Michigan State Spartan Fans Once Again Can Declare, "Mark Hollis Got it Right!"

Two programs face off this weekend in South Bend and they couldn’t be more different. Roaming one sideline is the ever outspoken and animated Brian Kelly. On the other, is Michigan State’s “steady hand,” Mark Dantonio. Michigan State could have easily picked Brian Kelly five years ago. We have previously reported that there was strong support for Kelly, but it was Hollis who got his man.

Hollis had to wait for Cincinnati’s season to end before he approached Mark Dantonio five years ago about the MSU job. It was the right way to do it and ‘Coach D’ wouldn’t have it any other way. Kelly was the more exciting pick. He had a history of building teams with high-powered offenses and was never shy in front of the camera. He was a true competitor having been a winner at both Grand Valley State and CMU.

Dantonio on the other hand was the Jim Tressel disciple. He helped OSU win a national championship as a defensive coordinator. He was rebuilding Cincinnati into a respectable Big East program and was doing it with good defense, special teams and a straight up pro style offense, dotting the ‘I” with a fullback.

Hollis ultimately had to choose between flashy and brassy or steady and consistent. Hollis chose steady and consistent. It was the best thing that happened to Michigan State football in the last forty years.

Brian Kelly inherited Mark Dantonio’s Cincinnati roster that was far more talented than anyone realized. Dantonio inherited John L. Smith’s mess and found a way to carry them to a bowl game. He has had MSU in a bowl game each of his first four seasons. Kelly went on to take Cincinnati to a BCS bowl with Dantonio’s kids and then left Butch Jones with little to nothing in the cupboard when he headed for South Bend.

Notre Dame is loaded with talent. Ohio State type of talent fills their roster. This is true if you put a lot of stock in star rankings. Notre Dame out recruits MSU every year according to all of the major recruiting publications. They are “loading” up all over again this year. So there shouldn’t be any excuse for anything less than eight wins and a major bowl game right? I’ll take MSU’s 2-star tailback (Bell) in the open field against any five star golden domer in the secondary. Dantonio has an eye for talent. He also knows how to develop his players and put the right guys in the right position on the field.

Kelly has been the subject of many water cooler conversations lately. He has openly got after kids on national television with four letter word combinations that would rival the late Sam Kinison.  His team needs a steady hand right now to correct their 0-2 record. I am not sure Kelly’s demeanor can right this Irish ship. Notre Dame has suffered under a number of coaching regimes. Their football culture is broken.  Maybe more broken than the MSU football psyche was before Coach Dantonio arrived. The expectations are so much higher.

I don’t expect Saturday to result in anything less than a Spartan victory. It will be very interesting to see how Notre Dame handles themselves this weekend.  If MSU gets a couple of early touchdowns, it could be lights out in South Bend. The same cannot be said about Notre Dame. They gave the game away in Ann Arbor last weekend. The Irish defense was embarrassing.

Those of us from Irish heritage should have filed a class action suit again Notre Dame and had the knick name Fighting Irish forcefully removed from their athletic department. They certainly didn’t represent a whole lot of fight let alone Irish. Even if Notre Dame jumps out to an early lead in this game, I fully expect MSU to answer the bell and handle the game with a steady rudder and a balanced attack giving them another fourth quarter victory against this Brian Kelly squad.