EAST LANSING, MI - Spartan Football played their third game of the season Saturday, September 14th, taking on the Youngstown State Penguins.

MSU came out buzzing and put up 21 points in the first quarter alone, matching their previous week's game total.

Running back Jeremy Langford opened the scoring with a three yard run, busting through the Penguins defensive line.

Spartan fullback, Trevon Pendleton rounded out the first half scoring on this 12 yard pass from quarterback Connor Cook.

Shilique Calhoun and the Spartan defense had yet another stellar performance, allowning just 51 rushing yards and only 172 yards total.

But, the story yet again was the quarterback situation. And Coach Dantonio quickly gave an answer to the question on everyone's mind.

"Connor Cook is the number one quarter back, yes," Dantonio said in the post game press conference.

Coach Danonio went on to explain exactly why he feels Cook is the right man to lead this football team.

"He's got good arm strenth, great arm strength," he said. "He's a big strong physical guy. This guy is 6'4'', 228, has a rocket arm, really the thing that he is lacking is long term game experiance, which he got today."

After the game Cook talked about what comes with knowing that he has been given the reigns.

"You know the confidence just is growing, in practice in games, and just today," Cok said. "When coach [Dantonio] said that I'm gonna be the guy, and that I'm gonna get the majority of the reps, and I shouldn't worry about any other QB's going in, that kinda just took control and really reassured me and made me believe in myself."

Heading into next week's game against Notre Dame, Cook explained why this week was such a huge step in the right direction.

"It's reassuring," he said. "Especially going into Notre dame next week, we know that they're a great opponent, and to go in there with the stuff that we did today offensively, with the wide outs and the QB's running plays, it's just a good feeling"

The Spartans will play in South Bend against the fighting Irish on Saturday, September 21st.