Dantonio Dress-Up: Smilin' Mark's Pump n' Lube

Submitted by Sven_Da_M on

It's "goin' to work," Sparty-style, according to the Freep:

Mark Dantonio wore his “camp shirt” today, a nod to the blue-collar approach he seeks from his team this season.

And, here he is, in a low-res picture:

 

That's a Dantonio smile.  It really is.  The snappy label?  Here's the details:

Everyone on the team got one of the shirts, he said — short sleeves, collars and sewn-on name tags with “Spartan Moving” below the names.

First off, "blue collar?"  Really?  It's the primary color of your only real rival!

Secondly, "Spartan Moving?"  As in "Movin' Out?" Like after another year like last year...

Finally, those of us who have truly been blue collar once (and not had to fashion a cute outfit for make-believe) know that movers don't have work shirts with their names on them.  (Protip: It's because many are day-laborers, and the moving company wouldn't spring for such items except for generic models sporting names like "Bub" or "Tony" or "Melvin" or "Mark.")

So I would suggest that if Coach D wants to channel a timeless blue-collar service provider, this is a good guy to model:

  

Mark better practice smiling because here is a candid picture of The Sparty AD and President upon recently hearing of another recruiting class of 1 and 2 stars:

 

 

As Dantonio says: Go Blue (Collar)! 

 

 

MGoBoard
Football
Mark Dantonio
Pretending to work
Not ever smiling

winterblue75

August 23rd, 2013 at 9:50 AM ^

Really? They're finding things to bring them closer as a team. Just leave them alone already. If Hoke did something like this, 90% of people here would think its cool and another great reason we hired Hoke.

Joined: 09/05/2009

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1464

August 23rd, 2013 at 10:17 AM ^

I think that this boils down to an inherent "does not get it".

Hoke takes his kids bowling, which is the best part about bowling.

Dantonio makes his kids wear bowling shirts, which (aside from the herpes shoes) is the worst part about bowling.

Sparty doesn't get it.

Joined: 06/21/2010

MGoPoints: 37173

Space Coyote

August 23rd, 2013 at 9:51 AM ^

All teams have the corny things they do. Players either think it's corny and that brings them together or think it's fun and has some meaning and that brings them together. Fans eat it up. Opposing fans say it's embarrassing, stupid, and funny. I'm kinda "eh" on the whole thing. 

Joined: 06/18/2009

MGoPoints: 38962

DonAZ

August 23rd, 2013 at 10:21 AM ^

Dantonio was never Mr. GQ ... but still, I think you're onto something here.

The loss of Tressel, a friend in the ranks of Big 10 coaches, and the arrival of Hoke and Meyer has really put a dent in Michigan State football.  Hoke and Meyer are absolutely sucking the oxygen out of the recruiting room for lesser teams like MSU.

The Spartans are running on fumes right now.  They had their run in the limelight, but their 15 minutes of fame is about up.  They're not going to be able to keep up with the quality and depth that UM and OSU has.  Their best hope is to be the best second-tier program in the Big 10.

I'm not trying to be harsh ... I'm trying to be realistic.  Look at this from Dantonio's perspective.  He's living on table scraps.  The 10-year horizon must look grim to Dantonio.

Joined: 12/05/2011

MGoPoints: 16679

jmdblue

August 23rd, 2013 at 11:09 AM ^

their new shirts, but I agree wholeheartedly with DonAZ... Sparty had a small window of opportunity to really become something strong over the medium to long term.  We were in the midst of the RR/immediate post RR debacle (blame whomever you want, but it was a debacle).  Ohio was clearly reeling with their Pryor, Tressel, Gee, Smith hilarity, and ND was in their second decade of substandard results.  Where was Sparty? Looking pretty good on teh field with a little bit of a Miami (YTM)/bad boy flavor to capitalize on in recruiting.  They were also competing against a bad B1G that assured them a pretty good record every year.  Where are they now?  They aren't even competitive for major Midwest recruits and this is the last year when I'd expect our game with them to have a line within 6 or 7 points.  The run appears to be over. 

Joined: 12/01/2010

MGoPoints: 8655

Franz Schubert

August 23rd, 2013 at 10:42 AM ^

The loss of Tressel was a devastating blow to Dantonio. It's understated how much Tressel helped his friend recruit in Ohio against RR. Some of the underrated players that MSU stuumbled upon were guys Tressel knew were good but had no room for, so why not help out a buddy and screw your biggest rival in the process.

Joined: 07/20/2009

MGoPoints: 4453

Blarvey

August 23rd, 2013 at 12:46 PM ^

"Hoke and Meyer are absolutely sucking the oxygen out of the recruiting room for lesser teams like MSU."

I disagree completely. If anything their recruiting has gotten better and with UM and OSU pulling more national recruits, that leave MSU to scoop up the players UM and OSU can't/won't take.

Joined: 11/21/2011

MGoPoints: 3472

DonAZ

August 23rd, 2013 at 2:21 PM ^

Okay, fair point to discuss ... and it's actually a pretty interesting question.

If I'm reading it correctly, your position is that U-M and OSU have vacated to a degree the states of Michigan and Ohio in pursuit of even better recruits nationally.  This leaves good MI and OH players for MSU.

Question 1 -- Numerically, is that true?  I guess that would require an analysis of recruiting cycles going back six or so years to see if (a) the number of MI or OH recruits secured by MSU went up, down or stayed the same; and (b) whether the quality of the recruits changed ... and that requires assuming recruiting stars are good proxies for eventual performance.

Question 2 -- Did the relative absence of UM/OSU in the states accrue to MSU, or did other schools take advantage of it?  Again, there'd be some number-digging to derive that.

Question 3 -- Did UM/OSU going national result in any change of MSU relative to UM/OSU and relative to other B1G?  Assuming UM and OSU were successful in their national recruiting, then I doubt MSU would gain relative to those two schools.  Relative to other B1G teams?  Maybe?  That's a "time will tell" thing.

I guess bottom line is, "We'll see".

I did a little poking around on Rivals and I see that for 2014, at any rate, MSU and UM are relatively close for MI recruits ... MSU went pretty big into Chicago (5 Illinois), while Michigan went more east (NJ, MD, VA)

Joined: 12/05/2011

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Blarvey

August 23rd, 2013 at 5:09 PM ^

It is hard to definitively say it is true yet, but there are a couple other things to consider:

The difference between MSU's 2008 class vs. their 2009 and 2010 classes are night and day, at least star wise. A good number of those kids were from Michigan and I would attribute a lot of that to RR's focus elsewhere and quest for guys that fit his system. When Hoke came in and recruited Michigan hard and pulled a lot of guys from Ohio, MSU had to settle for other guys, although they did get some that we would have liked (Reshke, Burbridge).

They have also taken smaller classes than UM the last two years and the bigger classes in 2009-11 are becoming upperclassmen/graduating, so the depth chart is very attractive to a guy that wants to play early. That obviously doesn't mean all the top Michigan and Ohio talent will flock there, but if UM and Ohio go from taking 2 or 3 CBs per year to taking 1 then MSU and everyone else will have a better shot at those 2-4 guys that otherwise would have gone to UM or OSU.

Joined: 11/21/2011

MGoPoints: 3472

alum96

August 23rd, 2013 at 4:47 PM ^

This is indeed an interesting question.  They have moved into that 25-40 range yearly (2009 aside) - sounds about right for that group which would probably now includes teams like Northwestern, Missouri, Texas Tech, TCU, North Carolina, etc.
 

2008: 47
2009: 17
2010: 30
2011: 31
2012: 41
2013: 40

Joined: 04/28/2012

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readyourguard

August 23rd, 2013 at 10:15 AM ^

What made this board so endearing in the past was that it (usually) was above all this petty BS.  The MGoCommunity has grown and it seems some of the newer members want to stoop to Sparty-like obsessing.  To hell with them.  When threads like this appear, Sparty turns to the MSU Orientation/Meme Syllabus and replies with, "we're so in your heads.

The voting system used to control those who felt the need to stoop to rcmb levels.  A barrage of neg-bombs used to send a clear message to posters that we are better than that.  If you want to do that kind of crap, head over to one of the other sites and join the flaming foray.

 

Joined: 08/21/2008

MGoPoints: 40944

Sven_Da_M

August 23rd, 2013 at 10:31 AM ^

... I guess I was a bit out of line and somewhat harsh.

And I fully expect some in East Lansing to make fun of the shirt Coach Hoke wore yesterday.  And be especially critical of the guest speaker he had address the team.

SDM

PS The speaker didn't need a workshirt with a name tag.  Team 134 were all familiar with his work. He actually had a blue collar on, though. With one small item on it in maize.  It had wings.

 

 

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 2165

JeemtotheH

August 23rd, 2013 at 10:52 AM ^

LOL at Dantonio

But sersiously, Spartan recruiting really isn't that bad.  They've done some really good things on defense both recruiting and coaching players.  All 1 and 2 stars? Not really.  Sparty recruiting is pretty good even compared the rest of the Big.  It's just Mich and Ohio killing it in comparison.

Either way, who cares, beat ohio.

Joined: 08/20/2010

MGoPoints: 858

allintime23

August 23rd, 2013 at 11:33 AM ^

Who cares what they do. November 2nd we just need to take care of business and win a game we should win. There will be personal fouls galore and a drunken crowd of hate. Why give them anymore fire with dumb stuff like this?

Joined: 09/21/2009

MGoPoints: 15225