Wojo Snarticle on Sparty
Wojo's fun-to-read piece on MSU/Dantonio was posted last last night on DetNews. So much snark I don't know where to start....
"You know it’s a lame college football weekend when the marquee matchups are SMU-Memphis (seriously) and Michigan-Maryland (not so seriously). But hey, I dug deep and found one major positive: We don’t have to spend three-and-a-half hours watching Michigan State punt the ball.
Michigan State’s season already was in smoldering ruins, to the point the black smoke in East Lansing was visible from the upper floors of the Renaissance Center. Dantonio spent 13 years building an undercover powerhouse, winning Big Ten titles and bowl games, even nearly beating Arizona State a couple times. When Jim Harbaugh came along and grabbed all the publicity, it had to chafe D’antoni, whose biggest legal concern was filing court orders to get the damn apostrophe off his name.
For many reasons, including off-the-field issues and pending lawsuits, Michigan State’s recruiting has slipped sharply. According to my addled sources, assistants now fill roster openings by posting flyers on grocery-store bulletin boards. So many Spartans have leapt into the transfer portal, the school is considering a satellite campus down there."
More snark available at the article link:
Credit: Detroit News, Bob Wojnowski, 10/31/19
November 1st, 2019 at 12:25 PM ^
I have been wondering a lot lately about what has caused the decline of their program. Your explanation is as good as any, but I would really like to hear from MSU fans or insiders on this issue.
November 1st, 2019 at 12:26 PM ^
I believe he gets $4.3M if he is retained through Jan. 15. If he gets deposed before that and more shit hits the fan, even the Mork-loving trustees will have to step up and cut him loose with zero (or something much short of that for his many years of dedicated, productive service).
Watch Mork get some sort of medical issue immediately after the season which will postpone the deposition until Jan. 16.
November 1st, 2019 at 12:26 PM ^
Yeah, they're dirty and tolerate rape. But he also gets a bazillion bucks if he lasts through January. Which may mean that he either negotiates some snazzy recompense or that MSU suffers for another half recruiting season while he sits in the film room muttering Rosebud.
November 1st, 2019 at 1:29 PM ^
Dantonio is going to make a push to make a bowl this year, just to delay the deposition another month...
November 1st, 2019 at 12:47 PM ^
The whole school needs a hard reset.
November 1st, 2019 at 1:25 PM ^
As long as Joel Ferguson is on the Board of Trustees there, you will not see any kind of reset at all. The MSU that exists today is exactly the MSU that Ferguson wanted.
November 1st, 2019 at 3:10 PM ^
"Nuke the entire site from orbit; it's the only way to be sure"
November 1st, 2019 at 12:48 PM ^
My take, based on no inside information, is he wanted one more year (2019) so he could achieve the most wins in MSU history. But he also planned to retire at the end of this year. So he didn't want to bring in a new staff and then cut them loose after one year (which, if you think about it is is kind of admirable.) He's just playing the string out. You know he'll have himself and everyone else juiced up for the Michigan game, which will probably be their best performance of the season. He doesn't want to lose his last game to Michigan, but beyond that I think he's just trying to get the season over with.
November 1st, 2019 at 1:11 PM ^
So he didn't want to bring in a new staff and then cut them loose after one year (which, if you think about it is is kind of admirable.
That part might be admirable, but think of this in the broader context. If your take is true, then in order for him to have the most wins he is basically tanking recruiting and putting off necessary changes another year, putting them further in the hole. From my seat, I'm okay with that, but it seems pretty selfish.
November 1st, 2019 at 3:00 PM ^
Agreed, but it depends on where your loyalties lie. Loyalty is a two-way street with your staff/employees. He took care of his staff and prioritized them over the program. I understand that perspective completely. Would I do the same? Not sure, but I don't know a whole lot about the man or his staff.
November 1st, 2019 at 1:13 PM ^
This sounds supremely logical. He's still getting 7 wins this year, assuming he loses to Michigan and pending a bowl game. That's not too bad in the BIG East.
I could even see him hanging around a couple more years until the scandal is wrapped. I mean, who would want that job right now?
November 1st, 2019 at 12:51 PM ^
Lets hope they don’t stumble onto a Matt Rhule type... Baylor’s hard reset lasted about 2 years.
Rhule is legit and it’s a matter of time before he’s plucked.
November 1st, 2019 at 12:58 PM ^
This certainly makes sense. Blackwell was an outsider and a swing for the fences type hire. We saw how that whole thing ended. It seemed odd that Dantini didn’t want to try and improve the offense, but maybe is was more that he didn’t want to bring in any other outsiders.
November 1st, 2019 at 2:53 PM ^
I'm not going to use the little brother thing, I've never been a fan of that. But if you look back to the George Perlis era Perlis did some rather questionable things, brought in some rather questionable characters pla So did Nick Saban and likewise Dantonio I don't believe that Dantonio cheats in recruiting like some of the SEC schools but I think he's fine with questionable character.
I've always said theat Michigan State suffers from penis envy they live in Michigans Shadow no matter what that's why their bitterness towards Harbaugh. Harbaugh came to Michigan well known a brand name the average football fan in America would struggle to tell you who Michigan State's coach is even with the success that he's had on the field and that really bothers State fans. Hell ESPN has referred to him as Mike or D'antonio or State as Michigan.
In this deposition at the end of the season if Harbaugh is deposed I'm sure the question will come up why did Harbaugh stop recruiting Robertson and His answer will most likely be because of his actions in high school dantonio didn't care about that and that's why I hold dantonio responsible for what the kid did on campus I don't know how State fans see it any different.
He brought a known sex offender to a campus filled with women also he could win some football games because the kid was a four-star and dantonio has struggled to get 4 star players it was all about dantonio much like jopa made it all about jopa
November 1st, 2019 at 11:47 AM ^
that was a fun read :-)
November 1st, 2019 at 11:52 AM ^
D’antoni, whose biggest legal concern was filing court orders to get the damn apostrophe off his name.
ouch
November 1st, 2019 at 11:56 AM ^
That article is ridiculously full of disrespek. So much that they'll be able to gorge themselves on it to the point that it is going to become performance enhancing. Fuck
November 1st, 2019 at 1:20 PM ^
It doesn't matter. They get off on "disrespekt" every year no matter what, because we are the premier university of the state, our program has a vastly more successful history and richer tradition, and we will always get the lion's share of attention.
November 1st, 2019 at 3:12 PM ^
Ya don't say?
November 1st, 2019 at 11:56 AM ^
If we can open up the flood gates on them I really hope Jim goes for the throat of Mork’s career. Put 80 on those assholes, given the chance.
November 1st, 2019 at 12:03 PM ^
Put a stake in it....
November 1st, 2019 at 12:11 PM ^
Don't know about the rest of you, but I'm envisioning a blowout followed by a "what's your deal?" handshake moment. In post game presser, Jim will talk about them acting like douches in the pregame (which they are sure to do) and then say they had to "stick it up there a little bit."
November 1st, 2019 at 12:54 PM ^
Whatever else is happening at MSU aside, I seriously doubt we will blow them out.
November 1st, 2019 at 1:06 PM ^
Agree. "Envisioning" was a poor choice of words. "Visualizing" would've been more accurate.
November 1st, 2019 at 12:28 PM ^
Michigan better win this game is all I can say.
November 1st, 2019 at 12:29 PM ^
I'm holding all of my comments and snark about MSU until after the game.
How I could see this going is that Dantonio has known for some time that this would be his final season, but he makes an official announcement about it in the days leading up to the Michigan game. He does it as a motivational ploy, and that sends what's left of his team into a frenzy of "Let's go out, shock the world and win one for Coach."
Either way, however much gas is left in the tank for MSU, every last drop of it is being used on Michigan. Even with Bachie out, I expect an extremely physical dogfight for at least a half, if not longer.
November 1st, 2019 at 12:44 PM ^
It wouldn't surprise me if he's known all season this is it and is saving everything he has for Michigan.
November 1st, 2019 at 12:57 PM ^
The only thing is, what could he be saving? Stewart and Collins left the last game with injuries, they don't have an offensive line. Lewerky is playing so poorly he was replaced in the second half by a true freshman against Penn State. I think the game will be close enough because quite frankly Harbaugh seems to get nervous in the MSU game and play extraordinarily conservative, but I really don't know what State could be "saving" at this point. Even in 2017, State didn't do anything special with the exception of one really good RB screen. That game was Michigan just repeatedly shooting itself in the balls. It had little to do with what State did or didn't do.
November 1st, 2019 at 4:14 PM ^
I'm guessing he's referring to trick plays. That's how MSU scored their lone TD last year. Any reverses, double reverses, fake punts, whatever it may be, if Dantonio has it somewhere in his playbook and they're not backed up inside their own 20, he'll be using it.
If he's planning to retire, he's going to go into that game thinking he's got nothing to lose.
November 1st, 2019 at 12:52 PM ^
I was definitely envisioning this exact scenario. Dantini tells his team the day before the Michigan game he is retiring after the season and MSU plays out of their minds. Will be much harder if they don’t have Bachie but strange things have happened in this game before.
November 1st, 2019 at 12:30 PM ^
I never feel good about Sparty games. This year I'm not so afraid Mich will lose, but that everyone will make it out healthy.
November 1st, 2019 at 1:03 PM ^
Always a concern. If there's one game on the schedule where I am fearful of the opponent intentionally injuring our guys it's this one.
November 1st, 2019 at 2:57 PM ^
it's always wisconsin, for me, but i take your point for this season.
November 1st, 2019 at 6:15 PM ^
We used to bet on how many personal fouls would be called in the game
November 1st, 2019 at 12:45 PM ^
Boom. Wojo'd.
November 1st, 2019 at 12:48 PM ^
Wojo has the mojo.
Commence the Mark Dantonio farewell tour...
November 1st, 2019 at 12:45 PM ^
This is worthy of the Pulitzer!
November 1st, 2019 at 12:45 PM ^
I think Dantoni steps down... but becomes AD and hires Jim Tressel... and this is the absolute last thing we want.. It was Tressel that caused our program slide by shutting us out of their state... It was also Tressel, Dantoni's buddy, who steered his plan B recruits, to Dantoni, players like Leveon Bell, and is the main part why Dantoni had any success at all... If you disagree, look at Dantoni's slide after Tressel was gone. His recruit pipeline got cut off when Meyer arrived, and when the last players left, he slid. This is the recruiting dropoff everyone sees. At the very least, you can thank Urban for not steering his plan B Ohio guys to Dantoni.
November 1st, 2019 at 1:03 PM ^
Tressel was forced out of OSU in 2010. Michigan State had not even began its 5-6 year run of contention at that point.
Jim Tressel isn't going to coach Michigan State. I seriously doubt Dantonio is being given any consideration for AD.
November 1st, 2019 at 1:07 PM ^
When people post something this stupid, what is the point exactly? Yup, they're going to replace their 63 year old cheating coach with a 66 year old cheating coach.......that's the ticket
November 1st, 2019 at 2:47 PM ^
Posting stupid shit is kind of alumnus93's thing.
November 1st, 2019 at 7:41 PM ^
This is a hilariously bad take even for you.
November 1st, 2019 at 1:05 PM ^
Facts are friendly. It was a great read.
November 1st, 2019 at 1:07 PM ^
I was talking to my brother-in-law about why Mark would hold onto all his assistant coaches. We believe it's because he has to be loyal to them so they don't blow the whistle on all the shit Mark and MSU have covered up in the last 13 years. Think about it, the one guy he fired (Blakwell) has opened the box and is suing the school.
Mark is not dumb, he has to know if he fires a staff member they will no longer have any loyalty to MSU or him.
November 1st, 2019 at 1:10 PM ^
ya know something.............I think you are exactly right.
November 1st, 2019 at 1:07 PM ^
I agree that Dantonio can probably create his own exit strategy. I don't think he'll be fired, but for some reason I will still be surprised if he's there next year. He looks like he's had enough.
November 1st, 2019 at 1:19 PM ^
This is RICH with SNARK!!! SO DELICIOUS IT IS CRIMINAL!!
November 1st, 2019 at 1:31 PM ^
I love Wojo. He cracks me up!
November 1st, 2019 at 1:39 PM ^
the sparty shots are very good, but don't miss this one about ND at the end of the article:
Virginia Tech at Notre Dame: One year ago, the Irish accidentally slipped into the playoff. Now, Brian Kelly is back under scrutiny, although his team fought admirably in last week’s 14-45 loss, outscoring Michigan 7-0 in the final four minutes. Pick: Notre Dame 31-20