Another Dissapointing Week #6

Once again the Spartans succeed in making me one of the angriest fan in sports. In case you’ve been lucky enough to be living in a cave during this season, MSU currently sits at 2-4 and hasn’t won a game since mid-September. In their most recent loss they surrendered 54 points to one of the lowest scoring offenses in the Big Ten. Oh, and they still have Michigan and Ohio State on the schedule. The Bowl hopes are slim, at best. This team has a shocking number of issues but many stem from an inability to rush or protect the passer. In football, that might as well be a death sentence. Any time a program loses one player the caliber of Shilique Calhoun, Jack Conklin or Cook, repercussions are felt up and down the roster — unless you’re Alabama, of course. MSU had to replace all three and unfortunately that was just the tip of the iceberg. There is a strange feeling amongst the MSU fan base that there has never been before. It isn’t the “resigned to failure” mood that came with the John L. and Bobby Williams eras. It sure isn’t the “us against the world” feeling that came with the first six years of Dantonio’s tenure. It most certainly isn’t the “Big Ten Champions or bust” mentality that defined the past three seasons. The feeling at Saturday’s game against Northwestern was one of disbelief. A stadium filled with people asking themselves “what happened to this program?” One week it’s dumb penalties, the next it’s suspect play calling and coverage break downs, the next it’s a back breaking special teams play. Most weeks, it’s all of the above. You can’t fix talent, but you can fix discipline. That is the starting point for any turnaround. That and letting the very talented group of true and redshirt freshmen linemen cut their teeth and there is no shortage of high profile talent on either side of the ball. As bleak as it may seem right now, this is not the end of the line for the Michigan State program. Far from it. There is a ton of talent up and down the roster that is just starting to hit the field and Dantonio is still one of the best coaches in the country. One bad season will not change that. Spartan fans have been down some dark roads before but, as they say, it’s always darkest before dawn. Let’s hope that sun starts rising again before too long.