363-229 and 2-37-1
No those numbers aren’t stats for how many runs the Tigers closers gave up the last two years and Rod Marinelli’s career record.
If you guessed the first is how many total games Michigan Football has won since Bo took over compared with Michigan State's total victories in that time span, you are pretty sharp.
If you guessed the second is MSU’s victory total season for season vs. Michigan (twice they have won more total games, 37 times they have won fewer and once they tied in ’99) then you deserve your own Paul Bunyan Trophy.
On paper, there is no question who is still the premier program. But Big Ten college football in Michigan is not played on paper unless it is Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities manuscript this year. For East Lansing, it may not quite be the best of times but a solid 9-3 record with a pending New Year’s Day date is a far cry from the gimmicky and goofy John L. Smith days. Yes, they were crushed by Ohio State and Penn State but they kept the ship upright most of the way, something that usually wasn’t true of past Spartan teams.
In Ann Arbor, the worst of times may have described the Wolverine football program, in October. Brutal, Gruesome and Horrific times may describe the program now at the end of November. Losses to your three biggest rivals (sorry Minnesota). A home loss to a bad MAC team who fired their coach after beating you. An offense that is the equivalent of the Detroit Lions defense. A new coach who made several missteps in embracing the Michigan tradition. A near 100% certainty that a freshman QB will take the majority of the snaps next year and that your main rival snatched your prototype QB from you and still has him loaded up for three more years. Worst of times indeed.
From a diehard Spartan view, the savior has come, a man who hates Michigan to the core and otherwise is a rather straight-forward (boring) coach. Mark Dantonio’s defining trait so far has been his hatred of Michigan, bred into his Ohio State coaching roots and now well established on the banks of the Cedar River. 7-6 led to 9-3 and 9-3 will surely lead to, what exactly? Those in green and white would surely like to dance on the king’s grave and extrapolate how many combined Big Ten Titles and Paul Bunyan trophies will be on the Spartan mantle in 5 years (4, 5, 8?).
Michigan fans will cite history and the gospel of the new-age spread, but it is a what have you done for me lately world today right? Do today's potential recruits/18 year-old alpha males care about Bo’s cloud of dust in 1973? Do they even care about Tom Brady’s aerial showcase in 1999? Spartans fans will say the tide is about to turn, Wolverine supporters will say we will be back. Who is more right? Future football will tell, but if you cut through the bias on both sides, here is what you have.
Michigan State may be 9-3 right now, but that 13th game may be bigger than any so far. Beat a solid SEC team (Georgia, Ole Miss) on national TV and you go off into the offseason with a good head of steam. Lose by double digits and suddenly those wins over Iowa before they got rolling and an average Wisconsin team look less corner-turning and more lucky. 9-4 would be somewhat hollow, 10-3 would be significant progress. Dantonio had a senior quarterback and a workhorse of workhorses running back this year which he won’t have next. Like their Michigan NFL brethren, Spartan fans sometimes jump the gun on their team. At 6-2 last year, Lions players and fans were ready to celebrate. They are an incredible 1-18 since. Let’s not totally evaluate Dantonio or the Spartans program until the whole body of work is turned in.
So then how do we judge the program’s body of work which is complete at this time of year for the first time in decades? Obviously, no one from Monroe to Iron Mountain thought Big Blue would ever end up 3-9 this year. Rich Rod got off to a bad start and never steadied the bicycle, that is until the wheels completely fell off. Saddled with inexperienced and poorly suited QBs, a defense that was inconsistent and a stable of cement block handed skill position players, Michigan won the 2007 Notre Dame award in 2008. How does the program bounce back? History says they can and they will, water will find its level. Was Rich-Rod looking around and ahead of the curve by force-feeding his way all season or was he foolishly clinging to what felt comfortable? Time will tell but to other Nike apparel teams out there, do not switch to Adidas jerseys next year.
The positive spin for Michigan is that they are taking a step back to go forward, 9-3s weren’t good enough anymore and Rich Rod is capable of delivering National Titles. The negative spin is that the Soviet Union once took a step back to go forward with Stalin in the 1930s and that didn’t work out too well. Rodriguez may also be delivering pizzas soon if he can’t deliver a W over the Buckeyes. The positive spin for MSU is that Dantonio is a committed Spartan, solid and level headed. The negative is that this was an aberration and State will always be second banana.
Next year at this time will the Spartans be 3-37-1 or 2-38-1, or will that actually be Marinelli’s 2.5 year record, only time will tell.
Keywords: Big Ten Football, Michigan Football, Michigan State Football
