Mark Dantonio Ready to Attack 2013 Football Season

Mark Dantonio Ready to Attack 2013 Football Season There were many positives to be taken away from Michigan State’s 7-6 record last season. But the 2012

Mark Dantonio Ready to Attack 2013 Football Season

There were many positives to be taken away from Michigan State’s 7-6 record last season. But the 2012 season was a tough one for the Spartans to endure. Thanks to one of the best defenses in the nation, five of MSU’s losses were by a mere 13 points combined. But the Spartan offense sputtered due to a combination of injuries and inexperience. Head coach Mark Dantonio will have the unenviable job of picking a starting quarterback, keeping the defense at the top of the Big Ten despite losing a number of starters, and breathing life into the offense. But with Dantonio at the helm, no mountain seems insurmountable.

The beloved head coach recently joined Hondo S. Carpenter, Sr. on Spartan Nation Radio to talk about the current vibe in the locker room, the outlook for this season, and much more. This article is the first of a two-part series.

As a football program, before you look forward to the future, you must look to the past. The veteran MSU head coach, in his seventh year in East Lansing, began by doing just that. “I think what we have to do is look at the broad component of our football team and ask, ‘What do we do very, very well?’, ‘What do we need to get better at?’ and ‘How can we improve in every area, not just offensively?’ Defensively, as well, there’s some things we need to continue [doing],” he said, focusing first on the defense. “The sacks have to return. I think we had 49 in 2011, we’ve got to return to that. We’ve got to come away with turnovers. We scored five touchdowns in 2011, we did not do that last year. We’ve got to play better in the two minute situations. Those are things you critique, but beyond that, our defense was outstanding, having ranked in the top ten nationally in, I think, six categories. We led the Big Ten in defense.

“Coach Narduzzi and our staff defensively, and also our players, have done a tremendous job,” Dantonio concluded.

The offense, unlike the defense, did not produce as it did in years past. The unit struggled to generate momentum, leading to a number of narrow defeats. But the future is bright for the offense, as the unit is loaded with talent. Dantonio evaluated the offense, saying, “When you turn and look towards our offense, you know we need to, again, complete things. We need to catch the ball better. We need to protect the quarterback better. We need to create better when we do have those situations at quarterback where things break down. Those are all things we need to try to fix.”

Adjustments separate the truly great coaches from the mediocre. Those who can handle adversity and learn from the experience advance up the coaching ladder and into the hearts of throngs of adoring fans. The head of a spectacular staff and a master of adjustments, Dantonio has ensured that the same mistakes will not be made in the future.

“Obviously we’ve gone to work very, very hard in those areas trying to remedy the situation. Whether it’s players or scheme or the coaching aspect of it or how it’s taught or confidence level. I think a lot of this is experience: we had an experienced defense last year, and consequently a very, very good defense,” the coach explained. “Last year we were an inexperienced offense and early on, we lost Blake Treadwell, then we regained him, but we lost him. We lost Fou Fonoti. We lost Travis Jackson. Those were experienced guys up front and really, that was the experienced part of our football team returning, other than LeVeon Bell. We had a lot of things we had to juggle, but in the end, we found a way to get things done and we win against teams like Wisconsin, who represents the Big Ten in the Rose Bowl, like Boise [State], who I think were in the top ten or twelve in the nation. So there’s some positives along the way.”

Fans follow recruiting and roster moves now more than ever in the world of college football. So one question lingering in the minds of many is: are there any transfers coming into MSU?

“No, not really. Not right now,” Dantonio answered. “We have a pretty good sense of who our core of our football team is going to be.”

The lack of transfers might concern some. Not bringing in any student-athletes from junior colleges or other universities might also cause one to pause. But Dantonio is completely confident in his current roster. “Our guys have been working extremely hard thus far, and that’s exciting to me…I sense an edge to our football team, and I think that’s a good thing. There’s no sense of entitlement, there’s a sense of competition,” the well-respected MSU coach said. “There’s also a sense of sort of resolve, as I said earlier, I think when we last talked as a group. I think those are positive things that we can build on.”

As important as football is, it is not everything. Coaches do not necessarily enter the business just to win football games. Dantonio, and other coaches like him, are in football to change lives. Dantonio has touched the lives of so many, providing a father figure, role model, and conscience to countless young men.

“If I could go back over my short life already and fix one thing, I would have appreciated more of my time around Coach Dantonio,” former MSU running back Edwin Baker said recently on Spartan Nation Radio. “Everyone talks about sons loving their dads, and I love my dad, but if you’d ever tell me that I could love a man, who wasn’t my father, the way I love Coach Dantonio, I would have said you were crazy. I love Coach Dantonio. The influence that he has put on my life, more off the field than on, I will never be able to repay him.”

Former Spartan wide receiver Devin Thomas also praised Dantonio: “I needed a lot of different things in my life. Coach Dantonio was the man who looked me in the eyes and asked me if I knew that he loved me and always told me the truth. I want to be more like Coach Dantonio.”

When the above two statements were read to Dantonio over the air, the beloved Spartan coach was clearly humbled. “I appreciate the words of those players. That is why you coach, that’s why you get into coaching,” Dantonio said.

The veteran coach went on to explain how one’s reasons for coaching change over time. “As a young person, you probably get into coaching because you never want the game to end for you. I just had my anniversary yesterday, and I was talking to my wife. I’ve never had an August, since the second grade…where I sat around and wasn’t involved in football, whether it was playing it or coaching it. I think that’s why you get into it,” Dantonio said. “As you invest yourself in football, because it is such a great game, there’s all the things with the plays, critiquing things and all the different aspects of it. But when you cut to the real heart and soul of it, it’s about people and it’s about trying to impact young people.”

Dantonio went into further detail about what he believes his purpose is. “They come in at 18 and leave at 22, and they still are a young person when they leave. You try to make a difference in their life. You’re hoping that when they leave here, they are able to make a difference in 100 people’s lives, or a thousand or maybe ten thousand in some cases,” he said. “You look at a guy like Kirk Cousins, and how many thousands of people’s lives he has made a difference in. You’re trying to help cultivate that. It’s not that you’re going to be the end-all answer to a lot of young people. I think, for example, you look at Kirk Cousins, he had great role models at home and had a good foundation when he came, but you just allow him to continue to take root in what was good and try to improve on those things.”

But not all players come in as Kirk Cousins did. Many incoming Spartans come from tough backgrounds and broken families. Dantonio has to play a number of different roles for his players. “For others, it’s about growing up. For others, it’s about stability. For others, it’s about being able to handle adversity and being able to move forward. For others, it’s about getting the degree, the first degree [of any] member in their family. It’s so many different things for so many other people,” Dantonio said.

“You just try to be the best you can. My goal, whether the young man stays here throughout or inevitably leaves before he graduates or maybe he leaves the program--Ashton Legget did, but he went on to play at Illinois State for two years and gain 1,000 yards each year--I just want them to be Spartans for the rest of their life. I want them to know that I was consistent and fair with them, but I had to look them in the eye and give them the brutal reality sometimes. I think that’s what a coach does and it’s very rewarding when you hear those words because you understand you’re making a difference.”