Deconstructing Little Brother

In his short time at Michigan State University, spartan head football coach Mark Dantonio has waged a very focused PR campaign against the University of Michigan football program. From his very first post game press conference when he paused the questions to ask for a moment of silence to commemorate Michigan's loss to Appalachian State; to trading insults with a 20 year old college student; to excusing his team's disgraceful performance at Penn State by pointing to Michigan's poor record, to rooting against his own teams' interest just to see Michigan lose; and to a myriad of subtle and not-so-subtle jabs in the press, Dantonio has made it clear that he views Michigan as Public Enemy #1.

A good portion of his fan base has eaten this up, and love him for his comments. The same people who used to call Lloyd Carr classless have no problem with their coach engaging in message board type flaming in the media. To them his public disdain shows that he gets the rivalry, that he won't bow down to Michigan, and has the will to take MSU to the next level. As if all it takes to coach and recruit at an elite, or even above-average level is the will to do so.

The local media has bought the spin as well. Article after article has trumpeted the Spartan's Ascension or asserted that after two straight bowls and one win over the worst Michigan team in history MSU now owned the state of Michigan in recruiting. Like the fan base, they mistook attitude for accomplishment and voted MSU third in the Big Ten preseason poll despite the fact that they were outscored, out gained, and out first-downed (is that a verb?) in conference play last year, lost a two year starter at QB, and 90% of their rushing in Javon Ringer.

But the hopes of a fan base and the desire of journalists to write a new narrative doesn't erase 40 years of history, and one (or two) successful season does not dramatically change the direction of a program. Despite the feeling by many Spartans that Dantonio represents a radical departure from the past the results on the field and in recruiting don't really show that. Dantonio's first three classes have rankings (42, 47, 17 via Rivals; 51, 56, 37 via Scout) that are similar to John L Smith's last three classes (16, 35, 33 via Rivals; 13, 40, 43 via Scout). More importantly, Dantonio's record after 30 games is exactly the same as John L. Smith's.

That record continues an amazing trend with Spartan head coaches. Since 1973, when Duffy Daugherty stepped down, six out of eight spartan coaches have won 15, 16, or 17 games out of their first 30:

Denny Stolz (1973-1975) 16-13-1
Daryl Rogers (1976-1979) 16-12-2
Muddy Waters (1980-1982) 9-21
George Perles (1983-1994) 13-16-1
Nick Saban (1995-1999) 17-12-1
Bobby Williams (2000-2002) 15-15
John L Smith (2003-2006) 17-13
Mark Dantonio (2007- ) 17-13

That in a snapshot is Spartan football in the modern era: amazingly consistent, slightly above average.

This and That

-Yeah Vanderbilt!! For the first time in almost a generation, the Commodores are going bowling, by virtue of their win over Kentucky. In this season of ultimate suffering for Michigan fans, something like Vandy's win helps to put things in perspective. Yes no bowl sucks, but can you imagine no bowl for the next 25 years?
-Mark Dantonio would do a lot better as a coach if he could just stop sticking his foot in his mouth at press conferences. Last year, of course, he got into a war of words with Michigan RB Mike Hart after losing to Michigan. Now this week, when asked about Saturday's Michigan / Ohio State clash responded that with a "Go Bucks" Now normally an MSU rooting against Michigan would be no big story. But in this case, State needs a Michigan win along with an MSU win over Penn State to win the Big Ten title outright and go to the Rose Bowl. So Dantonio would be willing to trade State's first Rose Bowl in two decades, and only their second in forty years to see Michigan lose its final game of the year in a season that long ago lost any meaning for Wolverine fans. In other words, he essentially told spartan fans that hating Michigan is more important than rooting for Michigan State. The fact that some many State fans agree with that sentiment tells you a lot about why they have been a second rate program for the last 40 years.
-I think the Rodriguez "Get a Life" comment was overplayed and taken out of context, but I do wish that he would just put his head down, quit trying to explain anything, and work on making next year and the year after that better. We had a bad year, people are going to kick us when we are down, nothing we can do about that. We just have to work our way through it.
-This coming weekend is the last weekend for most of the FCS teams. I'm going to try and forecast the playoff pairings after I get done with this week's rankings. A good explanation of the specifics of the playoffs can be found here.
-I think the ACC should forgo all their bowl games, and just play other ACC teams, those will be far more entertaining, since all the teams are evenly matched. Other than Duke and NC State, the entire league is between 3-3 and 4-2 in conference.
-If the Big Ten gets two teams in the BCS they could be an underdog in all, or almost all of their bowl games. Penn State vs USC in the Rose, OSU vs the SEC CG loser in the Sugar, MSU vs either Georgia or LSU in the Cap One, Northwestern against the other in the Outback, Wisconsin vs Oklahoma State in the Alamo, Iowa vs Kansas in the Insight, Illinois vs some random ACC team in the Micron PC, and Minnesota vs Ball State or CMU in the Motor City. I know a lot can change in a few weeks, but that doesn't look like a good bowl season for the Big Ten.

This is why you are Michigan State

Earlier today, Mark Dantonio made a crucial coaching error and at the same time confirmed that he truely belongs at Michigan State.
In case you missed it, after Michigan's come-from-behind win on Saturday, Mike Hart made some unfortunate comments about laughing at "little brother" Michigan State. The comments were the type of thing you save for teasing your friends, for message board banter, or for talking smack in the office among alumni. Ideally, it's not something you want one of your senior leaders saying.
But earlier today, Spartan head coach Mark Dantonio went one further in his press conference today, making fun of Hart's height ("Does Hart have a little brother, or is he a little brother?"), saying Michigan had to check themselves, saying "pride comes before the fall", and "their time will come.
His comments were wrong on many levels. First of all, a coach should never, ever get into a war of words with an opposing player. As Mike Gundy memorably noted, you're the man, he's a 21-year old. Your job is to represent the program with dignity and class. Dantonio showed all the class of a $5 whore or a congressman two weeks before the election. Let the players respond to Hart. There is a reason why successful coaches like Lloyd Carr never say much of anything substantial in press conferences. It's called coach speak, and it's designed to present the program in the best light without providing bulletin board material.
-Secondly, Hart didn't single anyone out personally, he called out the whole program. Dantonio made a personal attack, one that could easily be interpreted as having racial overtones ("a little brother"?).
-Thirdly, complaining about an opponent's behavior after you lose a game reeks of sour grapes. You don't like Hart making jokes or the Michigan team gathering to observe a moment of silence for MSU, don't blow a 10 point lead in the 4th quarter.
-Finally, and perhaps most importantly from an MSU perspective, your outburst sends exactly the wrong message to your team. You are 5-5 and need one, maybe two wins to secure your school's first bowl bid in four years, and your are still obsessing about the one that got away. Right now, you need your team to focus 100% on beating Purdue and need to forget about this loss. Michigan State's recent history is that they go in the tank after the Michigan game, no matter how that game turns out. Given that you have lost five games by less than a touchdown, do you really want to bet that your team's fragile psyche will respond well to your very public temper tantrum?

The bottom line is that Dantonio let his pride and disappointment get in the way of what was best for the success of his program, and in so doing took his place in the recent pantheon of less than stellar Spartan football coaches.

Update: Iblog for cookies tackles this subject as well, and does it more effectively.