What happened to the L.J. Scott who willed Michigan State to the 2015 B1G Championship?

There was nothing that could stop L.J. Scott on that night in Indianapolis.

Half of Iowa’s defenders couldn’t prevent him from reaching his outstretched arm across the goal line for Michigan State’s go-ahead touchdown in the 2015 B1G Championship. It was a touchdown run that will be remembered forever in East Lansing. The power. The drive. The will.

Often forgotten was the fact that Scott did more than just score one goal line touchdown. On that epic 22-play drive, Scott carried the ball a whopping 14 times, and he picked up four of MSU’s first downs.

His final first down was obviously his biggest:

Back then, it seemed like the sky was the limit for the true freshman tailback. The Le’Veon Bell comparisons seemed fair. Future All-B1G back? Absolutely.

On Saturday, Scott and the Spartans will face that same Iowa defense that couldn’t stop him 22 months ago. But in those 22 months, Scott did not develop into the star that many hoped he would. Ironically enough, he suffered his third fumble of the year last Saturday in a loss against Notre Dame, and guess where it came? The goal line. For the second time this year.

Now, some would rather Scott stay on the sidelines. He was a popular topic of conversation among the MSU media this week. Mark Dantonio was asked about that play that cemented Scott’s spot in Spartan lore.

He brought up a good point.

“A little risky when he reached out to reach farther one time, the ball could have come out but it didn’t and everybody celebrated,” Dantonio said via the Detroit Free Press. “So sometimes it doesn’t catch up to you until it catches up to you.”

Scott has battled his fair share of setbacks in his career. Conditioning problems, as well as shoulder and knee injuries slowed him down at times, but nothing has plagued him more than his fumbling issues.

After Saturday, Scott is up to eight career fumbles. He also trails Brian Lewerke for the team lead in rushing after three games. On the season, Scott has 186 rushing yards and one touchdown through three games. Even on a rushing yards per game basis, he ranks just 113th in FBS and No. 14 in the B1G.

Keep in mind that after his 11-touchdown freshman season, Scott had these kind of lofty expectations:

My Big Ten Player Rankings after Week 1
5. Wes Lunt
4. L.J. Scott
3. Curtis Samuel
2. Saquon Barkley
1. J.T. Barrett

— Sean Merriman (@MerrimanTweets) September 7, 2016

Needless to say, Scott and Saquon Barkley have had very different paths since they burst onto the scene as freshman studs in 2015.

Part of that could be attributed to MSU’s struggles in the passing game and on defense. And Scott, who outside of that long touchdown on the first play against Ohio State last year, hasn’t been much of a factor in the passing game. MSU is 5-12 since the B1G Championship, which doesn’t suggest MSU’s game flow has been very friendly to a run-only guy like Scott.

But even when he’s been on the field, the numbers suggest Scott hasn’t developed as many expected he would. Pro Football Focus analyst Josh Liskiewitz dug up some numbers for me on Scott’s performance, and they weren’t pretty.

The fumbles had a lot to do with that extremely low 2017 PFF grade (it’s actually the fourth-worst among all running backs in FBS). But the yards after contact per attempt and the missed tackles per attempt numbers are troubling.

For whatever reason, Scott hasn’t run like the never-say-die back who piggy-backed the Iowa defense to capture a B1G title.

Scott has shown flashes of that, but it’s been tough to sustain. He hasn’t gotten the work that many featured backs get. The 228-pound junior has just six career games (21 percent) of 20-plus carries, despite being easily the most talented player in MSU’s backfield each of the last three years.

He still hasn’t earned 20 carries in a game in 2017. Frankly, he hasn’t earned it.

Dantonio’s leash has been shorter with Scott than many MSU fans probably hoped, but Dantonio asks his backs to do a lot of things. Simply playing the guy with the most talent isn’t always what he needs in his offense. He needs ball security. He needs pass protection. He needs someone who can catch passes out of the backfield.

Scott hasn’t consistently accomplished those things.

RELATED: Mark Dantonio on fixing MSU: We’re not broken

His biggest priority in the short term — and his path to more snaps — is fixing his fumbling problems. After the Notre Dame fumble, teammates like Chris Frey and Gerald Holmes gave Scott the old “what in the world is wrong with you?” The entire team actually got involved in helping out Scott shake his costly habit.

Apparently Scott was given a football to carry around all over campus, and naturally, it was his teammates’ job to do whatever they could to try and knock the ball loose. Will that work? Who knows, but if you’re Dantonio, you’ll do whatever you can to try and maximize the potential of your most skilled offensive player.

Maybe MSU’s first meeting with Iowa since that 2015 B1G Championship will bring out the best in Scott. The Hawkeyes won’t be overwhelmed by the sight of him a week after they watched Barkley have perhaps his best all-around game of his career. Barkley was unstoppable, just like Scott was back in the 2015 B1G Championship.

But barring a sudden turnaround, the Hawkeyes won’t see the same guy who broke their hearts in Indianapolis.

Connor O'Gara

Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Tradition. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.