By Jordan Hansen
Michigan State is once again playing second fiddle (actually third, with Michigan’s resurgence) in the Big Ten East Division.
Playing the underdog role has always sort of been the Spartans’ calling card, though it’s getting harder for them to claim it. Michigan State has gone 87-33 under head coach Mark Dantonio, which includes a 4-5 mark in bowl games and a Rose Bowl win in 2013.
That said, Michigan State has gone 36-5 over the last three seasons, with an impressive 22-2 record in conference action.
“We’ve sort of set the table in terms of what we have to do every year,” Dantonio said during the Big Ten media days. “We’ve built a culture at Michigan State … right now, our focus is trying to go back-to-back.”
Even so, the Spartans seem to relish any chance they can to be the underdog and always seem to play with a chip on their shoulder. With the Wolverines once again in prominence under Jim Harbaugh, their cousins up the road are taking notice.
Last year’s incredible last-second win (which involved a mishandled punt being returned for a touchdown as time expired) threw gasoline on what was a slowly rekindled bonfire.
Now, the flames are approximately 30 feet high.
“I’m sure they think we kind of stole that game from them,” Spartan linebacker Riley Bullough said. “But that rivalry every year is huge — especially if you grew up in Michigan.
“You’re either the team down the road or you’re Michigan State.”
For your information, Michigan vs. Michigan State will be Oct. 29 in East Lansing. It will be one of the must-watch games this year.
The Spartans have bigger goals than simply beating “the team down the road,” and a return to the Big Ten Championship is one of those, but a return won’t be easy. Michigan State lost a lot of last year’s team, including star quarterback Connor Cook.
Cook threw for 24 touchdowns and more than 3,100 yards each of the last two years. That level of production is not easily replaced, especially when standout wide receiver Aaron Burbridge is gone, as is first-team All-American center Jack Allen.
Michigan State is spoiled at tailback, with a huge amount of depth at tailback at its disposal. It’s a fairly young group; two of the top-three returning rushers are still underclassmen.
However, the veteran — R.J. Shelton — is being pushed into a veteran role, which the team seems to need on the offense. The team hopes the depth and experience at tailback will alleviate a little of the offensive pressure, though breaking in new linemen will make this more difficult.
“Our identity is that we just work. It doesn’t matter who’s in there,” Shelton said. “My years that I’ve been here, we’ve just went to work every day to make our team better, to make ourselves better, and to win championships.”
That said, the Spartans believe they’re at a point where they can bring in new talent to replenish what was lost without missing much of a beat. While this is obviously the goal of all football programs, it starts down the path of an argument of whether Michigan State is a “blue-blood” program, a question that was not-so-subtlety asked throughout media days.
“I think the first thing we’ve been able to do is retain our staff,” Dantonio said. “The second thing that has occurred is that we’ve gotten great senior leadership every year. We lose good players every year, just like every other program.
“But it seems, when the time comes, as a senior, you have to play your best football. Our seniors have their best years.”
There’s a lot to be said for building that type of program in East Lansing, and Dantonio deserves a lot of credit.
But now, it’s proving time.