College Football Coaches Talk Reality Of Current State Of Michigan State
The Pinstripe Bowl is not what a program like Michigan State seeks or wants. The fans and administration have given this program the tools to be better. Mark Dantonio risked the luster of his legacy last season in not making staff changes. This season has hurt that legacy. Another bad season and he could DESTROY his legacy.
The Spartans have lacked in player development and recruiting as of late. Spartan Nation has remained steadfast in the fact that the Spartan woes are on coaching. Something Urban Meyer addressed:
I asked Dantonio about Meyer's comments and sadly he tried to defend his under-producing staff and ended up proving Meyer 100% correct. Here is what Dantonio said to me about those comments by Urban:
Spartan Nation. I don't know if you had a chance to see, Urban Meyer was talking about the program and the struggles lately and he was very complimentary of you, as a friendship and as a coach. But he eyed the development of players and recruiting. Do you agree that that's accurate?
HEAD COACH MARK DANTONIO: Well, I have a great deal of respect for Urban Meyer, for Urban. But when you're in the thick of it here, you know a little bit more about the program here.
I've always said that you know, we've done a good job developing our players. Darqueze Dennard was a two-star player coming out. Had zero scholarship offers, yet he becomes a first-round pick. Jack Coughlin becomes a first-round pick.
So we've had guys develop within the program and we've been able to win games along the way. We've had some different players come in that were higher-recruited guys, four-star guys and things of that nature. They have been able to become good players, as well.
But the reality of the situation is that players come and I don't care where you're at. They have got to be developed and they grow as people.
If you look at our situation this year and right now where we're at, there's a lot of reasons, and I understand that you know, but the ones that are out of our system control are injuries, so consequently we are playing young players, especially on the offensive line.
I would say on our offensive line, we probably had -- what do we have, 11 different starters, which is not usually good, but there hasn't been stability at that position along the offensive line.
So injuries, I would say some officiating decisions. I'm not going to call them wrong decisions but they didn't go our way. I would say that our schedule, the way it was propped up was difficult.
And I would also say that we have had some dropped balls and some issues in the deep part of the field with guys judging the ball. I mean, you can for sure find two more wins in that area.
The youth of our football team is right now on display, but I think we have good players, and I think they have a tremendous chance of developing into outstanding players, especially when you look across the board at certain positions.
You know, I guess I agree with part of it. But we play our way into those situations, and I also believe that success breeds confidence.
So if you're successful, and all of a sudden you find yourself 7-0 or 8-0 like the 2011 team, you're much more confident going into the next game.
Like the other aspect occurs, as well, you start to spiral downward a little bit and you start saying, okay, what's next. I think our players have remained above that, and like I said, that's been impressive.
But we are where we're at. We still have a chance to have a winning season and that's all that we can affect right now, and Maryland such on the clock and we're going to get ourselves ready to play against Maryland and figure everything else out after the fact.
Hope that answered the question, but I appreciate his remarks, as well, about me.
Dantonio cited the very past players that Urban was referring too, while unable to even bring to attention those from the recent past.
Now BTN analysts Gerry Dinardo has weighed in on the cold reality of the current state of MSU recruiting:
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