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Michigan State called a timeout with 37 seconds left and installed its goal-line defense. All-Big Ten senior safety Phil Parker was removed for a lineman, and he came off the field and immediately said to his coaches: "It's gonna be a bootleg."
No. 1 Iowa trailed unranked MSU 31-28, but the Hawkeyes had the ball at the Spartans' 2-yard line. It was Oct. 5, 1985 at Iowa's Kinnick Stadium.
MSU head coach George Perles, defensive coordinator Nick Saban and linebackers coach Norm Parker warned their players of a "bootleg," a quarterback run after a fake handoff.
The Spartans bit, anyway. Iowa quarterback Chuck Long faked to fullback Ronnie Harmon, sprinted to the outside and trotted into the end zone.
"I saw Chuck at a golf outing this summer and I told him that's the lowest thing that's ever happened in my life as a coach - to get beat by Chuck Long on a bootleg," said Norm Parker, who is now Iowa's defensive coordinator. "Chuck Long couldn't beat Jud Heathcote in a foot race, but he beat us on a bootleg."
Thrillers between Iowa and MSU are nothing new. In fact, they're the norm since the days of Perles and former Iowa coach Hayden Fry - who spent the 1980s beating each other on last-second plays.
That tradition may be returning to the series, with No. 7 Iowa (7-0 overall, 3-0 Big Ten) and MSU (4-3, 3-1) set to meet Saturday night at Spartan Stadium for first place in the league standings. The Hawkeyes and Spartans have come down to the final seconds in the past two seasons - making it 15 of the past 21 meetings decided by a touchdown or less.
"The last two football games have been great ones," MSU coach Mark Dantonio said. "We look forward to the same (Saturday)."
In 2007, Dantonio's first MSU team led 17-3 at the half at Iowa, gave up 17 straight points, then used a desperate 40-yard heave from Brian Hoyer to Devin Thomas to set up a tying field goal. Iowa finally prevailed in the second overtime.
Last season, MSU jumped ahead early at Spartan Stadium, taking a 16-3 lead. It was 16-13 in the late moments with Iowa driving for a possible winning score, when Kirk Ferentz decided to go for it on fourth-and-1 from the MSU 21.
Iowa's fullback mistakenly went right instead of left, and MSU linebacker Adam Decker raced in untouched to drop Shonn Greene for a loss.
Both great games. Both a lot like the ones Ferentz, Perles and the Parkers (no relation) remember from the 1980s.
From 1982-90, every game in the series was decided by six points or less, with five wins for Iowa, three for MSU and a 10-10 tie in 1988.
"It was just uncanny," said Ferentz, Fry's offensive line coach during that stretch. "Typically those games went down to the last minute."
Like the 1984 game that Ferentz still can't fathom. MSU won 17-16 after Iowa ran an option pitch and fumbled the ball at MSU's goal line in the waning seconds.
But Ferentz was as adamant Tuesday as he was in 1984 that the Hawkeyes were robbed.
"We were across the goal line," he said, "and we just didn't get the call."
Phil Parker, who is now Iowa's defensive backs coach, said Ferentz still brings that one up. The Parkers still cringe at the thought of Long's 1985 bootleg.
That's the first reaction from MSU fans when the 1986 game is mentioned. It was another goal-line scene in the final seconds, with MSU trailing No. 11 Iowa 24-21 and set up for a tying field goal at the least - until Dave Yarema's interception in the end zone ended it.
Both programs underwent makeovers in the 1990s with the Perles and Fry eras ending. In 1999, Nick Saban's fully developed Spartans crushed Ferentz's first team, 49-3.
Just three years later, Ferentz's first title team bombed Bobby Williams' plummeting Spartans, 44-16.
Now that both programs appear stable, and similar, it could be the 1980s all over again, minus the acid-washed jeans.
"If you think about it, both offenses run the same things, so both defenses go against the same things every day," Decker said. "So you have close games. You can expect another one Saturday, I guess."
