Mark Dantonio Refuses To Talk About Players Not on the Depth Chart, but Does About Spring Football

Mark Dantonio Refuses To Talk About Players Not on the Depth Chart, but Does About Spring Football Breslin Center East Lansing, MI I don’t blame Mark

Mark Dantonio Refuses To Talk About Players Not on the Depth Chart, but Does About Spring Football

Breslin Center

East Lansing, MI

I don’t blame Mark Dantonio for not wanting to talk about Macgarrett Kings his often in trouble WR. Or even suspended RB Delton Williams, but that day is coming. It just wasn’t today.

Williams is suspended for an arrest earlier this month and Kings has not had is status clarified since his arrest last month, but he is not listed on the spring depth chart. CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT THEIR LEGAL ISSUES AND DANTONIO'S ROUGH OFF SEASON.

I asked Dantonio for an update on Kings and he told me, "I'm going to talk about the guys on our depth chart. And anybody not on the depth chart, is sort of in limbo, that's the best way to say it right now. And we're day to day on a lot of guys.” When Joe Rexrode of the Detroit Free Press followed up my question looking for clarification on Williams status.  Dantonio remained steadfast saying, “That would be a follow up question, so we are going to about these guys right here. I've issued a statement on that. And we'll take the next statement.”

Dantonio finds himself in a difficult situation. He has bent over backwards for both players. Kings more than Williams and with his long standing three strike policy the Kings situation has many people at Michigan State talking. There is NO doubt that Dantonio will do what he feels is best. This decision won’t be made about football, but as one prominent member of the MSU administration told me last week before I left for the NCAA tournament, “He has to think about his credibility in the locker room as well. He set the standards high and if you have a guy with more than three strikes that tells other players that there are different rules.”

Despite not wanting to talk about the off field problems, Dantonio was more than willing to talk about his team and where they are heading into the spring. “Spring ball for me is a time for growth. It's an opportunity to get 3 percent better on every practice. We've got 15 practices, so do the math on that. But we've always tried to do that. We've got a foundation I feel or we feel, really, right now, we have a very strong foundation, we need to be able to build on that foundation, as we move forward. And the reality is that the expectations here are very, very high. And they should be. And that's where we start with.”

I like the Spartans head man calling out the expectations and embracing them. He has since he arrived in 2007 and eight straight bowl games later (four wins in a row) his team is poised to make as step. After back to back top five finishes this team has eyes set on a nation title.

Dantonio didn’t run from that at all. In fact he embraced it. “The first goal has to be to win, which is as tough this side of the conference is as tough as there is in college football. But a lot of good teams, a lot of very good coached football teams.”

For Dantonio it comes down to players embracing what the Spartans have become. Just like Izzo’s cagers don’t get a down year anymore, neither do Dantonio’s football players. Coach D addressed it, “There's still room to grow, and I think that's what we're trying to do, continue to grow. We're here to stay. And I think that's something we've got to constantly say to our football team and preach to it, is you're going to be measured on what you do next. And there's basic expectations now from our players who have left, and from I think Spartans in again, that we need to continue to raise our level of play.”

He continued talking about the expectations of winning even bigger than they have saying, “But you leap frog from there to the next step to the next step. And I think it's possible with what we've accomplished, we've got a name for ourselves a little bit. We've got some rankings, and I think you need those things to be able to put yourself over the edge. We're up there now so we've got a little bit of a podium, I guess I'd say, if that's the right word. You've got a little bit of a recognition, so what are you going to do with that? So I just feel that our football team, you're always trying to reach farther, reach higher, and we've got to reach a little further and you're in a playoff game. And that would be the goal to get in the playoff game. But to do that you have to go through the progression.”

Can a team that has won four straight bowl games, back to back top five finishes really keep the chip on the shoulder that has made Dantonio teams thrive? He told a group of reporters the blunt truth and it got a lot of laughs as he referenced the disrespect. “All you have to do is read the paper, right? Absolutely. Okay. I believe that it's how you're built. We try to be built for the long haul here. And as I said at the end of this thing, we're here to say. And that's got to be a mindset. And you don't get there being happy with where you're at. You have to have some type of mindset where you're going to be challenged. And I understand we're going to be challenged.”

But don’t take Dantonio’s embracing of expectations as his being foolish. He knows that his team has areas of weakness that must be addressed and he answered them head on. “First we've got to look at who we lost. I think we lost a great two great tailbacks, actually. So it's time for new guys to rise up. We have two guys that basically will be red shirt sophomores, Gerald Holmes and Madre London. And then also Gerald Owens is involved in that, as well, he's a red shirt freshman. Tailback is an issue.”

He went on to say, “We've got good players, there (RB), I think we're going to find out a little bit more of our guys as we move toward. Wide receivers, we lost two great players. I think we have players there, but we have to adapt and see who is going to step up in that area and really take over their areas of prominence, I guess I'd say.”

He continued by talking defense, “We lost two good corners. Aside from that, I think we're pretty solid. We've got guys who played football, Riley (Bullough) has played in there, a lot of football for us. Jon Reschke is also there. Very excited for Shane Jones and what he's been able to do in terms of just his he's come along. So we'll see how he goes. But I think those are the areas. Actually I think everybody else is pretty experienced. We're sort of established on the offense life, defensive line, and the linebackers, our tight ends. We've got depth at wide receiver. But certainly our quarterback situation is very, very solid.”

Many, this reported included thought Delton Williams was going to be the starter coming into the spring, that changed with his suspension. Most think it doesn’t matter. Dantonio has a stud freshman tailback coming in (L.J. Scott) that most think can be the starter when the Spartans kick off Big Ten play if not before. After what many believe was his best recruiting class to date, Dantonio knows he may have answers there as well. “We've got a lot of good freshmen coming, especially skilled positions, I feel. And usually as a freshman you're going to play early at the skilled positions. And so whether that's a wide out, whether that's a corner,">LJ Scott at tailback would be a guy that's going to be in the hunt. I think that's going to be I sort of naturally assume that. He's good enough player to come play now. It looks like it on film. Once he gets here we'll figure it all out. Sometimes players try to lay going this way or going that way of high school, too. It's important he comes in in shape and we'll see how he works.”

So as spring football kicks off today expectations are high. Conventional wisdom is that the Spartans are shoe in for a preseason top ten ranking and most think a top five.

This one thing is certain. While most fans look forward to September 4, 2015 at Waldo Stadium in Kalamazoo for the kickoff to the season, Dantonio is just thinking about today and getting 3% better. You can dream about a national title next year. Dantonio has already won one; he knows that the work it takes to do it starts today.