Indianapolis — It was hot under the lights on the field inside Lucas Oil Stadium on Saturday night. And Mark Hollis, Michigan State’s athletic director, admits he was “boiling inside” as he stood on the sidelines watching the fourth quarter of the Big Ten championship game.
The Spartans were trailing, a sellout crowd was screaming, and the clock was winding down on not just the game — an old-fashioned slugfest with an undefeated Iowa team backed by close to 50,000 black-and-gold clad fans — but also on their national-title hopes.
Yet that’s when Mark Dantonio caught the attention of his boss.