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Reaching Higher
Mark Dantonio and the Rise of Michigan State Football
By The State News Triumph Books LLC
Copyright © 2016 The State News
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-63319-584-4
CHAPTER 1
Coaching Decision Good Call For MSU
By Steve Highfield • November 28, 2006
Don't look now, but MSU got it right.
During the almost month-long coaching search since John L. Smith was fired, there's been pessimism, uncertainty and speculation surrounding the hiring process.
It's taking too long.
Politics within the administration will be the downfall of this hire.
MSU will make the same old mistakes.
And who could blame people expressing those sentiments? Hindsight proved that both John L. Smith and his predecessor, Bobby Williams, were the wrong hires.
But on Monday, MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon swung a swift ax through the roots of those doubts when she introduced Mark Dantonio as MSU's next football coach.
Critics still have their theories that Dantonio was the compromise pick after Simon wanted Central Michigan coach Brian Kelly and others involved in the search preferred Cleveland Browns defensive coordinator Todd Grantham.
But in a process filled with conspiracy theories and alleged sources embedded deep within the university, I instead employ common sense. If Dantonio wasn't in fact an initial leading candidate, how is a contract in place for him approximately 19 hours after the first interview with him was conducted?
The fact is, MSU interviewed him late in the process because that's what was mandated by Dantonio's situation. His Cincinnati team played its last regular season game Saturday, and, out of respect, he didn't want to interview or comment prior to regular season's end.
None of that implies Dantonio came out of nowhere.
"I had a pretty good sense that I was a finalist early on," Dantonio said. "It was just a matter of whether they were going to wait and interview me or not. Michigan State did it the right way."
The right way meant MSU's four-man interview team — Ron Mason, Mark Hollis, Tom Izzo and former MSU football player and current MSU police Lt. Alan Haller — departed for Cincinnati late Saturday night — after MSU's basketball game against Oakland at Breslin Center — to interview Dantonio.
Simon spoke with Dantonio again Sunday morning, and a five-year contract was in place by Sunday evening.
You may call that move desperation. I call it decisiveness.
He's not the sexiest pick, but he's the right one. A sexy pick might put a spread offense on the field and climb mountains in the off-season, but the right pick instills toughness and a winning attitude in all of his players.
There are few résumés that could have meshed with MSU's coaching wish list better than Dantonio's. He has head coaching experience, putting together an 1817 record and two bowl berths in three years as Cincinnati's head coach. Before he took the Cincinnati job, he helped put together Ohio State's defense as its defensive coordinator from 2001 to 2003. In 2002, his defense played an integral role in Ohio State winning the national championship.
Still not good enough? Dantonio served as defensive secondary coach for MSU from 1995 to 2000 — a time when MSU actually had a secondary. During those six seasons, seven different MSU defensive backs earned some type of All-Big Ten honors.
He brings all sorts of intangibles to the table. He has a toughness to him, and he demands that toughness and effort be prevalent in all his players. At the same time, he strives to be a coach his players can turn to for off-field help.
He knows about MSU's tradition and says his aim is to "bring all the Spartans together." He's familiar with recruiting in the Midwest and Michigan and has experience recruiting in the South. He is aggressively attacking a job the last two coaches failed at. Perhaps most encouraging of all, he doesn't line up 186-pound wide receivers at quarterback or have a game plan that involves a bandit.
"I don't think you find a perfect guy," Izzo said. "It's the perfect guy for your fit and the perfect guy that's multidimensional enough to deal with all the things you have to deal with in that situation.
"In that respect, he's the perfect guy."
And who am I to argue with Izzo?
CHAPTER 2
Dantionio's 100th Game
It's been more than seven years since football head coach Mark Dantonio took the job at MSU. With his 100th game approaching against Indiana on Saturday, he reflects on the progress the program has seen since 2007
By Geoff Preston • October 16, 2014
Nov. 27, 2006, was a day that changed the course of Spartan history forever. It was the day that Mark Dantonio and his staff took over for John L. Smith at MSU.
Nearly eight years, two Big Ten championships and one Rose Bowl title later, in the blink of an eye it has been 99 games under the current regime. Saturday, when No. 8 MSU (5-1 overall, 2-0 Big Ten) goes on the road to face Indiana, (3-3 overall, 0-2 Big Ten) it will be the 100th game for Dantonio at MSU.
It's been a tenure marked by more than a 69-30 record, according to his players and coaching staff. It has been a tenure marked by honesty, excellence and change in the lives of the people on and off the field.
Old faces
In the coaching carousel world of college football, it's rare to find a staff that is able to stay together as long as the staff under Dantonio has.
"Probably the most important thing I did here was select our staff," he said. "The continuity we've had as a staff has been largely responsible for our success both on the playing field and off."
The lack of turnover has helped the staff become better coaches as well. Offensive line coach Mark Staten has been in East Lansing for all 99 previous games and said the staff has become a second family to him.
"You've got nine brothers who are going to help you out," he said. "That's what people don't realize about Mark Dantonio. The stakes are higher than ever since we got here, yet he still keeps his family first."
Staten has been with Dantonio since his days as a defensive coordinator at Ohio State, dating back to 2003. He said when you're with a staff for as long as they have been, sometimes complacency can come into effect, which is not always a good thing.
"Sometimes you can become comfortable, which is good and bad," he said. "You don't want to be too comfortable because you owe it to the people who you've grown together with to keep pushing the envelope."
Staten said it has been fun over the years to watch how the families of the coaches interact.
"We were watching the TV yesterday and my 4-year-old saw Dantonio running around on the TV and he goes 'there's my buddy,'" he said. "It's comfortable. When pieces fit together everything functions better."
Through it all, Dantonio said he never expected to spend 100 games at one place and with his staff mostly intact.
"I really didn't look at 100 games," he said. "That's almost unthinkable when you're starting at No. 1. I think we tried to do it the right way and I think there's been consistency in what we've done."
Player's Coach
A coach is only as good as his players, and his players will only play well if they respect their coach. MSU players respect their coach, the man who has been able to take lower-recruited players and make them NFL talents.
A consistent theme when players talk about Dantonio is that he has an honest approach to how he recruits and teaches football.
"The coaching staff preaches and teaches to us hard work, toughness and just beating the man across from you," senior running back Nick Hill said. "One of the things I really admire about coach Dantonio is his honesty. Even when he was recruiting me, he was always honest with me."
The personality of Dantonio can change, according to Hill, from one of quiet composure to the stereotypical screaming football coach.
"At times he'll sit back and let the coaches do their job," he said. "If he needs to step in, he'll step in and be assertive. He has both sides in him."
Sophomore linebacker Riley Bullough is part of the first family of Spartan football. He went to many games at Spartan Stadium as a kid before the success of the program. He said there is a noticeable difference between the culture of the program before and after the hiring of Mark Dantonio.
"I grew up a fan my whole life, and I can say the culture here is completely different from what it used to be," he said. "The staff has been together so long and that's kind of what makes it work. They're really kind of like a family."
Senior offensive lineman Travis Jackson is one of the longest tenured Spartans on the roster. He echoed what his teammates said about Dantonio and his staff being an honest group that preaches hard work.
"It's been a special time to be a Spartan," he said. "When he recruited me, he talked about not only recruiting great players, but recruiting great people, and that was really important because you want to surround yourself with great people in college."
Junior quarterback Connor Cook said that the accomplishments of the staff are important and should be celebrated, but all of the pomp and circumstance doesn't mean a lot if the team doesn't beat Indiana on Saturday.
"We're trying to look at it as another game," he said. "It's another Big Ten game, and that's how we look at it."
CHAPTER 3
Izzo And Mark Dantonio Have Developed A Close Friendship
By Geoff Preston • November 21, 2014
It's not common for programs to have the success in both basketball and football that MSU has had, which makes it even less common for the two coaches of those teams to be as close as Tom Izzo and Mark Dantonio have become over the years.
Since Dantonio came to East Lansing in 2007, Izzo has taken Dantonio under his wing as the football team has climbed to new heights.
"That was a benefit," Dantonio said.
Dantonio also said he and Izzo have spoken plenty of times about MSU's rivalry with Michigan.
"Me and coach Izzo have talked frequently about this," he said. "We're kind of on the same wave length."
Izzo also said during a taping of the popular ESPN show "First Take" that he was instrumental in getting Dantonio to come from Cincinnati to East Lansing.
"Nick Saban and I came at the same time," Izzo said. "Mark Dantonio came in as an assistant coach and really did an incredible job."
That, according to Izzo, is when their friendship started.
"We became friends, our wives became friends (and) our daughters are the same age," he said.
Izzo said he was one of the people who was able to bring Dantonio into town.
"When he left for Ohio State, I watched him win the national championship there as a defensive coordinator," he said. "Then I watched him go to Cincinnati, and, after the job he did, I got to be one of three or four people that got to interview Mark. Everybody did their job and I played a small part."
Izzo has always had a love for football. He grew up with former NFL head coach Steve Mariucci and said he almost left his basketball assistant coaching position at Northern Michigan for a football coaching position at Cal State Fullerton with Mariucci.
"I almost did go there," he said. "There was a position open there in the defensive backs, which is the position I played, and I love football."
Izzo said in the same interview that he loves MSU's success in football because he can experience the success of a sport he loves. Dantonio has reciprocated the support by coming to many of the Big Ten basketball games inside Breslin Center during his tenure.
Izzo has been to plenty of football games himself, even sitting in the student section following a lightning delay in 2013 against South Florida.
CHAPTER 4
Dantonio: 'It's not over'
By Jon Schultz • November 5, 2007
Classless. Disrespectful. Mockery. Arrogant.
Those are the words used by the MSU football team to describe how Michigan acted following its 28-24 victory at Spartan Stadium on Saturday.
After the game, U-M players gathered midfield for a moment of silence, intended to mock MSU head coach Mark Dantonio's comment about U-M's loss to Appalachian State. When asked about that loss in a radio interview earlier in the season, Dantonio joked about having a "moment of silence" for the Wolverines.
"I find a lot of the things they do amusing," Dantonio said at his Monday press conference. "They need to check themselves sometimes."
This was not the mild-mannered Dantonio that has shown up to every other weekly press conference of the season.
"Can you tell my tone?" Dantonio asked reporters.
He responded to the postgame comments made by U-M running back Mike Hart, who laughed while calling the Spartans U-M's "little brother."
"Sometimes you get your little brother excited when you're playing basketball, and you let him get the lead," Hart said Saturday after the game, according to the Detroit Free Press. "Then you come back and take it back."
Dantonio questioned the ability of the 5-foot-9 running back to even have a "little brother."
"Does Hart have a little brother? Or is he the little brother?" Dantonio said, measuring midway up his chest with his hand. "I don't know."
Dantonio also responded to Hart's claim that he "thought it was funny" when MSU took the lead in the second half.
"Go back and watch their sideline," he said, referring to when MSU had the lead. "I didn't see anybody laughing over there."
Up until this point, if anyone on the Spartan football team hasn't taken this rivalry personally, they do now, junior quarterback Brian Hoyer said.
He said Hart's comments "just show the classlessness" that he has.
"Sooner or later the little brother, (if) you want to put us that way, you get pushed around enough, the little brother fights back and kicks the other brother's ass," Hoyer said Monday.
"After you make a comment like that, we don't really feel you deserve to win that game. And I'm sure they walked away feeling a little bit lucky coming out of it, too."
During the interview, Dantonio said he'd rather not comment on Hart's remarks. But after a brief pause, he let it out.
"I guess I can't help myself," Dantonio said. "As I said earlier, it's not over. I'm going to be a coach here for a long time. It's not over, it's just starting."
Dantonio said his passion for this rivalry has been ingrained in him since he was a defensive backs coach at MSU in 1995.
"It exists in me, and it exists in everybody who is a true Spartan," he said. "Not the ones who give their donor seats to the Michigan Wolverines. It exists in everything. It's there."
While the rivalry sinks deep beneath the skin for Dantonio, many Wolverines downplay the matchup. But senior running back Jehuu Caulcrick said "you would be a fool" to not consider U-M vs. MSU a rivalry game.
"Before the game, people were saying Michigan doesn't consider us a rivalry," Caulcrick said. "They were out there celebrating like they won the championship themselves. Don't let them fool you."
CHAPTER 5
Seasoned Hoyer Set To Finish Where He Started
By Jacob Carpenter • November 20, 2008
The MSU football team had little to play for against Penn State on Nov. 18, 2006.
The Spartans were the bottom of program valley, 4-7 with one game remaining, with head coach John L. Smith orchestrating his final game at MSU.
Even with 108,000 fans looking down on the Spartans, nobody had a reason to be nervous.
Except Brian Hoyer.
The sophomore quarterback was making his first career start in what he considered the Big Ten's most imposing monster — Beaver Stadium.
"To play in a place like that on their Senior Day, it made you feel small," Hoyer said.
The North Olmsted, Ohio, native will return to the scene of his debut as a college starter Saturday against Penn State. The stakes, however, are different this season. The Spartans will get at least a share of the Big Ten Championship with a win, and a rowdy Penn State crowd will have an extra edge with a Rose Bowl appearance on the line.
"It's ironic that my first Big Ten game (as a starter) was there and my last Big Ten game will be there," said Hoyer, who completed 30-of-61 passes for 291 yards, one touchdown and zero interceptions at Beaver Stadium.
"It's kind of weird, but at least I have a feel of what type of atmosphere will be there and I'm anxious to get back there and play because there's a lot riding on it."
When Hoyer runs into the huddle for MSU's first drive Saturday, he will have evolved from the anxious sophomore that rallied the Spartans to a near-win in 2006 (the Spartans fell 17-13).
Senior right guard Roland Martin, who started at Penn State with Hoyer, said he could tell Hoyer wasn't nervous in front of the raucous Beaver Stadium crowd two years ago.
"You could look in his eyes and see he was quite motivated and knew what he had to do," said Martin, who has started every game this season. "Hoyer's always the same guy and he's always upbeat and just looking for positive ways to motivate you."
After 16 wins as a starter in two seasons, including a four-touchdown outing in a 35-31 win against the Nittany Lions last season, coaches and players have confidence in the senior.
"I have a huge comfort level just from the fact that Brian Hoyer is our quarterback," MSU head coach Mark Dantonio said. "He's experienced a high level of anxiety in (Beaver Stadium) and that's something that will benefit us greatly and it's a huge advantage for us when one of your leaders has played in that environment and been successful."
After going through the fire of one game at Beaver Stadium, Hoyer knows what goals to aim for in maintaining his composure — avoiding third-and-long situations, staying out of the shadows of the Penn State student section and ignoring the constant catcalls blasted over speakers after every Nittany Lions big play.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Reaching Higher by The State News. Copyright © 2016 The State News. Excerpted by permission of Triumph Books LLC.
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