OT- McDowell "worst interview we ever did" according to one team scout
I don't get it. He apparently criticized the MSU coaching staff for stalling his development?
I hate Dantonio as much as the next guy, but he's the LAST coach that should be criticized for "underdeveloping" players given what he has done over the past 7 years with leftover players deemed not worthy of higher echelon p5 schollies.
To be fair, McDowell was a 5-star for 247 and Scout and a 4-star according to ESPN. He was the kind of player who would be going to Michigan instead of MSU under the current regime. All Dantonio really teaches is to cheat and hate Michigan. Maybe McDowell has a point...
Honest question - can you expand upon the cheating accusation? I know we've heard stories about Bullough and PEDs, but is there more?
It's really either A-childish, or B-dumb to assert Dantonio isn't a good coach.
...where his head is at. This is it...millions on the table for the taking. All he has to do is prepare hard for the combine process and there are many places now available to do just that. I'm sure his agent is tight with several. And the guy just blows it off.
His loss. There are many many players who will gladly take his place.
He's the guy that picked - let's face it, an inferior school in MSU - because he wanted to party. Even over the objections of his own mother who was trying to look out for him.
He never took any of it seriously enough. It all came too easy.
Now when he has to work at it for it to come to him, he's just not prepared to do that.
He's always been a head case, and very likely always will be. I would not waste an early round draft pick on him.
MSU was sending people to the pros. They were getting all the exposure. They were a top ten program. They were winning at an unprecedented pace, even finding ways to beat OSU. Those that chose MSU prior to that, when they could have gone anywhere and UM was top 10 annually that would apply to. Players like Duckett. But the pick was easy for him if he were thinking football at that time. If not for Mattison, they would not have received coaching. It would have been fine for him, but there still would have been far more NFL eyes on EL than on AA during that period of time. Now the shit that is being exposed makes me wonder. I don't wonder about it happening. I just wonder why, all of a sudden, word out of EL was supposed to be accepted and their history both off and on-field was just that, history. Shit was still happening, when we did get word. Things like picking the boys up from jail to play ball on Saturdays but it was considered old news by Monday.
He did choose poorly because the only way he was going to fully tap his potential, apparently, was under Hoke/Mattison and especially Harbaugh. With that kind of attitude he would have been on the bench under Harbaugh, which was his only chance. I see a Charles Rogers-type flamout coming.
What a surprise.
Drew Rosenhaus probably wasn't a good agent choice for him.
Already hearing this could drop him 3-9 spots in the draft.
MSU plays their next basketball game on 3-9.
During the 2016-2017 season, Michigan State's football team only won 3 games while losing 9 of them giving them the record of 3-9 on the season.
Is it a coincidence that 3-9 is Mark Dantonio's birthday? pic.twitter.com/XtJiU2zIa1
— Brendan Roose (@BrendanRoose) December 23, 2016
Obviously...
tell me Harbaugh's birthday is on day 0 in the 14th month of the lunar calendar.
Speaking of d'antonyee, he taught malik to play the disrespekt card well in the interview....
Said one team to Edholm, “He might be the type who, maybe he falls (in the draft) and it lights a fire under him. I don’t know. But I need that light on more often, and he didn’t like it when we asked him about that.”
from MSU for awhile now, and this comes as no surprise. It comes down to the type of people being recruited. And when you see a pattern of attitude problems, players being kicked off the team, crime problems, disunity, etc., you have to question the leadership of the program.
Oh come on, McDowell chose MSU over us, don't act like we wouldn't have taken him.
Question the leadership, absolutely. There is a trend developing with any highly rated Spartan becoming a locker room cancer. That's on the coach, just as much as the player. That team in EL can't handle any type of success for whatever reason.
Agree with the first line.
We wanted him and recruited him hard. Let's not somehow claim that we don't recruit that type of player.
And regarding players quitting, I think that the late days of the Brady Hoke regime saw Michigan players "quitting" (no longer putting forth maximal effort) in huge numbers.
Disappointing seasons bring out the worst in players. This is true at the youth level and the college level.
RichRod's players quit on him in the bowl game. Hoke's players didn't quit on him, certainly not in huge numbers. It just wasn't a good team.
I thought the same thing at the time. We later learned that Funchess was playing hurt most of the season.
EDIT: From the Detroit News:
"Funchess started his final season at Michigan with a superb performance against Appalachian State with seven catches for 95 yards and three touchdowns — all of which came in the first half. Funchess had nine catches for 107 yards against Notre Dame the following week, but a toe injury held him out of the third game and slowed him for the rest of the season as he caught just one more touchdown and didn't eclipse 90 yards again until the final game (108 yards at Ohio State)."
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/college/university-michigan/201…
just the way it was. The difference we needed was on OL.
They did absolutely quit in the bowl in RR's last year. That's undeniable. This wasn't a comment of RR versus Hoke, this was an example of a Michigan team that quit during a challenging season. It happens when teams fail to live up to their expectations.
But there were a number of games in the last Hoke season that were a complete lack of effort -- ND, MSU, Rutgers, Maryland to name four off of the top of my head.
I suppose being very poorly coached will do that to players sometimes.
I quite literally quit and befriended many others who did the same. Players under Hoke were not driven. They loved him, but they had no fire in their gut.
Sad but true. It became more obvious with each passing season.
He chose MSU because he knew he could continue to act like a childish ahole at MSU and get away with it. He knew his crap wouldn't be tolerated at Michigan. Maybe that is why his Mom wanted him to go to Michigan instead of MSU because she knew he'd continue to act like a child if he did go to MSU instead of learning to become a man at Michigan.
Devin Gardner
Why do you have WD logo in your pic?
Gibbons was expelled despite the coaches did little. That would not have happened at Staee. Or Florida St, or Baylor. And at some the local cops actively aid in the cover up
I don't believe our football coaches become enlightened and equally concerned about the safety of non athletes who the football players interact with, just because they sign with UM. But at least UM itself and possibly AAPD will do a hell of a lot more than others when incidents occur
WaaaayTL;DR: Insecurity never breeds anything but cycles of mostly failure capped with brief kinda-successes, interpreted by the insecure as a signal they’ve made it. Conversely, security breeds mostly cycles of winning/improvement capped with brief kinda-failures, interpreted by the secure as case studies to be used for the furthering of future improvement.
Long Version: It's the same reason any organization with a constant massive chip on its shoulder can't handle success when it comes their way.
It's because all of their energy to that point is derived & generated from an "I'll show them" inferiority complex. The moment they experience success it serves only to show that, "see, I was right"...but nothing more because that is the unsustainable nature of doing anything to prove people wrong. At that point all motivation has been eliminated and the entire construct collapses in on itself- there's nothing left to achieve. The cycle completes itself over and over again as long as the culture is built on that foundation of insecurity. This is why they never achieve and then sustain success- because no one at MSU has ever eradicated the disease at the heart of everything they do. It's also the reason for their tendency to completely melt down in a given season if they beat M. There's nothing left in the tank after those wins.
Some teams make it further than others on this losing-mentality fuel- some even win championships here and there.
But NONE ever make it as far as those with a winning culture, which is built not on just wanting to win, but on continual improvement for the sake of strengthening and conquering your own weakness, regardless of the outcome. These cultures always have gas left in the tank, because you are never finished improving- there is always a higher level to push yourself to.
This is why it's so critical to have athletic leadership and coaches who push the only winning-culture button there is: conquer yourself every moment of every day, and winning will become a byproduct ("Enthusiasm unknown to mankind" anyone?). Mork has probably uttered similar logic a few times, as all coaches do here and there. But it's pretty clear his 99% go-to is the disrespekt button, and that's what always leads back to this cycle. I get why he, and seemingly all of MSU, does it too- it would be near impossible to come in and swim against that current- a culture that eats, breathes, and sleeps this crap, and has done so for decade after decade after decade. A lot easier to just keep up the status quo, win a few games, and lose your multi-million dollar job after 3-9 years.
No matter the sport, they will forever be this way until someone with enormous influence goes in there and absolutely refuses to let that be their fuel. It would have to be sustained for long enough that the whole school & fan base see the light and no longer tolerate the BS. There’s just too much history, too many alumni, and too many fans to change it for more than a few fleeting seasons at best. I can’t imagine anyone lower than a university president surgically removing this part of their psyche, and they’d have to articulate all of this effectively enough for all to see and abhor the source of their historical futility.
The history of consistent winners and winning cultures is littered with evidence of this truth: Greatness doesn’t care what you think of it- it is only concerned with what it’s going to take to get better. Every. Single. Day.
Let’s hope MSU keeps feeling slighted by anything and everything all the time…it’s worked out pretty good for them so far.
Impressive essay - would read again.