Before It Happens

Michigan State Football…

…has been bad since we lost to Alabama in the college football playoffs in 2016. It’s been hard to watch, and seems like coach Dantonio has been missing something and getting out-coached. It’s like the game has moved beyond him. Our offense is terrible. And, for me as a fan, the games have been incredibly frustrating to watch.

As a Spartan fan, I have had a lot of conversations about the team and how bad we are, and how frustrating the games are, and what we should do. The opinions are wide raging, but ultimately land on two things. One is that we need to fire Dantonio. There is even a #FireDantonio Twitter hashtag that is very active with every loss. The other perspective seems to be: he’s the best coach we’ve ever had, let’s keep giving him chances.

Now I’m of the opinion that both can be true.

He can be the best coach we’ve had and still need to go. If the game moves beyond him, then it’s time to say goodbye and find someone that the game has not moved past. The other side, which includes Dantonio himself, feels he deserves another chance because of his performance over the past decade.

State football has been better this decade that his has been in a long time. This is true. We were a 10+ win team 5 out of 6 years from 2010-2015 and 6 times this decade. Prior to the bowl game, we have only had one losing record in the 2010s. Our win totals from 2010-15 were: 11, 11, 7, 13, 11, and 12. That’s incredible. Especially considering that we had 57 total wins in the 90s, and 60 total wins in the 2000s. If you take the 8-win season in 1990 and 10-win season in ‘99, MSU had only 39 other wins in the entire 90s. Of the 60 wins in 2000s, 22 are by coach Dantonio. He had the same number of wins (22) in his first three seasons as John L. Smith did his entire career. Currently, in the 2010s, we have 91-wins, with a bowl game to go.

I fully realize that by any numerical metric, MSU football is the best it has ever been. We have a bunch of pros, an incredible defense, and fans expect to make bowl games and be ranked. This is huge. In most of my youth, we considered it a success being bowl eligible.

But…

…a thing in life of major importance is adjusting your expectations, positively, with success. You need to change your story when things improve. When you get better, you need to level up. If you don’t, you sell yourself short. Then, you can sink.

And that’s why I’m hoping that Spartan Nation can agree, before the bowl game, that if we win Dantonio gets another chance, but if we lose we make changes.

Can we agree on this?

If so, it’s transparent. It makes sense. With the beautiful decade of Spartan Football we’ve witnessed, closing the door with a loss to Wake Forest would be a step in the wrong direction. It would be a clear and obvious signal that we need for something to change. So, let’s do the right thing and make the action have a consequence.