INDIANAPOLIS — Hollywood's not going to believe this story.
A Michigan State football team that lost five Big Ten games by a combined 13 points last season came back and avenged each loss, one by one, with the storybook ending playing out at Lucas Oil Stadium on Saturday night against an Ohio State team that had won 24 straight.
The 10th-ranked Spartans (12-1) turned the momentum around in the fourth quarter of the Big Ten championship game en route to a 34-24 victory over the No. 2 Buckeyes (12-1).
The Spartans danced on the field with roses in their mouths, a senior class that's won a school-record 41 games leading the way -- having spearheaded an effort that will lead the Michigan State football program back to the Rose Bowl for the first time since the 1987 team beat USC 20-17 in the 1988 classic.
A physical, talented Stanford (11-2) team awaits the Spartans on Jan. 1 in Pasadena, Calif., as the sequel to this late-night feature.
Saturday night's Michigan State production will go down as one for the ages, with the Spartans' defense bringing the mighty Buckeyes offense to its knees with the game on the line, holding Ohio State to 25 yards and one first down in the fourth quarter.
Michigan State's offense, meanwhile, gained 174 yards in the final 15 minutes, scoring two touchdowns to reclaim the lead and then win going away.
The Spartans did it with a quarterback from Ohio who wasn't thought good enough to receive a recruiting letter from the Buckeyes during his high school career, much less warrant a phone call. Meet Big Ten championship game MVP Connor Cook, with his 304 yards and three TDs passing.
Michigan State got it done with a running back who was lucky to get on the field on special teams last season after failing to win a spot a cornerback, safety, receiver and running back during a rotation earlier in his career. Meet Jeremy Langford, who set a school record with an eighth consecutive 100-yard rushing performance, gaining 106 of his 128 yards rushing in the second half, galloping away from the star-studded Buckeyes on a 26-yard TD run with 2:16 remaining.
And that's just the trailer for this production.
Isaiah Lewis played a starring role filled with drama.
Lewis was the player charged with a pivotal running-into-the-punter call in a 42-39 loss to Wisconsin in the Spartans' trip to the Big Ten title game here in 2011, his hometown of Indianapolis.
Lewis, with a game-high 13 tackles -- many on the Buckeyes' bruising back, 235-pounder Carlos Hyde -- could barely walk after the game.
And yet, he was flying, the redemption of his football soul overflowing, a cloud that had hovered over his head for two years finally evaporated.
"You don't even know," Lewis said. "I can't even explain it."
Of course, Lewis didn't have to. His inspired play and execution said it all.
Ohio State was driving, down 27-24, a 75-percent scarlet-clad Big Ten championship game record crowd of 66,002 making themselves known, feeding off the energy of the Buckeyes blocking a punt and going for it on fourth-and-2 at the Michigan State 39.
Two-time Big Ten Offensive MVP Braxton Miller took the snap, everyone in the house knowing he was going to run left or right with hopes of adding to the 141 yards he had already gained rushing.
Miller went right — of course — because that's where Allen was blitzing from, and it was a one-on-one situation with the game in the balance and 5:41 left on the clock.
Hollywood, are you listening?
Miller was stopped a yard short.
"I used everything I had on that, and I wasn't letting go," Allen said. "That's the greatest moment I've ever had. It's crazy. Big Ten championship game, a big stop, from an Ohio guy. It's unbelievable."
Even more unbelievable for those who remember the Michigan State opener against Western Michigan — a sloppy 26-13 win with an unsettled offense that was outscored by its defense, two touchdowns to one.
This Spartans offense, having growing up through the course of the season, responded to Allen's stop on Miller with that six-play, 61-yard drive that Langford capped with his touchdown run.
As it turns out, the offense had been inspired by a pep talk from none other than fifth-year senior receiver Bennie Fowler -- the lightning rod for a large chunk of the criticism heaped on his corps throughout the season.
Fowler lost his confidence after a handful of dropped passes through the first two games of the season and had lost his starting job when coach Mark Dantonio pulled him aside for a 45-minute talk.
"He told me I needed to play with confidence,'' Fowler said. "He told me to just go out there and play, don't think about anything else.''
But with Ohio State leading 24-20 heading into the fourth quarter and time running out on the Spartans' Rose Bowl dreams, Fowler thought it was time for him to perform in another role: leader.
"So I just brought everybody up on the sideline and told everybody 'let's go out there and play to win, don't play not to lose,'" Fowler said. "Something had to be done. We had just had a couple of three-and-outs, and Ohio State had gotten the momentum. I felt like somebody had to pull it together, and I felt like I needed to step up. I was at this game two years ago, and something needed to be said.''
Even after Michigan State had taken a 34-24 lead, no one was ready to start talking about the Rose Bowl.
The Spartans knew the Buckeyes, the third-highest scoring team in the nation entering the night averaging 48.2 points per game, were capable of making big plays and scoring big points in a hurry.
It wasn't until Miller's last-gasp pass attempt was broken up on fourth down with 1:13 remaining in the game that the sideline celebration could begin.
It was Michigan State safety Kurtis Drummond knocking down the pass. Yes, yet another former Ohio high school player who wasn't good enough to receive a letter from the Buckeyes, much less be recruited by them.
"It was a great way to end the game,'' Drummond said. "They obviously thought some other players were better. It's something I've taken as motivation.''
All-American cornerback Darqueze Dennard, who broke up a third-and-6 pass on the Buckeyes' previous possession at the Michigan State 45, had found his moment via an Ohio State video.
It wasn't game tape. Rather, it was footage of the Buckeyes' players celebrating on their team bus after Auburn's unlikely last-second victory over Alabama a week ago.
"What got me was seeing them celebrate like that,'' Dennard said, "like they were just going to go right through us and they were already there, playing in the national championship game.''
Of course, the heavy favorite winning doesn't make for as good of a Hollywood script.
Instead, it's the story of a football coach telling a 7-6 team that lost every Big Ten home game at their team banquet last season: "You will be the ones'' to lead Michigan State to the Rose Bowl.
"Self-fulfilling prophecy,'' said offensive guard Blake Treadwell, the head coach's godson.
"You know,'' Cook said, "this really is just like a movie.''
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