Michigan v. Michigan State Football: The Greatest Games
2001 – “The clock had stopped at one! They stopped the clock, Jim!”
Michigan came into Spartan Stadium 6-1, having lost only to #15 Washington and ranked #6 in the country. Michigan State was 4-2 with a win over #23 Notre Dame but losses to Minnesota and #16 Northwestern.
A touchdown pass from Jeff Smoker to Charles Rogers opened the scoring for the Spartans, but Michigan responded with a field goal and a Marquise Walker touchdown reception from John Navarre to take a 10-7 lead in the second. T.J. Duckett scored for the Spartans to move ahead 14-10, but Navarre’s second touchdown to Walker took the lead back for the Wolverines, which they would hold until a Michigan State field goal tied the score at 17 late in the third.The Spartans took the lead on another field goal early in the fourth, but Navarre’s third touchdown pass, this one to backup quarterback Jermaine Gonzales, put the Wolverines ahead for a third time, 24-20.
The Spartans took the lead on another field goal early in the fourth, but Navarre’s third touchdown pass, this one to backup quarterback Jermaine Gonzales, put the Wolverines ahead for a third time, 24-20.
With 2:09 left in the fourth, the Spartans started driving to try to take the lead once more. The Wolverines were flagged twice on the drive, once after stopping Michigan State on fourth down, to keep the Spartans’ drive alive. Facing fourth and four at the 11-yard line with 27 seconds left and no timeouts, Smoker completed a short pass to Duckett for a first down, then spiked the ball to stop the clock with 17 seconds left.
On second down, Smoker tried to scramble to the endzone but was tackled in-bounds at the two-yard line. Smoker quickly got his team up to the line of scrimmage, snapped the ball and spiked it. The clock read 0:01. “Nice to have the home clock right there,” ABC analyst Gary Danielson said.
Whether or not the clock had lingered on one second for a fraction too long or not, the Spartans had one more play, and they made the most of it, as Smoker floated a pass over the defense and into Duckett’s arms in the endzone for the win as time expired.
The game was subjected to the American tradition of attaching the suffix “-gate” to any controversial thing and became known as “Clockgate.” In the booth for the Michigan radio broadcast, Frank Beckmann and Jim Brandstatter both cried foul, Beckman calling it “criminal” and saying that the game was “stolen from the Wolverines.”
Bob Stehlin, known by some as “Spartan Bob,” was the Michigan State timekeeper for the game and reportedly insisted that he timed it fairly. In addition, Big Ten officials reportedly told The Detroit News in 2004 that the clock had been properly managed. In either case, the next season the Big Ten made game clock management the responsibility of a neutral Big Ten official, and instant replay became the norm across the nation before the decade was out.
The Wolverines would end up 8-3, #17 in the AP Poll, before losing 45-17 to #8 Tennessee in the Citrus Bowl. The Spartans lost their next three and finished 6-5, defeating #20 Fresno State in something called the Silicon Valley Football Classic, 44-35.