. Long proved why he was a Hesiman contender as he led Iowa down field completing six of seven pass attempts. The Hawks found themselves in range for the tying field goal at the MSU 11 yard line, but Coach Hayden Fry was not thinking tie. The old fox was thinking win.

Fry sent Harmon on a lead play for a seven-yard gain down to the Spartan four-yard line. Then Harmon raced around end for two more yards, but MSU tackled him before he could reach the sideline and Iowa was forced to use its last timeout with 31 seconds left to play and the ball resting on the Michigan State two-yard line.

After losing a close one to MSU the previous year, 17-16, Fry was determined to win this game and not settle for a tie. In fact, he admitted in his post game press conference that if the final play had not succeeded, they were prepared to rush the field goal unit on to the field and then fake the game tying field goal.

Long came in and settled under center. The ball was snapped and Long handed the ball to Harmon who was met by a charging Spartan defense as he tried to leap over the line. The only thing was Harmon didn’t have the ball. Long’s ball fake and Harmon’s leap fooled the MSU defense and Long pranced around right end into the north end zone holding the ball high over his head.

Where I was seated, I didn’t have a great view of that corner and all I saw was Harmon being stuffed, but the roar that made its way from the north end of the field let me know that the Hawks had indeed taken the lead.

Michigan State tried in vain to rally and made it close. They returned Marv Cook’s kick off to their own forty and made about 25 yards on their first two plays, but Devon Mitchell knocked away the final gasp pass in the end zone and the Hawkeyes had won a thriller, 35-31.

It was one of the best offensive battles I’ve ever seen in Kinnick Stadium.

A game for the ages.

Let’s take a look at the two deeps for Iowa from the 1985 matchup against Michigan State.

OFFENSE

SE - Bill Happel 5-11, 186, Quinn Early 6-0, 175

LT - Dave Croston 6-5, 275, Chris Gambol 6-7, 280

LG - Tom Humphrey 6-3, 265, Bob Schmitt 6-6, 245

C - Mark Sindlinger 6-2, 255, Mark Spranger 6-3, 255

RG - Kelly O’Brien 6-3, 265, Bob Kratch 6-4, 270

RT - Mike Haight 6-4, 275, Herb Wester 6-7, 280

TE - Mike Flagg 6-6, 244, Craig Clark 6-3, 225/Dave Murphy 6-4, 235

QB - Chuck Long 6-4, 213, Mark Vlasic 6-3, 206

WB - Scott Helverson 6-2, 195, Robert Smith 5-11, 172

RB - Ronnie Harmon 5-11, 191, Kevin Harmon 6-1, 190

FB - Fred Bush 6-2, 230, David Hudson 6-2, 227

PK - Rob Houghtlin 6-0, 169, George Murphy 6-0, 180

DEFENSE

LE - Doug Burrell 6-2, 211, Richard Pryor 6-3, 231/George Millett 6-0, 222

LT - Jeff Drost 6-5, 286, Chuck Waggoner 6-8, 235

NG - Hap Peterson 6-2, 260, Dave Haight 6-4, 260

RT - Jon Vrieze 6-4, 255, Tim Anderson 6-5, 245

RE - Joe Mott 6-4, 215, Tyrone Berrie 6-3, 217/ Bruce Gear 6-0, 214

LB - George Davis 6-1, 221, Dan Wirth 6-4, 236

LB - Larry Station 5-11, 227, Tim Batterson 6-2, 215

LC - Ken Sims 5-11, 177, Keaton Smiley 6-0, 175

SS - Jay Norvell 6-4, 207, Mike Bolan 5-7, 177/ Kerry Burt 6-1, 211

FS - Devon Mitchell 6-2, 194, Rick Schmidt 6-3, 190

RC - Nate Creer 6-2, 193, Lloyd Kimber 6-1, 190

P - Gary Kostrubala 6-2, 210

Also of note, the starting free safety for MSU was Phil Parker, who went 5-11, 180 and the outside linebacker coach was Norm Parker.