Debate proposition: Dantonio is the best coach in the B!G.

Submitted by wolverine1987 on

I'm sure many negs are due this OP, but I just watched the MSU game and when I think of this:

-3-9

-lost best their WR and several contributors due to scandal

-are along with M, the youngest team in the nation

-have objectively, factually, worse talent than any of the league elite, including us

-are playing walk ons at key positions 

-had a terrible recruiting year yet are playing freshmen

-beat us at home and just beat PSU, another team with far superior talent to them...

I can't come to any other conclusion than the title of this post. I am all Harbaugh, and I think our future still is brighter than most in the league. I wouldn't want any other coach for Michigan. But damn IMO this is hard to refute. But I'm wide open to counter arguments. Have any?

MGoBoard
Football

burtcomma

November 4th, 2017 at 8:27 PM ^

Getting beyond the usual a guy is a great coach if he wins with supposedly less talent, the bottom line for a college coach is his record.  No more, and no less.  He gets to pick his players, develop his players, and pick his complete staff.  So this year's edition of Dantonio has 2 losses to ND and Northwestern so far.  Last year's edition of said brilliance went 3-9.  His overall record at MSU is 97-44 and in B1G conference is 58-29 over his 11 year career (in his 11th year this year).  So, his average year is about 9-4 to date. 

I suggest you compare him to Urban Meyer, whose record at OSU over 7 years (in his 7th now) is 68-7 overall and a sterling 44-2 in B1G.  His average is about 10-1.  No comparison, Mark Dantonio is not in any way, shape, or form the best Coach in the B1G.

Joined: 11/01/2009

MGoPoints: 5851

Bluenin

November 4th, 2017 at 8:29 PM ^

I don’t give an F what Sparty does, they’ll always be inferior to Michigan to me! F them and all of their 2010 bandwagon jumping fans!

Joined: 09/19/2017

MGoPoints: 2022

gobluenyc

November 4th, 2017 at 8:31 PM ^

Frankly, he's been excellent. I have to say, he's had real luck with bad weather. This year twice, and two years ago against OSU, a team that was defending national champs, and was much better than MSU.

Joined: 12/15/2012

MGoPoints: 1289

LurkingSpartan

November 5th, 2017 at 1:11 AM ^

(*weather cunningly jinxed to hinder OSU only) and the added witless fortune of Connor Cook being a last minute scratch. We forgot that detail, huh ;) I’m not mad — I drunkenly bet the money line on State instead of the spread that day at the Wynn ‘book, BEFORE learning Cook was out. We partied like rockstars that night. To dumb luck! Many references to MSU culture, thuggishness, dirty/lawless etc. obviously it doesn’t look that way from where I sit, ok chalk the combined opinion gap up to bias in varying degrees all around. But no mention that I’ve seen about the culture at OSU? Or what kind of stories trail Urban and his players through his career? On topic: 1. Urban 2 Dantonio 3 I don’t care, the rest of them

Joined: 10/25/2017

MGoPoints: 137

maize-blue

November 4th, 2017 at 8:33 PM ^

They beat better teams in shitty weather or when the other team is hung over. They catch a shit ton of breaks.

Joined: 01/10/2013

MGoPoints: 44661

bo_lives

November 4th, 2017 at 8:39 PM ^

Meyer has won a national championship. Dantonio has had less to work with but you can't say he's better than Meyer. Meyer is the second best coach of the last 20 years.

Joined: 04/10/2011

MGoPoints: 7867

bo_lives

November 4th, 2017 at 9:16 PM ^

But so what? If we are talking about who is the better coach I'm taking the guy with 3 National Championships at 2 different schools. Head to head only means so much, it's a very small subset of all the games the 2 guys have coached.

Joined: 04/10/2011

MGoPoints: 7867

The Krusty Kra…

November 5th, 2017 at 1:39 AM ^

I don't know if he left a curse when he departed for Cincy or what but since Urban took over, Dantonio's losses to OSU are 17-16, 49-37, and 17-16. Sure the 12 point one is an outlier but that tOSU team won the national title. A goddamn 3-7 MSU team was a two point conversion away from beating OSU at home. They very well could knock off OSU in Columbus again next week. 

Joined: 02/22/2017

MGoPoints: 2447

jblaze

November 4th, 2017 at 9:24 PM ^

He's probably the best, if you exclude recruiting. Including recruiting, it's Urban. He has 2 NC's and won the last one with a 3rd string QB.

Joined: 08/29/2008

MGoPoints: 19411

GomezBlue

November 4th, 2017 at 10:34 PM ^

The best coach... The most talent...?  All that sh!t means nothing.  One of the best quotes I've heard about football is from Parcells, "you are what your record says you are."  Talent, coaching, ect. means jack shit.  It's wins vs losses. 

Since Harbaught has been in the league, Dantonio has won the Big Ten, has screwed the pooch, and now is fighting for the division title.  Good for him.  That's all there is to say.

Joined: 08/18/2010

MGoPoints: 870

Blue Vet

November 4th, 2017 at 11:19 PM ^

I was thinking something similar, that State is better this year than I realized, and the coach deserves credit.

But I still can't respect an authority figure, coach, teacher, or administrator, at a university who mocks a student, the way he mocked Mike Hart. That's simply unacceptable, and he's never acknowledged it or apologized.

Maybe Pat Fitzgerald is the best. With the academic restrictions Northwestern has, and no gimme classes, he still manages to regularly field a competitive team.

Joined: 05/08/2012

MGoPoints: 71981

Mister B

November 4th, 2017 at 11:28 PM ^

Thing is, Sparty plays dirty pool. They've always played dirty, and over the last 5 to 10 years they've only gotten worse. They tend to get away with it, and it often wins them games.

Is that good coaching? I mean, I guess, "keep holding until you get called for it" could be considered a solid coaching move. I think it's just being okay with being a dick, but ymmv.

Joined: 04/12/2016

MGoPoints: 388

StephenRKass

November 5th, 2017 at 12:45 AM ^

Best? That ebbs and flows. But Dantonio is a very, very good coach. He has done a tremendous job given disadvantages he has. My hat is off to him after last year, and what he has done this year.

Joined: 07/15/2008

MGoPoints: 23103

bluepalooza

November 5th, 2017 at 7:19 AM ^

Yes, I know, it is tough at times to be surrounded by Sparty's, especially this year. I don't like the grumpy, surly Dantonio. But this year, he has done the best coaching job so far in B1G, PERIOD.  As many of you have stated with loss of key people coming off a 3-9 season he has made something of this season. He is coach of year in B1G IF they end up with a 9-3 season.

Food for thought.  The second best coaching job is the job Ash has done at Rutgers. That team if not for a loss to Eastern Michigan early would be 5-4.  That team has no business having 4 wins and have played some other close games.

Conversely, the worst coaching job in the B1G THIS YEAR is...........wait for it.....  Urban Meyer. Too much talent on that team to let Iowa, (yes Iowa) put 55 on you.  Also, Oklahoma crushed you at HOME and you needed a miracle finish against PSU.

Joined: 09/02/2017

MGoPoints: 2776