Michigan state's last football game was over a month ago, it was a blowout win against Rutgers. But the Spartans will be looking to end 2017 with another win, this time over Washington State in Thursday night's Holiday Bowl.
The excitement has been growing every day in San Diego, California this week as News 10's Zach Berridge and Chelsea Snyder are in the middle of it.
Zach Berridge talked with the green and white faithful and showed us how they are getting ready for the big game.
The Spartan fan base runs throughout the country and abroad but you might be surprised at the sheer concentration of green and white in San Diego this week, Zach tells News 10, including one Spartan alum who has found himself running the hottest MSU hangout in town.
"Christmas came early when I work up and saw that we were going to be playing in the holiday bowl," said Fred Wurster, MSU alum.
Safe to say Wurster, the 27-year General Manager of Barleymash in the heart of San Diego didn't care that MSU was passed up by the Florida Bowls.
The team's western destination was a pleasant surprise to Wurster.
"I actually woke up to two different text messages. The first one was from a buddy up in Napa who said 'hey I just bought my flight so I'll be down there on the 27th...' and the next one was 'hey we're getting tickets. What are you doing?' so I turned on ESPN and found out we're in the holiday bowl so Christmas came early. I couldn't think of anything better than to have all the Spartans in my backyard," Wurster said.
Wurster added that he's got a whole house full of Spartans, and it's just like living in the dorms.
Wurster is a Spartan alumnus from the class of 2012.
Barleymash is not an MSU bar by trade, catering to the general sports fan, but not this week.
"The atmosphere since Friday night has been green. Green and white. We've had people in town, it started off as players and parents. A couple of the players," Wurster said. "We had the marching band. Locals that are in town now back from Christmas and now everyone that flew in yesterday to come out for the game."
So that makes Wurster the default ambassador of Spartan Spirit, a big job but he wouldn't have it any other way.
"Getting them all under one roof at the same time is the best way to do it for sure."
The game kicks off at 9 p.m. on Fox Sports 1. It will not be on your local Fox channel.
Check with your cable or satellite provider to make sure you have FS1 so you don't miss out on watching the game.
