Contrary to reports...MSU is on the rise!

Michigan State University football is back. Pay no attention to the baseless rubbish that was written about MSU by the Detroit media. They are never going to be objective. They are paid to cheer for the other team and are rewarded for spurning MSU. I find the biased nature of reporting funny at this point. What is truly sad is that it does nothing to help the state of Michigan or the sons and daughters of this state that buy into what is said or unsaid in the Detroit papers about MSU.

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The most recent example was Drew Sharpe’s analysis of Michigan State’s bowl game. Sorry Drew, I agree with very little that was written in your article. Same old Spartans? Really, what MSU team did you watch all year? The MSU team that I watched was full of overachievers. It was full of kids that were hungry to win. It was a team that mimicked the very spirit and mentality of Mark Dantonio. They never quit. They came out and played power football for four quarters and lost six football games by less than seven points. This was a Spartan team that was picked by most of your colleagues to finish 4-8. They were in their bowl game right down to the very end even with a 4 INT performance by Hoyer. Same old Spartans? Spartan fans are excited and they are not buying it.

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The biased opinions are so over-the-top, that even after MSU sold out the Palace (which is located in metro Detroit) and beat #4 Texas in a nationally televised game, an article about M-Rod was the feature story in the sports section. Rather than feature an article about a game played in metro Detroit where freshman Kalin Lucas from Orchard Lake Saint Mary’s was the star for the home team, the Free Press put up an article about M-Rod (which is old news). MSU’s victory over Texas featured two freshmen from metro Detroit that had outstanding performances. Â

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Tom Izzo challenged the members of the media a few years ago after a Detroit reporter labeled his team “soft.” Somebody labeled Izzo’s Spartans “underachievers” about a month before they went to the Final Four. Months later, Izzo and his Spartan warriors hung the Final Four banner in the rafters of Breslin without a single member of the media present. Tom’s explanation was simple, when the venom and garbage was written about his kids, who in the media took up for them? I get it and I am taking up for our kids and trying to restore some balance before “the fall.”

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This year marks an interesting time for college athletics in the state of Michigan. The coaching change in Ann Arbor is not going to be seamless. The Wolverine model for seamless coaching changes went out the door when UM declared war on Jim Harbaugh. Harbaugh was the guy that could have slid right in behind Lloyd and kept the Wolverine machine well-oiled and on track. Years from now we will look back on the Harbaugh pissing match and call it one of the key components to the downward turn in Michigan’s dominance. Trust me Wolvies, this one is going to hurt you. Lloyd Carr truly put on a display against the Gators and to think your riding a better horse now is just plain ignorant.

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The transition is going to leave the door open a little bit and come February, MSU will have out-recruited Michigan in the home state for the first time in Lord knows how long. Put in on your calendar; February 6th, the national analysts will report that the battle for Michigan talent was won by MSU. Don’t bother reading the Detroit papers; they’ll have their own tainted list showing Michigan firmly won the recruiting war while Lemming, Scout and Rivals all have the state’s best talent heading for East Lansing. I love it.

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Metro Detroiters, Fred Smith, Charles Burrell, Kalin Lucas and Durrell Summers will leave East Lansing having won a championship. On the gridiron, MSU will find a way to win the Big Ten in the next four seasons and will continue to recruit metro Detroit effectively. I expect Lucas and Summers to win multiple championships and ultimately be a part of the most successful college team in the state of Michigan. Over the last ten years, MSU basketball has been the most successful team in the state. Don’t look now, but they are poised to hang another banner in the Breslin Center.  The question I pose to all of you that write for the Detroit media machine is quite simple. Will you be there when the banners are hung or will you write something irresponsible and degrading about our kids that bar you from the doors of Breslin?