more slobbering over sparty's "powerhouse" in the making
http://www.athlonsports.com/college-football/17018/michigan-st-no-longe…
Yep, the new meme - Classy Classy Dantonio, the Spartan for life who makes short jokes about another team's player and who tries to rub its instate rival's face in tough losses (App State) and historically bad record, is building a powerhouse on ashes of the carcas of Michigan. He is dominating in-state recruiting, which of course has always been the determining factor of success (doesnt WMU have more Michiganders that MSU - they must be winning the State).
Not surprisingly, Adam Rittenberg, who linked to this story is one of the biggest proponents of this meme.
This meme will not end until we finally beat Sparty - what, you mean are 6-1 against them in the past seven years.
From reading this article, you would think that Sparty has been dominating us for years and that Michigan was not historically bad last year, but rather now in its proper place in the mitten state's pecking order.
Yep, unless Dantonio jumps to OSU - there is nothing that can stop them from returning to glory.
This MSU as the new "it girl" is hilarious and, but for an uncharaceristically good year for talent in the state of Michigan, would be an entirely non-story.
Get used to more of this stuff until we start winning again.
the double post has been removed. now my original post looks dumb.
yeah, I was wondering what you were trying to say.
No kidding. I thought there was a glitch in the matrix, there for a second.
I don't understand why everybody is getting so bent out of shape over this article. Yeah, the author is an idiot and there's a pro MSU bias, but I've read much worse both for and against Michigan.
There are quotes from Spartans saying that beating a 3-9 Michigan team is not the same as beating a typical Michigan team, and that the 1 win doesn't mean a whole lot if they can't follow it up. He mentions MSU's abysmal record against Michigan from the past 40 years and the disparity in B10 championships. This is the type of stuff that I regularly read on this board.
The author favorably compares Michigan to LSU, Florida and Bama. He notes that Michigan is pulling in highly talented recruits from around the country and says that if Michigan isn't recruiting enough players from in-state, then it's because the players aren't good enough.
I think that if the goal of this article was to slobber on MSU and shit on Michigan, then it did a terrible job.
EDIT: Any idea why I can't reply to the original post?
I definitely did not read it that way. The author made the bare minimal attempts to appear neutral, and they were all followed up by a snarky parting shot or paragraph. This is a bunch of b.s. if you ask me.
I've never seen such hoopla over one win by MSU in my lifetime.
Logic says the 1999 win was much much much more impressive when both teams were good.
I simply dont understand how beating the worst Michigan team in history suddenly means MSU is now all powerful. I'd be willing to bet if anyone wanted to look it up that MSu has "dominated" the in-state recruiting for god knows how many years.
The thing about it now is that instead of the usual 4 or 5 guys who might pan out: the state has been on a little run of putting out real solid talent and all of a sudden MSU is now a super power.
You really gotta love guys like athlon who needs to sell those magazines and the things they are willing to include for purchase.
Fact of the matter Rod is 2-1 against Dantonio and it took the worst and best teams of those coaches to get Marky his first win. Yet, he still had to gut it out against a team with QB's who literally couldn't hit a man who was uncovered!
I'm working on a diary for who has better recruiting in state in the last 5 years. Should I go longer than 5 years? They have had 36 in-state recruits to our 17 from 2006-2009. So far they have a lot more recruits but our quality is better. Using ESPN's rankings (I'm counting 40s as 60s) is like this:
2006-MSU has 5 recruits and averages 74.2. We have 4 and average 73.
2007-MSU has 7 recruits and avg. of 68.3. We have 5 and avg. 75.
2008-MSU has 12 recruits and avg. 70.2. We have 5 and avg. 77.6.
2009-MSU has 12 and avg. 77.6. We have 4 and avg. 78.
They have a lot more recruits, but we have the higher ranked recruits.
I'd like to see the five years prior to Rodriguez' arrival.
I'll try to get everything from this decade. This will take awhile though. Probably like another week.
Double entendre.
Also, does anyone know who will start for MSU and their positions. I want to see who has more Michigan players starting.
I think that this might help you some: http://www.umvarsityblue.com/2009/06/2009-opponent-preview-michigan-sta…
The players in yellow are returning.
Or, here's the 2008 roster: http://www.msuspartans.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/msu-m-footbl-mtt.html
You can figure out anyone leaving early from the other link as Tim notes just about everyone that leaves early and if you're not important enough to be noted then that means they were a senior and not getting a 5th year.
That's the funny part about this hubbub over State's Michigan-heavy class from last year. Michigan generally takes on average 4 to 6 players from the State of Michigan. Last year they took 4. That's completely normal. But for some reason it's turned into Rodriguez "turning his back on the state".
Right now they have Gardner and Jackson from Michigan...and it's July. They have 7 months to add 2 more (if they want to) and they're right on average.
We're also most likely getting White. Most people will probably count Ricardo as instate too.
It is indeed comical that MSU is getting so much mileage out of one win. I guess, though, that we really should expect as much out of a program whose defining moment was a 10-10 tie against ND in 1966.
That 1999 MSU was really good. That was the one game I can remember where I actually felt MSU was the better team that day.
...that I have ever seen.
Seriously. They looked pretty damn good against us, I thought, and then got blown out two weeks in a row against Wisconsin and Purdue. I couldn't believe my eyes (well, not the first week).
They haven't beaten us twice in a row in over 40 years. That right there tells you something. They go 9-4 and all of a sudden are a "powerhouse." They got killed by the two good teams they played. They barely beat us when we had our worst year ever and they had one of their best. I can't wait until we start kicking their asses regualarly again. Hopefully we can win on the road in EL this year. If not, that will be a sure sign that they are a "powerhouse" and we'll never hear the end of it.
man..that is the worst article i have ever read. how does something with such an obvious bias make it into anything claiming to be an objective publication?
This is what amazes me about all of this shit: Ohio State, who is coming off of their longest winning streak in the history of the rivalry and has recently out-recruited Michigan, has zero* articles like this written about them, yet Michigan State, who is 1-6 over the last 7 games against Michigan and has been out-recruited by Michigan over that span, has article after blog post after article written about how they have captured the state of Michigan and has doomed our program.
This is a serious question: if we beat Ohio State this season, would anyone really go around writing articles or talking shit about how Michigan has turned the tide and are the better program? I'd like to think not, but maybe I'm wrong
*zero might be an exaggeration, but there are very few
We don't have the largest inferiority complex known to man though. The only thing MSU has on us is hot girls, a basketball team, agriculture school, vet school, and a few other specialties that not many people go into. I don't think if Michigan basketball went further into the tournament we'd be writing articles like this.
I hope not. In fact, you raise a very good point. I think that our basketball program is in better shape right now than their football program is, yet I have never once considered claiming that we are reversing the rivalry or something like that in basketball.
Results on the field are the most important measurement of success, and until we are looking at some sort of Michigan State winning streak (and I feel we are going to kick the piss out of them this season), articles like this should never, ever be written
They can brag when they've won 4 in a row. Which won't happen.
Hell, I'll let them brag when they win two in a row, and I don't see that happening either
I think most people here think State has a better chance to win. If we were at home, though, I'd think we would win.
At this point I think State has the edge. That could change come game time, though.
Yeah, we'll have to see. There are too many question marks for us to know how good of a team we really have, but I think we beat State this year. Like somebody else said, we outplayed them for a large part of last year's game, and that was a nine win Michigan State team. We also roll into East Lansing off of back-to-back games against Eastern Michigan and Indiana while MSU plays at Wisconsin the week before.
MSU is looking at a very similar season to ours. They will probably have a better defense, we will probably have a better offense. It should be a really good game. I think we win a close one, and then move on to get thumped by Iowa the following week
They will have a MUCH better defense. Aren't they only losing Otis Wiley? I think they return 10 starters. Our O isn't better by all that much. I don't think our O will be able to move the ball all over their D especially since it's our first away game. Cousins/Nichols might tear up our safeties too.
Sparty will probably have a very good defense this season. They will also use some spread formations on offense when Nichol is in the game.
They return 7 starters on offense, 8 on defense.
If you got those numbers from Phil Steele, it's actually 7 on offense and 7 on defense. Steele counts true freshman Chris Norman as a returning starter for some odd reason. Michigan State should have the better defense, but besides Greg Jones, it won't exactly light the world on fire
Right, because Michigan has NEVER been able to win in East Lansing. State has the best chance it's had in a long time to hang two in a row on Michigan, no doubt, but I still don't think they'll do it.
I backed up my reasoning. You're just giving a feeling you have about the game. Why do you think Michigan can win at MSU (a team with a very good defense and a good offense) in their first away game with a freshman QB?
No ringer, no stanton, no threet. Hopefully no sheridan.
Do you mean no Hoyer? Either QB they have this year will be as good or better than him.
Didn't mean to come off as snarky. Just pointing out that home field advantage hasn't really been a factor in the game in the past. Their team should be pretty good and will be tough to beat, but this notion that a Spartan victory is a foregone conclusion (not necessarily yours) just strikes me as absurd.
This part is classic:
Dantonio has too much class to crow about the Wolverines’ misfortune, although he did make a crack about how his team had no reason to hang its head after a late-season loss. “As I said before, embarrassing would have been 3–9 coming into this game,” he saidSo....Dantonio has too much class to make fun of Michigan....except when he doesn't. Sounds like some GBMW type analysis.
Yeah, I read that paragraph and was trying to decipher which part of it made any sense. I guess Athlon is just too dedicated to objectivity, except for when they write pieces like this
There's a difference between one crack and crowing. Duh.
Dantonio can make crack about Michigan's team
but too classy to crow about Michigan's program
well we are in egreement sir.
My sparty freinds(the ones who still to this day claim they coulda gotten into u of m "if they had applied", with there 21 act's.....have sent the 3rd email of the summer saying, they will be big 10 champs this yr...and national champs within next yr.
but somehow, they never respond to my question....how many have you won the past 7yrs? but as they say..."doesn't matter about past...all about future"....well there future will most likely be working for me(literally, they do landscaping and odd jobs for my parents house)
I know this one girl who said she got into both, but decided to go to State for their honors program and because the girls were "a lot nicer and less bitchy" and the guys were "hotter." Turns out, after months of lying to everyone, she hadn't applied, but she "knew" she would get in because her sister and parents did. Her stats were terrible. I can't believe she even got into MSU. She also lied about the honors part. Basically, she was a psycho and a compulsive liar.
"My sparty freinds(the ones who still to this day claim they coulda gotten into u of m "if they had applied", with there 21 act's....."
That is a lot of fail in one sentence. Hats off to you, Michigan Man.
Backth in the olth dayth, me anth George Perleth uthed to go out drinkingth in Eatht Lanthing. Anth I tell youth what... ith a heckth of a thity.
"Not surprisingly, Adam Rittenberg, who linked to this story is one of the biggest proponents of this meme."
According to http://myespn.go.com/blogs/bigten, that link was, and I quote, "Posted by ESPN.com's Graham Watson".
Clearly, Rittenberg's influence is spreading.
My favorite quote from this article is Sparty's response to losing the OSU game 45 to 7:
"In football, 60 minutes is not necessarily enough time for the best team to win."
LOL Did he honestly think that given enough time the Spartans would have won that game?
This isn't bike racing (to which I am an avid participant) there aren't guys who better as the race gets longer. Football beats you to shit! The objectivity of the article is outstanding... ha!
when I read that too. I would love to see the score after three or four hours of that nonsense that was the MSU-OSU game last year. Any guesses?
I wonder who has the deeper bench, MSU or OSU...