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Fun Facts: Michigan State-Iowa. Two programs Phil Parker made saltier
The 1984 Cherry Bowl MVP will be Iowa’s defensive coordinator in a better bowl this year.
Nov. 20, 2025 2:20 pm, Updated: Nov. 20, 2025 2:57 pm
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Iowa has a good football team. Michigan State, not so much. So the following are Fun Facts for some folks, but not all:
- Iowa is 1-1 against Michigan State over the last two years despite being outgained 817 yards to 478.
- The Hawkeyes are ninth in the nation in scoring defense, allowing 14.9 points per game. The Spartans are 115th, allowing 31.1 ppg.
- This is the first time Michigan State has had four straight losing seasons since it went from 1979 to 1983 without a winner.
- The Spartans are 0-7 in the Big Ten and have been outscored by 15.3 points per game in league play. The only time they’ve gone winless in the conference was when they were 0-5-1 in 1958.
- This is Iowa’s sixth game against a team from the Eastern time zone.
- Ryan Eckley of Michigan State leads the nation in punting with a 49.6-yard average. He has placed 15 of his 38 punts inside the 20-yard line.
- MSU quarterback Alessio Milivojevic is a redshirt freshman who was the consensus No. 1 high school quarterback in Illinois in the recruiting class of 2024. He passed for 311 yards in his first college start, at Minnesota on Nov. 1.
- Milivojevic has been sacked a total of 12 times in his two starts.
- Iowa has played 1,330 football games. Last Saturday’s 26-21 loss at USC marked the fourth score this season that had never occurred in a previous Hawkeyes game. The others were 47-7 (Massachusetts), 20-15 (Indiana) and 18-16 (Oregon).
- Michigan State’s crowd of 61,171 for its loss to Penn State last Saturday was its smallest home attendance of the season by almost 9,000.
- Iowa has its first two-game regular-season losing streak in the last three seasons.
- Hawkeye quarterback Mark Gronowski is the only player in the nation with touchdowns in all 10 games he has played.
- Michigan State has forced just six turnovers this season.
- Iowa leads the nation in fewest penalties, fewest penalty yards per game, and 4th-down conversion defense. Its opponents have failed to convert on 12 of 15 4th-downs.
- Iowa defensive coordinator Phil Parker was a first-team All-Big Ten defensive back at Michigan State.
- Parker was the MVP of the 1984 Cherry Bowl in Pontiac, Mich., though the Spartans lost that game to Army.
- Michigan State’s first Big Ten win was against Iowa in 1953. Kirk Ferentz’s first Big Ten win as the Hawkeyes’ coach was against Michigan State in 2000.
- The grand prize winner of the 50/50 raffle at Michigan State’s game last Saturday received $11,425.
- If you go directly east of Lansing, Mich., you’ll end up in East Lansing. If you go directly east of Lansing, Iowa, you’ll end up in the Mississippi River.
- Michigan State University has a college of agriculture. The University of Iowa does not. America Needs Farmers.
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