If you haven’t figured out my modus operandi, here’s more than a hint: Michigan State’s wins will be picked apart as much as any of its losses. And Spartan defeats won’t signal the apocalypse. Often, they’ll be seen as delayed W’s and eventual victories.
A triumph over a top-ranked team - whether it’s Ohio State in football in 1998, Wisconsin in basketball in 2007 or Miami in hockey last Saturday – aren’t good enough reasons to rush out and buy BCS, Final Four or Frozen Four tickets. Not immediately. Maybe later.
And a well-played loss to a quality opponent, especially an effort that shows progress in a program, will be saluted as such. As maddening as some MSU losses have been, pain pills, nooses and razor blades have always been bad options.
That doesn’t mean a program should play for moral victories any more than it should delude itself and its fans with wins that foreshadow long-term losses.
That brings us to Spartan Stadium and some numbing numbers: Iowa 15, MSU 13. Was it draining and disheartening to everyone in Green-and-Blair White? Absolutely. How could it not be?
But was the last sound you heard that night a crumbling foundation? Absolutely not. Does it mean there’s a jinx in East Lansing? No more than there was in Boston before the Red Sox won a couple of World Series.
It’s amazing how tough luck starts to turn around when a school’s recruiting and coaching improves. The Spartans stole a couple of games last fall when they beat Iowa and Wisconsin, bowl teams that left Mid-Michigan wondering, “How did we ever lose to THOSE guys?”
Because those same guys went 9-4 with a seriously flawed team, as blowout losses to Ohio State and Penn State proved beyond a shadow of a doubt. No one was overwrought at those beatdowns because a second-year program was clearly overmatched.
This year, the expectations were higher, though it’s hard to explain why. A new quarterback – no, make that two new QBs. A freshman running back – no, make that three first-year runners if you don’t count a guy who returned kickoffs and played on the scout team last fall (and is gone for the rest of this season). A retooled offensive line – no, make it two new lines, the one that was supposed to line up and the patchwork we’ve seen with different starters at four positions.
I can hear the naysayers holler “S.O.S.” But Dantonio doesn’t need their help or their input. All he needs is a reasonable amount of time to prove he gets it. And he does. I say that after more than 40 years of watching every MSU head coach – Duffy Daugherty, Denny Stolz, Darryl Rogers, Waters, George Perles, Nick Saban, Bobby Williams, Morris Watts, John L. Smith and now a guy who’s name gets butchered worse than his weakest team ever will.
Don’t believe that? Duffy inherited a Rose Bowl winner from Biggie Munn and went 19-9 in his first three seasons. Stolz went 19-13-1, Rogers 19-13-2, Waters 10-23, Perles 17-17-1, Saban 19-16-1, Williams 16-17, Watts 1-2 and Smith 18-18 in that span.
Walking into a mess, Dantonio has done a clean-up job I wish we’d see on the Grand River. He’s 20-14 today with four or five games left in Year 3. And don’t be surprised if those numbers improve to 24-15 or 25-14, including back-to-back 6-2 league finishes and three straight warm-weather bowls.
If no one is mentioning Dantonio’s work as one of the great construction projects of our time, as the football equivalent of the Great Pyramids, that’s fine. It isn’t. But no one should pass definitive judgment for the ages on a work in progress.
So what if MSU’s development as a solid, consistent program with principles doesn’t belong in the same paragraph as Iowa’s heroics with Hayden Fry or its re-emergence with Kirk Ferentz? If it isn’t as spectacular as Wisconsin’s turnaround under Barry Alvarez or Northwestern’s birth under Gary Barnett and Randy Walker, that’s OK, too.
Dantonio isn’t out for personal glory. And I haven’t always been able to say that about molders of men in the Daugherty Building. It isn’t about him. It’s about standing up to Michigan and building a team that stands as tall as Paul Bunyan. It’s about appearing in bowl games every year, even when the matchups are terrible. And it’s about contending for and eventually winning the school’s seventh conference championship.
The contending part has already happened. MSU played in Happy Valley late last November with a chance to earn a third of the crown. And the Spartans were :02 and one 7-yard pass last weekend from sharing the Big Ten lead today.
Has this team made costly mistakes? Too many to be champions. Have the coaches second-guessed themselves? It’s called self-evaluation, and it doesn’t just happen when Dantonio’s staff shaves. It happens every day in the Skandalaris Center.
That’s a good thing. So is the fact that MSU is recruiting as well and as hard as it has in the Integration Era. All above-board. All about Spartan Pride.
So when the tight ends dropped three passes last week, when a redshirt-freshman terror failed to stay onside and when a cornerback got beat in a one-on-one confrontation, it was refreshing to feel Dantonio’s pain in his post-game presser. It was even better when he began to work through the Seven Stages of Guilt to hear him say the game was timed right.
Bottom line, and I’m not talking about records, this year’s team is better than last year’s. The numbers will catch up and prove that eventually. So will the program’s new profile.
Close losses often precede a string of victories in college football. I’m not smart enough to give you that theory. But Phil Steele is and has the numbers to prove it. Whatever losses are incurred this year by a very young team, consider them lessons in a classroom of pain.
After the game last Saturday, columnist Michael Rosenberg of the Detroit Free Press asked if it was better for a team to lose 35-10, as Michigan had just done against visiting Penn State, or to have its left ventricle ripped out by a two-point loss with . . . let’s just say zero home cooking.
From a fan’s perspective, neither one is fun, especially when you’ve endured as many spleen-splitting days and nights as MSU diehards have. But supporting a team from your toes up is about much more than a number. It’s about the way a group competes. It’s about the way some kids and grown-ups grow. It’s about the way they represent.
I’ll take this bunch and reach back for a reference. Consider it your homework assignment in Spartan Reality 101. Check MSU’s records in 1964, 1986 and 1998 when you get the chance. Then think about what happened the following seasons.
Does that mean this year’s team is assured of winning nine or 10 games, a conference title or a New Year’s Day bowl next season as the ’65, ’87 and ’99 groups did? Nothing is guaranteed, not even a big play from No. 25, a former walk-on who symbolizes everything this program can be.
Meanwhile, don’t be shocked if this year’s team is playing for win No. 9 very soon, perhaps as early as the last game of what’s seen and described nearly everywhere as a disappointing season.
I vividly recall when a nine-win season was a step toward football sainthood in these parts. It shows how far and how fast things have changed that eight-win seasons won’t be enough.
Dantonio wouldn’t want it any other way.
By Jack Ebling, Spartan Tailgate Columnist
October 28, 2009
