Adam Rittenberg's Best Case-Worst Case for MSU
Adam Rittenberg has a video blog wherein he discusses MSU's Best Case v. Worst Case scenarios for 2010.
I found two of the comments at the bottom of the page interesting. One was by a UM fan (?) who predicted that UM would win 4 games in 2010. The second comment was by a Sparty fan who said he would be "really, really mad" if MSU was any worse than 8-4. I find it amazing how MSU fans have taken that one 9-4 season in 2008 (a season where Iowa and Wiscy handed them two wins) and turned that into their annual baseline expectation.
Oh, and for any of you jokers who want to b*tch about the fact that this topic is "another MSU thread"....I'm just gonna issue a pre-emptive "Bite Me!"
can't cover up the fact that they are 6-6 (or worse) , 7 times out of every 10 years.
I can't stand the new Spartan we are football shit either.
ha ha ha! that was funny.
I can't get video here at work. What was Adam's bottom line best/worst case scenarios?
i can't help but wonder where the realm of red and grey people is. i suspect arizona - native americans and retirees?
Fantasia.
Do they still allow Native Americans in Arizona? I could have sworn that was a part of the bill...
I refuse to give them the word scarlet because it makes me think of the deicious Scarlett Johansson - the two should never share the same thought process.
I actually always point out that the color scarlett is the color the represents sin in much of the Christian tradition and how appropriate it is for OSU to have it as one of their colors.
State has a 40 year record of having the rare 9 win season followed by abject and long lasting mediocrity. Can you say 9-4 followed by 6-7? I do not believe a team can win in college football playing Tressel-ball unless you can recruit like OSU, which State can not. As for St. Dantonio, note that his six year record as a collegiate head coach is 40-34, which equates to a 7-6 average season. The perfect MSU head coach.
After Northwestern, Sparty has the easiest schedule in the Big Ten. State fans should be angry if they win fewer than 8 games.
As we all know though, overall record means nothing to them. There is only one game on the schedule that they actually care about.
"A we all know, overall record means nothing to them."
Especially the criminal kind...
Maybe it's reasonable to care about MSU because they're our in-state rival, they're in our conference, we play them every year, we go after many of the same recruits, they've beaten us two years in a row and have giant heads as a result, and perhaps it's because some college football fans are actually interested in teams other than the one they root for.
Evidence-
Best Case: 4 misdemeanors and 2 felonies
Worst Case: Glenn Winston returns to lead an assault on every frat house on campus. All are burned to the ground 'William Tecumseh Sherman Style'
If my memory serves me right, General Sherman is who the Sherman tank is named after, correct? That is all. That is one thing I do remember from grade school. Too bad he was born in Ohio! That fact I just wiki'd.
unless you believe "people murder people, whatever", because Sherman was a brutal, compassionless man.
war's cool.
Sit down and have a talk with my old man, and step-father. They'll tell you otherwise. Both were in Vietnam.
Agreed.
My Dad was too.
no offense meant.
I'm a veteran, and deserved the negs.
... Sherman was a hero whose tactics are still studied today by many military schools. During his march to the Atlantic he lost almost no men in combat while single handedly breaking the will of a stubborn enemy who would have kept fighting if not for Sherman's campaign. Much of the history has been exaggerated by a bitter south who still holds a grudge. The fact is, most of his march was fairly pedantic until he reached South Carolina. Only there did he "unleash hell."
From Wiki: "The damage done by Sherman was almost entirely limited to the destruction of property. Though exact figures are not available, the loss of civilian life appears to have been very small."
I sometimes think that Bleacher Report gets their writers from ESPN commenters. No sugarcoat.
They pretty much allow anyone who can put enough words together to write. Sometimes you get a decent writer, and sometimes you get someone who literally would not be able to pass an eighth-grade competency test. I was most irritated with an article entitled: "Spartan Hoopla: Top-Five Reasons to Choose Michigan State Over Michigan."
As for the MSM, it seems like they have an infatuation with the idea of MSU being an elite team and print it every year, as if printing it will make it true, instead of allowing truth to appear first and then printing it. I love the "objective" media.
Tater's right....Bleacher Report is terrible. That "Spartan Hoopla" article was made entirely of statements pulled out of the author's ass.
The MSM exists to sell things, and making off-the-wall statements with limited threads of truth sells pretty well, Goebbels-style.
I seriously cannot fathom why Rittenberg and some of the pre-season magazines are so bullish on the Spartans this year.
It seems that most sports media bases their pre-season expectations on the previous season without really taking into account the impact of departures. Its like their using NFL metrics for college teams.
There is a big question mark on defense and possibly tailback for MSU. There is a huge one at QB at PSU. Yet both of these teams seem to have inflated expectations pre-season. Maybe it is is based on ease of schedule, dunno ...
That said I think we're underrated in terms of potential. If our guys keep their confidence up (which they haven't been able to the past two seasons), we'll surprise a lot of naysayers.
It's kinda nice, for once, to have a UM team underrated than overrated. Sure makes me look forward to the results on the field even more this year.
There isn't really a question at tailback in regards to talent. Baker and Caper are good. It's their Oline that is the question. MSU has an easy schedule, and should do no worse than 8-4, but then again they are MSU.
he's bullish. He gave a "high" best case, true. But he gave a pretty awful "worst case" as well. He thinks 8-9 wins is about right for them. I find it hard to argue with that. Several people mentioned the schedule here already.
State's got experienced and talented skill guys on offense, maybe the best in the B10. The OL is a question mark, but it's not like they're going to be trotting out walk ons and true freshman to plug the gaps.
If they're secondary comes together, they should be decent on D. Not sure what the plan is if Cousins gets hurt with Nichol moving outside (Maxwell?). Anyway, I don't think many people expect them to be as good as Iowa, Wisconsin and OSU, but there's certainly the potential there, Spartan fans know it, and if they underperform the staff will certainly feel some heat.
Sparty Best Case: 0-12
Sparty Worst Case: 13-0
Best Case: By some miracle Michigan is taken off their Schedule for the next 5 years.
Worst Case: Michigan is on their schedule for the next 5 years.
sessions ... I find it a little sad and depressing to watch these (at least the ones where he's not on the road). That lone picture hook on the bare wall behind him, the generic apartment grade white paint ... it's like he's living in the same apartment Clooney had in "Up in the Air."
Watch the ACC ones instead. At least Heather Dinnich (IU grad, hey-o) is a cutie.
Heather is very cute...maybe the fact that she's a college football blogger enhances it, but at any rate, I do know she's the only reason I click on the ACC video blog when it pops on on espn.com.
They ought to be 8-4, 4-4, IMHE
They have a really good QB, a nice set of tailbacks in Caper and Baker, a pair of dangerous pass catching TEs, and am emerging playmaker in Keshawn Martin. The OL is a little shoddy.
On D: Jerel Worthy, Colin Neely, Blake Treadwell. Greg Jones, Eric Gordon, Chris Norman, Chris L Rucker, Johnny Adams, and Trenton Robinson all would start or, at worst, be regular contributers in a positional rotation for Michigan.
But, its going to be tough, IMHE, to get more than 1 win during their league road schedule: at MICH, at NW, at Iowa, at Penn State.
They will be at least 3-1, with a strong shot at 4-0, in their Big 10 homes games: Wisco, Illinois, Purdue, Minnesota.
They sweep the OOC slate, all home games, against Western Michigan, Fla Atlantic, ND, Northern Colorado.
When its all said and done, 8-4, 4-4.
spot on. Beat ND, and they're probably looking at 8 Ws.
forget the Michigan State meltdown game that comes every year. My candidate this year is either the Florida-Atlantic game or Minnesota. Sparty always loses a game they should win each year. 7-6 is likely.
Mich/Mich St is going to be a hell of a game this year. My hope is that Mich can run up the score, however I'll settle for a late field goat to win too.
when field goats win, we all win.
I'm not a big "Sparty is SOOOO obsessed with us" guy, but it's hard to argue with the numbers. Since 2000(3 coaches), when MSU beats Michigan (3 times) they 're 7-9 (0.438) in the rest of their games; when they lose (7 times) they're 9-21 (0.300) in the rest of their games. The conclusion is undeniable, they focus on Michigan so much that if they lose, the rest of the season is, apparently, meaningless.
Dantonio has only lost to Michigan once in his three years and that year they went 2-1 after the loss. We'll see if the trend continues but I'd bet it does; especially when looking at the schedule.
There's no doubt this year's game has a whole lot of marbles riding on it. M's got to have it.
...not counting Baby Seal U, we're 1-11 in the regular season after playing Dantonio's MSU teams.
Undeniable conclusion?
Actually, no. It is in fact deniable; you left out 2007. That quip would've actually worked (though still pointless) if you had actually done your counting right.
2007 - 2 regular season losses post-MSU
2008 - 1 win, 3 losses
2009 - 6 losses (+ Baby Seal U)
6+3+2=11
My counting is just fine. Yours needs work.
Oh, I see; beating Florida in the 2008 Capitol One Bowl doesn't count (and why should it?). I guess you got me...so, what's your point?
Have you seen Sparty's schedule? They don't play out of the State of Michigan until the 8th game. That's just crazy. I'm afraid that this schedule sets up pretty well for them (and they don't play the Buckeyes).
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2010-2011 SCHEDULE
( Click on an event for complete event information )
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 |
| Date | Opponent / Event | Location | Time / Result |
 |
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| 09/04/10 |
vs. Western Michigan  |
East Lansing, Mich. | 12:00 p.m. ET |
| 09/11/10 | vs. Florida Atlantic | Detroit, Mich. | TBA |
| 09/18/10 |
vs. Notre Dame |
East Lansing, Mich. | 8:00 p.m. ET |
| 09/25/10 | vs. Northern Colorado | East Lansing, Mich. | TBA |
| 10/02/10 | vs. Wisconsin * | East Lansing, Mich. | TBA |
| 10/09/10 | at Michigan * | Ann Arbor, Mich. | TBA |
| 10/16/10 | vs. Illinois (Homecoming) * | East Lansing, Mich. | 12:00 p.m. ET |
| 10/23/10 | at Northwestern * | Evanston, Ill. | 12:00 p.m. ET |
| 10/30/10 | at Iowa * | Iowa City, Iowa | TBA |
| 11/06/10 | vs. Minnesota * | East Lansing, Mich. | TBA |
| 11/20/10 | vs. Purdue * | East Lansing, Mich. | TBA |
| 11/27/10 | at Penn State * | State College, Pa. | TBA |
No OSU and three cupcakes. Plus Wisconsin at home. Granted, they could and probably should lose all of their away games (minus the Ford Field bullshit) but that's a mostly easy 8-4. Sparty can suck it.
While their schedule does indicate that they should have a successful season (by their standards anyway), they have the uncanny ability of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
How many losses would MSU be happy with, just as long as they still beat Michigan? Would 5-7, but a win against Michigan be okay, or how about 6-6?
If MSU went 1-11, but their only victory was against Michigan they would be happy. In their mind that would be a successful season. If they happen to win this year that would be three in a row over Michigan (which I don't see happening). Heck, they would probably give Dantonio a raise. They would not care about the rest of their schedule. Everyone knows they really only prepare for one game every season.