Mark Dantonio and the Michigan State Spartans Are Ready for the Wisconsin Badgers

Mark Dantonio and the Spartans Are Ready for the Badgers You can call it cocky, you can call it arrogance, but what this Spartan Football team has is nothing

Mark Dantonio and the Spartans Are Ready for the Badgers

You can call it cocky, you can call it arrogance, but what this Spartan Football team has is nothing like that. It is respect for the Badgers, but the assurance of fact that they have beat them three of the last four times.

Some have said that a Hail Mary and special teams miscues have cost the Badgers. I agree, but what about MSU early mistakes that spotted the Badgers the last time? The point is that any game has ups and downs, ebbs and flows.  The Spartans have capitalized.

Mark Dantonio took time to break each team down and here is his analysis. “You look at Wisconsin right now, great football team, great game. The last time we played them we had great games with them. We've been able to win three of the last four. I think, again, that gives us confidence as we move into the next phase here.

When you look at them and start to break down Wisconsin, you have a team that's first in scoring, first in rushing, first in turnover margin, things of that nature. They've got a great quarterback as well. Great running back. Lot of record there's and everything.

Defensively, when you look at us, you have a team that's first in sacks, first in rushing defense, first in total defense. Our football team is second in turnover margin in the conference, so a lot of different things.

We protect our quarterback. Second best in the conference, so there are a lot of similarities towards strengths, I guess, of each team. We have two receivers in the Top 10 in Cunningham and Martin. They have two in terms of Toon and Abbrederis in the Top 10 receivers.

So a lot of characteristics of this football team and our football team seem to match‑up. So it should be very, very exciting opportunity for both football teams.

We have great respect, I think, for the University of Wisconsin and what Coach Bielema has been able to accomplish there in his short time there. In a lot of ways whether it's them, Iowa, Michigan State, some of us face the same battles that we deal with on a regular basis. But how they go about their business, how they play on the field, they do it with toughness. They do it with effort.

Defensively they tackle very well, very difficult to score on as well. So special teams are solid on both football teams.”

Wisconsin RB Montee Ball is one of the best RB in college football and Dantonio talked about dealing with him. “There is always a concerted effort to limit a team's ability to run the football. You know, Ball's a great player, and two years ago or last year, I guess, James White had a big game against us a little bit. So they're both very good tailbacks.

Ball, obviously, has gotten the most pub right now, most carries, most yards, most touchdowns. He's a jump cut runner and spin runner, very quick to contact, great acceleration, can catch the ball as well. So obviously he's a great threat.”

On the impact of the Hail Mary win from earlier in the year, “I think you can take a couple viewpoints of that game. They got out 14‑0 and we turned the ball over on the first play of the game, and they scored and they held us. They went down and scored and it's 14‑0. At some point in time they scored another three points and we rolled off 31. To me that gives us a great deal of confidence. So it was a 31‑3 run there.

Then it flipped the other way, and they came back and rolled up another 14 points in the end, but we were able to drive the last 1:42. With 4 seconds left we were able to hit the pass.

You know, you've got to be fortunate, obviously, or blessed if you're going to get that pass. But at the same time, it's a play. They all count, all of those plays count. So that's how I see it.

It's no different than the year before. We controlled the football game the year before in the second half. So it gives our football team a great deal of confidence in how we measure up here. I'm sure they have a great deal of confidence as well. I hear they do.”

Facing a team twice in a year in not usually done. How are the Spartans preparing? “I think the preparation is very deep because you've already been through an entire week of preparation. So you have an opportunity to go back and critique what you've done. And that's one of the things that we always do is we write down everything that we've done in that pass game, good, bad or indifferent, so we can lean on that for the next year. So we're able to lean on it again this year, but with the knowledge that things are going to change out there as well.

I think offensively and defensively and special teams, there are things that are going to be changed that we're going to have to adapt to. But we have a system. They have a system. Probably the majority of what they do and we do are going to be within that system. Probably 75% are going to be within that system and 25% are going to new things that have maybe gone on in the past five games or maybe 10% or 5% are new things.

There is not too much you can change in one week and three days time that says you can revamp this whole thing. So we are what we are, as well as them, and you get ready to play. And you play on emotion, you play things conceptually, and you allow your offense and defense, and special teams philosophies and concepts to push you through and be successful, allow you to be successful.”

How big is it for MSU to have William Gholston back? Dantonio wasted no time saying how much he expects from his sophomore super star. “He didn't have an opportunity to play the fist time, so he'll play Wisconsin at least once. He's excited to play. I think everybody's excited to play in this game, because it is this game. It's not that it's against Wisconsin. It's exciting because we're in this game.

As far as our defensive ends, Rush, Gholston, Drone, Freeman, they're going to have a challenge because Will can move in the pocket. He's very calm. As I said five weeks ago, he's extremely calm and doesn't get rattled back there and can make you miss. You can get on the edge and throw the ball down the field. We don't want to jump at him when he's running down the field.

But, obviously, we can run at that position, we have tracked people down and there are games, very last game was an elusive quarterback. We played Robinson out here, a very elusive quarterback, we had six or seven sacks, so it can be done. We'll put a focus on trying to contain him and limit his opportunities.”