RB Respect Month Vol. 3, Day 17: Javon Ringer puts Michigan State on his back in the Big House (2008)
Ringer shifted the balance of Michigan State-Michigan rivalry.
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Welcome to day 17 of Running Back Respect Month! Yesterday, we covered Ray Graham and Pitt's legendary history of running backs. Here's where we're at today, and how the rest of the month looks:
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Today: Javon Ringer vs. Michigan (2008)
RB Respect Month Vol. 3, Day 17: Javon Ringer puts Michigan State on his back in the Big House (2008)
Javon Ringer was the definition of a workhorse running back in 2008. If you turned on a Michigan State game that season, it was practically guaranteed you were about to see him bludgeon the defense at least 25 times for some hard-earned yards. By the end of the year, Ringer was at-or-near the top of the list in almost every major stat nationally among running backs:
- First in carries (390)
- Fourth in rushing yards (1,637)
- First in total touchdowns (22)
- First in total touches (418)
- Fourth in total yards (1,827)
Michigan State had plenty of other good players on their 2008 roster, but Ringer was their engine. He wore opponents out, and drove the Spartans to their best record (9-4) since 1999. More importantly, he embodied the toughness that second-year head coach Mark Dantonio craved as the backbone of his program. Ringer wasn't a Dantonio recruit, yet he was Dantonio's blueprint for the next few waves of players in East Lansing who won at least ten games in six of the following nine seasons.
You can make a strong case –and that's exactly what I'm doing here– that the jumping-off point for all that success was Ringer's huge game against Michigan in 2008. He ran 37 times for 194 yards and two touchdowns in the Spartans' 35-21 win in The Big House:
Every Michigan State-Michigan game is important - obviously. It's just that the 2008 matchup felt like a major inflection point for the rivalry. The previous year, Michigan rallied from down ten in the fourth quarter, scoring two touchdowns in the final seven minutes for a 28-24 win in East Lansing. The loss would've been deflating on its own for Michigan State, without the added pain of it being the Wolverines' sixth-straight win in the series. It only got worse with Michigan RB Mike Hart's infamous 'little brother' quote afterwards:
Michigan State couldn't afford to lose again a year later. Even with an ugly 45-7 loss to No. 12 Ohio State the week before, the Spartans sat at a healthy 6-2. Hart, Chad Henne, and a large chunk of the Wolverines who'd tortured the Spartans in recent years were finally gone. In their place was a spiraling 2-5 team of inexperienced players undergoing a brutal identity shift under first year coach Rich Rodriguez. Michigan was on a three-game losing streak, which included a stunning 13-10 loss to Toledo in the Big House. That's what made their bravado coming into this game so telling. It didn't mater what the records were - The Spartans were still little brother to them. Star DE Brandon Graham said as much that week:
