Inside Look at History of Mark Dantonio Owning Michigan
When Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio stepped on campus in East Lansing as head coach in 2007, a relatively dormant rivalry with Michigan would soon be revived.
Michigan’s 28-24 comeback win over Michigan State in 2007 marked the Wolverines’ sixth consecutive win in the rivalry and 10th in the previous 12 meetings. To add insult to injury, Michigan running back Mike Hart referred to Michigan State as Michigan’s “Little Brother” during the postgame press conference.
“Just laughing, I thought it was funny, they got excited,” Hart told reporters. “Sometimes you get your little brother excited when you’re playing basketball and stuff, let them get the lead. Then you just come back and take it back.”
“This game is an important game, this game’s an important game,” Dantonio responded. “So they want to mock us all they want to mock us, I’m telling ‘em, it’s not over. So they can print all that crap all they want all over their locker room. It’s not over, it’ll never be over here. It’s just starting.
“Let’s just remember, pride comes before the fall.”
Those two words from, along with Dantonio’s fiery, passionate response became a rallying cry of sorts in the years after as the Spartans have won eight out the last 10 games against the Wolverines heading into Saturday’s game, including a stretch of four straight wins from 2008-2011.
Michigan State’s 35-21 win over Michigan in 2008, where the Spartans outgained Michigan 473-252 in total yardage is one that Dantonio remembers fondly and noted as a big moment for his program and a turning point in the rivalry.
“I remember Blair White catching the slant and going the distance early in the game,” he said. “I remember Keshawn Martin, I think he was a freshman, he ran and end-around -- I head-butted him and got a headache. I remember that, barely (laughing). I thought we played pretty well on defense. It was just a big moment. I can't even tell you the score of the game, really, but I just remember it was a big moment for us.”
But even though the comments from Hart and Dantonio are 11 years old, those words still resonate throughout the Spartan locker room. Moments such as Joe Bolden driving a stake into the turf following the national anthem of the 2014 game, a 35-11 Michigan State win, still resonate through the locker room as well.
Michigan State senior captain Khari Willis said that those instances are still brought up as a reminder and a way to inform the newcomers on the roster each year, but also added that those moments aren’t needed to motivate he or his teammates for such a fierce rivalry.
“I think it's definitely something that's mentioned, I mean, I was just given the history of the rivalry,” he said. “Obviously every year you bring in a new batch of guys and you want to inform them of what's happened and where we are in the rivalry and how we stand. I feel like there's no need for extra motivation or anything like that. I feel like, you know, we are going to prepare. We have enough with the history of this rivalry. We have enough motivation there, and as far as what we want to accomplish this season, I feel like we're going to go out and we're going to play as such.”
In the battle for the Paul Bunyan trophy, Michigan leads the series 36-30-2, dating back to 1950. Dantonio is 8-3 against Michigan in his 11 years as head coach of the Spartans.
For Dantonio, after experiencing the rivalry, first as an assistant coach under Nick Saban in 1995 and then as a head coach in 20017, the importance of the rivalry and the personal nature of it became clear to him firsthand.
“I think you learn these things as you go forward,” he said. “You play your first game -- in any rivalry situation, I remember playing our first game when I was at South Carolina playing Clemson, and it was a big game down there, huge game. Everybody talked about it and told you about it and you really didn't know what to expect, but when you played in that football game for the first time, you understood after the fact. I think that's the same thing here. You sort of understand after the fact, so after the '95 game, I understood.”
For someone who has experienced both the winning end and the losing end of the rivalry, Willis said that it’s easy to see how Dantonio has guided the Spartans to wins over Michigan in eight of 11 tries, crediting his head coach’s personality and the way he prepares his team on a weekly basis.
“I think it's just who he is as a person, his demeanor,” he said. “I feel like that's what he does and that's what he brings every week. I feel like we're up; we're geared up for this game. He tells us, you know what we need to do, how we need to prepare and how we need to prepare ourselves for the challenges that lie ahead. I feel that not only him, but all of our coaching staff this week, our leader, we're going to try to put ourselves in the best position, so when bullets start flying, eventually we can try to come out with another one.”
Considering the importance of this rivalry, it’s not out of the ordinary for for former players to reach out to current members of the Michigan State football team to talk about the game or the importance of the rivalry.
But Willis said that while those calls and texts happen every now and then, it’s pretty much understood that players don’t need that reminder and instead, the week leading up tends to be a quiet one.
“I think every once in a while, somebody hits you up with a text or something here and there, but past players, they understand the magnitude of this game and I feel like we do, as well,” Willis said. “During a week like this, there's not really too much talking. I feel like they understand that and respect that but every once in a while, they will reach out.”
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