Ohio State

Quite unexpectedly, I have become the beneficiary of a ticket to today's Ohio State game. Many thanks to my sister-in-law and her husband for thinking of me when this ticket became available, and for my mother-in-law agreeing to watch my sons. (My wife is, as I write this, en route to San Antonio for a business conference).

For the record, this will be the third time I will have seen the Ohio State football team in person at Spartan Stadium. The first time was 1988, when George Perles' Spartans beat the Buckeyes 20-10 in John Cooper's first year as head coach. The second time came in 2004, as I witnessed Ted Ginn, Jr. go crazy and almost single-handedly beat the Spartans 32-19. (Ginn had a 17-yard touchdown run, a 60-yard punt return for a touchdown, and topped off his day with a 58-yard touchdown reception). Amazingly, the Spartans overcame a 17-0 deficit to take a 19-17 lead with 5:59 left in the game, but this was the dark days of the John L. era, and the Spartans promptly played dead through the remainder of the game).

I have a lot of preparation to do before heading out to the game, so I need to wrap this up. I expect to give a full report later.

Go Green!

Happy Senior Day! (Michigan State 21, Purdue 7)

The Spartans knocked off Purdue today in what was not a pretty game, but as the expression goes: I'd rather win ugly than lose pretty.

Here are some random thoughts about today's game and MSU football in general:

Is Michigan State a great team? No. Are they a good team? Most definitely. Are they a very good team? If the definition of a "very good" team is one that never gives up, always plays hard, makes the big play, and gets the most out of its talent, then the answer is certainly "yes." Depending on how the Penn State game goes, and how the Spartans play in their bowl game, it's still possible that they could be remembered as a great team, but I'm not too concerned about that. I want to just appreciate what this team has already accomplished this year.



Let's put this season into perspective. Two years ago, in John L. Smith's last (brutal) season as coach, the team completely imploded after the awful loss to Notre Dame. With the possible exception of Bobby Williams' awful 2002 season, the 2006 season was about as dark and dismal as it's been for Spartan football, and we're talking about a program that has had LOTS of peaks and valleys. In only two years, Mark Dantonio has taken this program and completely changed the attitude and culture from top to bottom. One can argue all they want that the Big Ten is down, and perhaps they're right, but that still doesn't change the fact that Michigan State has played with a desire, toughness, attitude, mental discipline, and flat-out consistency that we as Spartan fans have not seen since at least Nick Saban's 1999 squad. I'm as encouraged by this development as I have ever been in my 31 years of following this program. I'm amazed that in Dantonio's second year as head coach, we are uttering the words "Spartan football" and "Big Ten title contenders" in the same breath.

I continue to be flabbergasted by the Detroit media's hostility towards MSU's football season. Not every Detroit sports journalist has been nasty, but some (like the Free Press' perpetually negative Drew Sharp) continue to pooh-pooh MSU football every single week. I know that I shouldn't care what these people write, but it's still extremely annoying. I don't expect the media to be cheerleaders for any program, but a little positive spin once in a while wouldn't be asking too much.

Having just ripped on the Detroit media, I'd like to thank the Free Press' Michael Rosenberg for his classy article about the Spartans. For anyone interested, here's the link:



http://www.freep.com/article/20081108/COL22/81108058/1048/SPORTS

Back to the game: Purdue's offense looked AWFUL! Maybe that was just as a result of Pat Narduzzi having a great game plan against the spread (and MSU's defense playing really well--too bad they couldn't hang on to the shutout) but I couldn't believe this was the same Boilermaker team that tagged Michigan for 48 points and over 500 yards total offense. It further proves how wacky college football, and the Big Ten in particular, can be and how each game needs to be judged independently.

Johnny Adams' interception for a touchdown late in the second half was a HUGE play. One of the defining characteristics of this team is their uncanny ability to make big plays when they need them the most.

The bye week is coming at a great time for Michigan State. They sorely need it (pun intended). They're banged up and need rest before the Penn State game. Win or lose in Happy Valley, it's been a great season for Spartan football. Let's not forget how much they've exceeded our expectations.

College football is still the greatest sport in the world. Today saw Iowa upset Penn State on a last second field goal, and Alabama beat LSU in overtime in a thriller in Baton Rouge. I had the good fortune of listening to the LSU radio broadcast on my car radio as the Tigers blocked 'Bama's game-winning field goal try in regulation. Those guys were going completely bonkers--unfortunate for them that LSU couldn't win it in OT.

I'm keeping tabs on the Cal/USC game. I'd love it if Cal beat the Trojans (however as I write this, USC has a 10-3 lead deep into the second quarter).
 

That's all for now, I'm going to go back to watching "iCarly Goes to Japan" with my son!

Postscript: Texas Tech looks like the best team in college football. That offense is absolutely amazing and if I could vote for the Heisman, I'd go with their quarterback Graham Harrell. (Having just written that, watch them lose next week! That's what happens when I make statements like that).

What, another football post?

I am still awake when I should be sleeping, but hey, it's Friday night (actually Saturday morning) and I don't feel like going to bed.

Now, let me gab for awhile about an important issue: college football. Later today, at 3:30 PM, Michigan State and Notre Dame will kickoff at Spartan Stadium. I have never seen as much confidence in a Spartan blowout as I have seen on various MSU sports chat rooms and blogs. Why so much confidence? How long have these people been State fans, I wonder? Yes, it's true that Notre Dame struggled against a weak San Diego State team and Michigan virtually gift wrapped last week's Irish victory (and, at least for now, Michigan is not a good team) but what exactly has Michigan State done? The Spartans lost to a decent, but not great, Cal team on the road, manhandled the predictably woeful Eastern Michigan Eagles, and then escaped the drizzly, rainy slopfest last week against Florida Atlantic. The bottom line is that it's way too early to judge how good any of these teams are, MSU and Notre Dame included. Add to that my reluctance to predict a Michigan State drubbing of the Irish based on my 30+ years of getting my hopes and dreams dashed by the Spartans. I've just gotten too cynical and pessimistic to get the least bit cocky about any Michigan State football game.

We will get a much clearer picture of how good Michigan State and Notre Dame are after today's game. I know that isn't a particularly original statement, but it's true. My hope is that Mark Dantonio's toughminded approach will have the Spartans ready to play, and hopefully come away with a solid victory. So far, I like what I've seen of Dantonio as a coach. He consistently has had MSU ready to play every game since he took over the job, that's a hell of a lot more than I can say for his immediate predecessors, John L. Smith and Bobby Williams.

I'm not a Michigan fan, but as one who has lived in this state his entire life I can't help but to have followed U of M football to a certain extent. Michigan football is pretty much ubiquitous around these parts--you can't really avoid it even if you try. Reports of Michigan's football demise seem a little premature to me--I'll believe it when I see it. It seems to me that Rich Rodriguez's new offensive schemes will make more sense to their players as the season goes on, and their offense will improve. (It is certainly strange to see Michigan running a spread offense, though. To me, Michigan is all about the power running game with the occasional long bomb to one of their long line of great receivers: Anthony Carter, Desmond Howard, Amani Toomer, Braylon Edwards, Steve Breaston, etc. I also recall Bo Schembechler running the option on virtually every play back in the late '70s. I have wondered about why a team that gets such a bumper crop of 5-star recruits year after year needs to implement a spread offense. I generally associate that type of offense with teams that need to use trickery to compete with the big boys, like Purdue, Northwestern and Michigan State in the John L. era. Am I off-base here?).

Here's another thing I don't understand. If Michigan gets a top-5 national recruiting class every year and is allegedly stocked with great athletes, why have I heard endless whining about RichRod not having the right players to run his system? This is Michigan football, folks! The winged-helmet, the Big House, and Hail to the Victors! Shouldn't the Wolverines have a stable of blue-chippers to run the spread? A veritable cornucopia of gridiron studs to run the new scheme like a fine-oiled machine? Not to drag MSU into this, but I don't recall John L. Smith saying he didn't have the right players to run the spread back in his first year at MSU. Yes, it is true that John L. inherited a senior quarterback in 2003, but it's not as if Jeff Smoker was the ideal spread quarterback. Still, John L. had his most successful year in '03: 8-5 record and Big Ten Coach of the Year. (Wow, I actually wrote something nice about John L. Smith!).

I don't profess to be a football expert, although I am a big fan of the game. If anyone thinks I'm off-base with these opinions and wishes to set me straight, please comment.

I know that no living humans are reading this blog, so for my pretend make-believe readers out there who are depairing of all the football talk, I assure you that I will at some point write extensively and intelligently about subjects other than football.