1989 Michigan State Spartans football team

The 1989 Michigan State Spartans football team represented Michigan State University in the 1989 NCAA Division I-A football season. The Spartans played their home games at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, Michigan and were coached by George Perles. The team finished the season 8–4 overall and 6–2 in conference play. The Spartans were invited to the 1989 Aloha Bowl where they defeated Hawaii 33–13. The Spartans were ranked #16 in the final AP Poll and Coaches Poll.

1989 Michigan State Spartans football
Aloha Bowl, W 33–13 vs. Hawaii
Conference	Big Ten Conference
Ranking
Coaches	No. 16
AP	No. 16
1989 record	8–4 (6–2 Big Ten)
Head coach	George Perles (7th season)
Home stadium	Spartan Stadium (c. 76,000 natural grass)

1989 Big Ten Conference football standings
	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
No. 7 Michigan $	8	–	0	–	0			10	–	2	–	0
No. 10 Illinois	7	–	1	–	0			10	–	2	–	0
No. 16 Michigan State	6	–	2	–	0			8	–	4	–	0
No. 24 Ohio State	6	–	2	–	0			8	–	4	–	0
Minnesota	4	–	4	–	0			6	–	5	–	0
Indiana	3	–	5	–	0			5	–	6	–	0
Iowa	3	–	5	–	0			5	–	6	–	0
Purdue	2	–	6	–	0			3	–	8	–	0
Wisconsin	1	–	7	–	0			2	–	9	–	0
Northwestern	0	–	8	–	0			0	–	11	–	0
$ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll

The Spartans were coming off a six-win season and a bowl loss in 1988.

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	Result	Attendance
September 16	1:05 p.m.	Miami (OH)*		Spartan Stadium East Lansing, MI	W 49–0	66,474
September 23	2:30 p.m.	at No. 1 Notre Dame*		Notre Dame Stadium Notre Dame, IN (Megaphone Trophy)	L 13–21	59,075
September 30	3:30 p.m.	No. 2 Miami (FL)*		Spartan Stadium East Lansing, MI	L 20–26	76,217
October 7	2:05 p.m.	at Iowa		Kinnick Stadium Iowa City, IA	W 17–14	67,700
October 14	3:30 p.m.	No. 5 Michigan		Spartan Stadium East Lansing, MI (Paul Bunyan Trophy)	L 7–10	76,913
October 21	12:30 p.m.	Illinois		Spartan Stadium East Lansing, MI	L 10–14	76,216
October 28	2:01 p.m.	at Purdue		Ross–Ade Stadium West Lafayette, IN	W 28–21	41,402
November 4	12:30 p.m.	at Indiana		Memorial Stadium Bloomington, IN (Old Brass Spittoon)	W 51–20	51,567
November 11	1:00 p.m.	Minnesota		Spartan Stadium East Lansing, MI	W 21–7	73,259
November 18	1:05 p.m.	Northwestern		Spartan Stadium East Lansing, MI	W 76–14	64,817
November 25	2:05 p.m.	at Wisconsin	No. 24	Camp Randall Stadium Madison, WI	W 31–3	29,776
December 25	3:30 p.m.	vs. No. 25 Hawaii*	No. 22	Aloha Stadium Honolulu, HI (Aloha Bowl)	W 33–13	50,000
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from Coaches' Poll released prior to the game All times are in Central time

[1]

Roster

1989 Michigan State Spartans football team roster
Players			Coaches
Offense Pos. # Name Class QB 4 Dan Enos Jr RB 26 Blake Ezor Sr OT 77 Eric Moten Jr FB 29 Duane Young Jr	Defense Pos. # Name Class CB 36 Harlon Barnett Sr DB 9 Mike Iaquaniello Jr LB 51 Carlos Jenkins Jr LB 48 Percy Snow Sr DE 91 Jim Szymanski Sr LB 66 Matt Vanderbeck Sr	Special teams Pos. # Name Class	Head coach George Perles Coordinators/assistant coaches Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible Injured Redshirt

Rankings

Further information: 1989 NCAA Division I-A football rankings

Ranking movements
Legend: ██ Increase in ranking. ██ Decrease in ranking.
NR = Not ranked. RV = Received votes. т = Tied with team above or below. ( ) = First place votes.

	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	Final
AP	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	24	21	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	25	22	22	22	16
Coaches	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	19 т	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	–	16 т

Game summaries

at Notre Dame

See also: 1989 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team, Michigan State–Notre Dame football rivalry, and Megaphone Trophy

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
18–35–1	1988	L 3–20

Miami (FL)

#2 Miami (FL) at Michigan State

1 2 3 4 Total • Hurricanes 3 7 10 6 26 Spartans 3 7 3 7 20 Date: September 30 Location: Spartan Stadium, East Lansing, Michigan Game attendance: 76,217 Referee: Jim Kemerling TV announcers (ABC): Gary Bender, Dick Vermeil, Cheryl Miller

Scoring summary 1 7:56 MIA Huerta 32-yard field goal MIA 3–0 1 3:59 MSU Langeloh 46-yard field goal Tied 3–3 2 5:32 MSU Enos 19-yard run (Langeloh kick) MSU 10–3 2 2:14 MIA Carroll 5-yard pass from Torretta (Huerta kick) Tied 10–10 3 11:52 MIA Johnson 38-yard run (Huerta kick) MIA 17–10 3 6:42 MIA Huerta 27-yard field goal MIA 20–10 3 2:48 MSU Langeloh 27-yard field goal MIA 20–13 4 MSU Harlon Barnett 35-yard interception return Tied 20–20 4 5:04 MIA Huerta 27-yard field goal MIA 23–20 4 0:54 MIA Huerta 52-yard field goal MIA 26–20

See also: 1989 Miami Hurricanes football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
0–3	1982	L 22–25

[2]

at Iowa

See also: 1989 Iowa Hawkeyes football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
12–12–2	1988	T 10–10

Michigan

1 2 3 4 Total • Michigan 7 3 0 0 10 Michigan St 0 0 0 7 7 Date: October 14 Location: Spartan Stadium, East Lansing, MI

Scoring summary 1 MICH Hoard 1-yard run (Carlson kick) MICH 7-0 2 MICH Carlson 35-yard field goal MICH 10-0 4 MSU Hawkins 4-yard pass from Enos (Langeloh kick) MICH 10-7

See also: 1989 Michigan Wolverines football team and Paul Bunyan Trophy

vs. Hawaii (Aloha Bowl)

Main article: 1989 Aloha Bowl

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
2–0	1948	W 68–21

1990 NFL Draft

The following players were selected in the 1990 NFL Draft.[3]

Player	Round	Pick	Position	NFL Team
Percy Snow	1	13	Linebacker	Kansas City Chiefs
Travis Davis	4	85	Nose Tackle	Phoenix Cardinals
Harlon Barnett	4	101	Defensive Back	Cleveland Browns
Bob Kula	7	175	Tackle	Seattle Seahawks
Jim Szymanski	10	259	Defensive End	Denver Broncos
Ventson Donelson	12	309	Defensive Back	New England Patriots

References

1. "Michigan State Yearly Results". College Football Data Warehouse. Archived from the original on 2009-09-26. Retrieved 2009-09-22.
2. "Miami 26, Michigan State 20". United Press International. September 30, 1989. Retrieved November 9, 2019.
3. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/draft/1990.htm