"I'm going to definitely look forward to (Hawai'i) coming to our place."

— Quarterback Drew Stanton in the Detroit News after Michigan State's 41-38 loss to UH in December.

While it remains to be seen what awaits the University of Hawai'i football team now, we know who is waiting for it.

This week that would be the Michigan State Spartans and their fans. And it probably won't be with a key to East Lansing, Mich.

Unless feelings have softened considerably in the intervening 10 months — unlikely considering the barely contained rage of some of the coaches last time — the Spartans might be pushing their own version of "there's nothing like being there!" Saturday in East Lansing.

What Southern California inflicted in a 63-17 rout Saturday was business. The lingering perception is that what Michigan State would like to do, should the opportunity arise, would be personal.

Indeed, a Detroit newspaper is predicting: "Michigan State will score 60 points against a porous Hawai'i defense: A little payback for last year's finale, when the Spartans believed they got ripped off by the officials."

When we last saw the Spartans after their season-ending loss to UH, they were already pointing toward the Sept. 10 meeting. Those fingers that weren't being used to depict something else, anyway.

"I walked out of that stadium with a bad taste in my mouth," Stanton told the Lansing State Journal. "I was absolutely disgusted."

The Spartans lost more than a game that night. They lost out on a bowl and an opportunity for a winning season. Then, they lost their cool in a game that had ejections for both sides.

The loss that saddled the Spartans with a 5-7 record was bad enough but it was the way they lost it, blowing a 21-0 lead, and the role they attributed to the inequity in penalties (MSU's 16 for 119 yards to UH's five for 35 yards) that had them fired up.

"A lot of those calls wouldn't have even happened in the Big Ten," Stanton said afterward. "It's kind of like the Alamo Bowl (in 2003). Those were WAC officials, too. I'm not trying to attack the WAC, but they hurt us."

Officials said MSU coach John L. Smith kicked up such a fuss about the officiating that Wisconsin coach Barry Alvarez pressed UH to get a non-WAC officiating crew for the Badgers' visit to Aloha Stadium this year.

Wisconsin got its wish and now we see if Stanton and the Spartans get the retribution they have asked for.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.