Sparty roars into 2008 fresh off their first bowl since 2003 and looking for a steady rise towards the top half of the Big Ten. Mark Dantonio enters his second year as head coach in East Lansing since taking over after stints with Ohio State (DC) and Cincinnati (HC). He was also a defensive back coach at Michigan State under Nick Saban.
If you don't know the recent history of Michigan State football, as a general rule, they tend to put up a lot of points, but are deficient defensively. This leads to some upsets in the more defensive minded Big Ten, but also gives us a couple head scratchers against opponents they 'should' beat each year. It was no different last year as MSU put up 33.1 points per game but allowed at least 24 points in each of their last 9 games.
Former head coach John L. Smith didn't leave the cupboard bare, and recruited some pretty solid offensive players here. He got a bad rap his last year in Lansing (search: Teddy Ruxpin) but during his time here and previously at Louisville he shaped a pretty formidable offensive attack.
Dantonio chose to terminate offensive coordinator Dave Baldwin, a good one, and instead brought in Don Treadwell who was his OC at Cincinnati. He also brought in Pat Narduzzi (also from Cincy) to coach the defense.
The long and short of it for this year is Sparty should have no trouble scoring again, but we'll see if Dantonio's defensive expertise pays off sooner rather than later. If you followed Cincinnati at all last year, you saw the fruits of Dantonio's labor as he left a very experienced and skilled defense at Brian Kelly's disposal. The Bearcats allowed only 18.8 points per game and had a 10 win season.
Notable stat!! In Dantonio's first two years at Cincinnati his defenses allowed 26.7 and 31.4 points per game. In his final year, they made a drastic improvement and held opponents to only 19.6.
Monday, June 16, 2008
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