Re: Dantonio
I realize I'm potentially asking for a negbang with this post, but it's MSU/UM week, and it seemed appropriate.
Granted, Sparty is off to a bad season, but there seems to have been a perception that Dantonio was the right guy for the job up in East Lansing. Am I the only person who has believed since his hire that he is not a good coach? I never really understood where the hype came from. He didn't do anything particularly noteworthy at Cincinnati -- he went .500, and after he left, Brian Kelly took that program to new heights.
I will grant that he seems to be a very good recruiter, and granted, he was only at Cincinnati two years, but what is there to lead anyone to believe he is anything but a guy who looks like a good coach simply because he looks like he's upset because of that whole who-peed-in-my-cheerios thing? His time at OSU? Ho hum.
Naturally, there will be a sect of boarders that believe this is further proof that some of us are allegedly obsessed with MSU. Sure. Why not. That aside, what do you think?
September 30th, 2009 at 1:10 AM ^
I just don't care enough about MSU to even care who their coach is one way or the other. But someone posted this the other day and it was fairly entertaining.
http://firedantonio.com/
September 30th, 2009 at 1:20 AM ^
I thought Mark brought toughness and an attitude to MSU, something that they have been lacking for a very long time. I think he got a lot of hype after last year when he went 9-4. But looking at his situation at MSU, has there really been a difference? State continues to choke games away and cant win a big one. They blew it against B.C two years ago in the Champs Bowl. Continue to get waxed by the top dogs in the Big Ten. Hell they didnt pull away from Michigan last year until midway through the 4th quarter. They laid a big egg against UGA (who i thought was way overrated anyways). Then who can forget the meltdown vs CMU.
Living in Ohio, a lot of my buckeye friends (who are great big tenners by the way) think that OSU's defense has never been the same since he left. Maybe he just isnt head coaching material. Maybe he is at his best when he is just in control of a defense as a coordinator.
I find it hard to like that man who has zero personality and clearly has a thing for Michigan. Dont know if it was the Mike Hart comment or what, but he clearly has a chip on his shoulder. Hell, when they ended Michigan to beat OSU to tie for the big ten championship he still pulled for OSU. There really is a little brother feel from the man.
If he doesnt pull a miracle out of his ass and turn this team around i really do think that people will be jumping off his bandwagon. Tough luck for MSU though because he is their til 2016.
Go Blue!
September 30th, 2009 at 5:27 PM ^
Sounds like Gerg.
Good at running one side of the team, not there on running the entire team.
September 30th, 2009 at 1:21 AM ^
He seems pretty meh, not awful, not great. His decisions this year have been rather perplexing though...maybe he is bad? All I know is I hate him, and want to c him crushed.
September 30th, 2009 at 1:22 AM ^
Well, he hates Michigan, has recruited and done well (minus this year) overall.
He is a perfect fit for Sparty and for me. He makes MSU acceptable, which makes a win over them mean more (especially to the rivalry). He is a jackass which makes me very happy to kick his ass (I'd score over 100 points on MSU because of him, 70 and kneel downs without him). He is also a OSU homer, which makes me hate him even more.
Overall, Dantonio is a good coach and is better than anything State has had in years, IMO.
September 30th, 2009 at 10:25 AM ^
what amounts to essentially a .500 record, equal to John L. Smith, "doing well." Then again, maybe .500 is the standard by which MSU coaches are held to.
September 30th, 2009 at 1:23 AM ^
is probably a good coach. They handled the teams that they should have handled last year and he was a coordinator on a national championship team. He is recruiting ok I guess, but I am not sure he is recruiting any better than other coaches have done at State. This year obviously has not gone as planned, but I would not say any of the losses are that surprising. One onside kick away from beating Central, one bad pass away from maybe beating ND on the road. The Wisky game is a bit puzzling just because of how non-competitive they were, but they could easily be 3-1 right now.
Personally, I do not like his attitude and smugness. But when you coach at State and have to compete against one of the most entrenched football powers in the country, you probably need to have an attitude to succeed. I dont know if he is innovative enough to ever get their program past Michigan, but I think he can produce many years of solid football for State. The ceiling is most likely an occassionaly 10-2 season with a plethora of 7-5 or 8-4 years.
September 30th, 2009 at 2:39 AM ^
George Perles was a very good coach, as was/is Nick Saban...IMO Dantonio is not on their level (certainly not Saban's level), but he is a decent coach probably much better suited to be an assistant.
My point is that it takes much more than a decent coach to get MSU back to the top of the Big Ten consistently...it would take a Messiah and there are very few of those out there.
September 30th, 2009 at 9:07 AM ^
Agreed. And as you saw with Saban, once a Messiah comes in and improves the program, MSU is still treated as a stepping-stone job. This is why it won't ever be considered a long-term Big Ten power.
September 30th, 2009 at 10:00 AM ^
he knew he would ALWAYS be the little brother. He conclude that U-M had a huge natural advantage in national recruiting and that even if he got every top recruit from Michigan he would still be way behind. And he was right. If you want to win a national championship at MSU your chances are virtually nil. So why not go to LSU and be the only game in the state, literally? I coach who lusts for a national championship will not move to, or remain at, East Lansing.
September 30th, 2009 at 6:28 AM ^
Dantonio did go 6-2 in the BigTen last year, but wasn't he the fist guy to get out gained in yardage with a 6-2 record...that suggests the 6-2 record was a fluke, at least for that year.
As a head coach he is 33-30 all time vs D1A teams.
September 30th, 2009 at 2:35 PM ^
i know they were outscored in BT play and still went 6-2
September 30th, 2009 at 9:09 AM ^
It's hard to call Dantonio a bad coach when comparing him to John L Smith and Bobby Williams. His sourpuss attitude is hilarious, though.
September 30th, 2009 at 9:14 AM ^
I don't think Dantonio is a good coach--he talks way too much and he can't back it up. I think he's got the potential to be better than their last few there, however, and that may be enough for them for a while. I kinda like having him as an opposing coach so I hope he does--he puts extra fire into the rivalry because he clearly has an inferiority complex and then he can't be able to back it up: a good rivalry that we'll ususally win? Yes, please!
That said, I do think the coaching hire was a good decision for State at the time. The odds of them hanging on to a great coach are small--there are too many schools that are better positioned and can offer more money--so they took a chance on a coach who was a little less likely to be great but much more likely to stay in East Lansing if he was.
September 30th, 2009 at 9:31 AM ^
couldn't take the sparty out of sparty, no one can.
September 30th, 2009 at 9:44 AM ^
I will say this for the man. He doesn't look like things are whipping by him so fast that he has no clue what they are or how to deal with them.
Unlike another MSU coach of recent vintage.
September 30th, 2009 at 10:30 AM ^
When you say
He doesn't look like things are whipping by him so fast that he has no clue what they are or how to deal with them. Unlike another MSU coach of recent vintage.I presume you are referring to Johnelle's own palm.
September 30th, 2009 at 10:08 AM ^
He is not a good recruiter. His class of 21 from '09 had 19 players from either Michigan or Ohio. He has capitalized (or is trying to) on the new hire and the different style of offense in Ann Arbor. He has not, in any way, shown that he can recruit even leftovers from the talent-rich states down south or out west.
He is, like past MSU coaches, going to try to make a living off the PSL.
Outside of the bonanza he has enjoyed from in-state recruiting over the last two years, Dantonio has to approach this thing one way (and Gary Danielson suggested as much when Dantonio was hired): recruit kids who will stay for five years to develop, mix in a couple of stars, try for "character" kids, and make a run once every three to four years. This can be done in part because of the rotating Big Ten schedule (see this year).
But a funny thing has happened on the way to the Hall of Fame for him: MSU got tons of love, and it heightened and accelerated expectations, creating (apparently) the notion that all the sudden the Sparties became one of the so called "We don't rebuild. We reload" programs.
I have no doubt that a good coach in Lansing can produce consistent winning and bowl-bound teams. But to expect anything like what they seem to have tossed out there since Dantonio's arrival is beyond what they are and always will be capable of, if you axe me.
September 30th, 2009 at 10:43 AM ^
It seems like the inmates are running the asylum over there, or at least starting.
September 30th, 2009 at 12:28 PM ^
Brian Kelly is out recruiting Dantonio in Cincinnati, a Big East club that is competing (arguably) with OSU in terms of pulling top OH HS recruits. In my opinion this provides a pretty comparable test case for those Sparty fans who say "oh well it's tough to compete with UM in recruiting, etc." Here are the numbers:
Go out and ask an MSU fan (or for that matter, ask a Bearcat fan) which coach they would rather have on the sidelines Saturday. This should give you the answer to your question "did MSU hire the right coach."
| Coach | Year | Recruiting Rank | Record |
| Dantonio | 2004 | #75 | 7-5 |
| Dantonio | 2005 | #70 | 4-7 |
| Dantonio | 2006 | #70 | 8-5 |
| Kelly | 2007 | #80 | 10-3 |
| Kelly | 2008 | #51 | 11-3 |
| Kelly | 2009 | #53 | 3-0 |
| Kelly | 2010 | #42 | TBD |
September 30th, 2009 at 3:30 PM ^
We undoubtedly dodged a bullet when MSU hired Dantonio instead of Kelly. Dantonio may be a modest upgrade over JLS, but he's nowhere near Kelly's league. Kelly just might have turned MSU into a legit Big Ten power.
September 30th, 2009 at 11:43 AM ^
His constipated expressions, obsession with UM, and lack of wit are annoying. That aside, he appears to be a solid, albeit extremely conservative coach. I get the impression that he's a stickler for the fundamentals and discipline. I can appreciate that since I saw first hand in high school the way these values can get a program back on course -- I will always look back on my Junior year football coach as a huge influence in my life.
Based on the data available at the time, I think MSU got the best option available. Heck, had Lloyd retired a year or two earlier, he might have been on our sideline. Having said that, thank heavens Mark Dantonio was the best option at the time.
September 30th, 2009 at 12:41 PM ^
He will keep them barely above mediocre most years, and will inject more life into the "rivalry" than their performance would normally merit with his "mouse floating on his back asking for the drawbridge to be raised" perception of his program.
I used to think he would have a few great seasons and then take Tressel's job, but at this point, I don't think OSU would ever hire him. I think Dantonio has reached his highest possible level. If he got a job at a better program, the "Peter Principle" would come into play. Dantonio will probably continue MSU's pattern of winning three games against UM every decade for a long time.