EAST LANSING -- Mark Dantonio's 12-season tenure at Michigan State has included Big Ten championship game wins, Rose Bowl and Cotton Bowl wins and five wins over top-five teams.

It's included a win on a last-second Hail Mary, a win on a last-play punt block touchdown and other late-game heroics.

Michigan State's Saturday game, by comparison, was a midseason matchup of unranked 4-3 teams with virtually no conference title implications.

But Dantonio afterward put the Spartans' 23-13 win over Purdue at Spartan Stadium alongside any other in his career in Michigan State in terms of how rewarded he felt while standing at the media room podium.

"This could be as rewarding a win maybe in our time here," Dantonio said after the game. "We needed to get up off of the mat."

Saturday's win had its impressive moments: a redshirt freshman quarterback in Rocky Lombardi throwing for more than 300 yards in his first start, three interceptions on defense and just 13 points allowed against a team that put up 49 points against Ohio State a week ago.

But the win was most rewarding for the Spartans because of its context.

Last week, Michigan State fell at home to rival Michigan, 21-7. It recorded only 94 yards of total offense in a humbling loss for a team that entered the game riding high off of a top-10 road win over Penn State and left the game with quarterback questions, as Brian Lewerke admitted afterward to a shoulder injury.

"Everyone was sort of selling us short," Dantonio said. We had the poor me's. You guys (media) had the poor me's. We got up and went. That's sports and that's athletics and that's what makes athletics so unique I think to everything else. It's those intangibles, difficult to measure."

Now, instead of heading on the road next week on a two-game losing streak, the Spartans are now one win away from bowl eligibility with four games left int he season.

That backstory helped explain why the normally reserved Dantonio spoke in far bolder terms than normal at the dais on Saturday afternoon.

"We enlarged our territory a little bit today," Dantonio said. "That came out of nowhere, but we did. People took notice today. People all across the country took notice that the Spartans got up and played against a good football team that just had a big win last week."

Spartans senior safety Khari Willis said he agreed with Dantonio about Saturday's win being among the most rewarding of his career.

"I think that statement definitely sticks for me and my career here," Willis said. "I think this is one the better wins simply because I feel it was an all-inclusive effort. ... I feel that this is just a testament to what we can be as a team, now we just have to consistently do it."