Storyline: College football teams go through ups and downs. It has happened to the biggest names in the sport, to USC, ND, Michigan, Alabama, and Ohio State. Michigan State football is going through it now. Will State’s fortunes improve soon? I say yes. Why? Read on.
Even the very best college football programs–those that have had long periods of sustained success–experience hiccups from time to time.
Take the University of Michigan. The Wolverines have won more games than any other school in the history of the sport. Yet, UM has have had down years, too. From the time Lloyd Carr left Ann Arbor to the time Jim Harbaugh arrived (2008-2014) Michigan’s football record was 46-42 with one outstanding (11-2) and two losing seasons.
The pattern at Alabama is the same. Historically (since 1892) ‘Bama has won about 75% games of its games. Yet the Tide was 26-24 in the four years prior to Nick Saban’s arrival in Tuscaloosa. Ten of those wins were later forfeited via NCAA probation.
Michigan State is now in a football downturn after experiencing an epic run of victories and championships. It’s the third time this had happened to the Spartans since 1950.
MSU Spartans have achieved great success under Mark Dantonio (photo, Major Sports Network)
State is 90-40 in ten years under head coach Mark Dantonio. In three of those years–from 2013-2015–MSU won two Big Ten Championships, earned a spot in the coveted College Football Playoff, and notched victories in the Rose Bowl (Stanford) and Cotton Bowl (Baylor).
But the 2016 Spartans have hit the wall. At 3-7 currently, MSU is a three touchdown underdog going into Saturday’s home game against Ohio State. And ESPN calculates that MSU has a 17% chance of upsetting Penn St. in the season finale. That means odds makers have pegged the Spartans to finish the season 3-9.
The stark reality is this: even if MSU wins one or both of those games, State will still log its first losing season in a decade.
The big question is what will happen next year and beyond? Well, I’ve looked at history and believe the Spartans will get back to winning football…and soon. The 1954 Spartans are my point of reference for making that prediction.
Duffy Daugherty, then assistant coach, with Biggie Munn, State’s head coach, then AD
Michigan State finished 3-6 in 1954, a miserable season (much like this one). And the downturn that year came on the heels of phenomenal success–just like this year’s.
Michigan State won 28 straight games from 1950-53, a span that still stands as one the longest winning streaks in college football history. Biggie Munn’s 1953 team went 9-1 (5-1 conference), beat UCLA in The Rose Bowl, and ended up ranked #3 nationally.
Then the bottom fell out in 1954.
But what happened immediately after that should give hope to contemporary Spartans. MSU bounced back in 1955. State went 9-1, won the Big Ten championship, and beat UCLA in the Rose Bowl. The Spartans finished the year ranked #2 in both the AP and Coaches polls.
But there’s more to the story. Over the next decade (’55-65) the Spartans were a spectacular 70-24-4 (even with two losing seasons thrown in the mix). And, in 1966, the Spartans were 9-0-1 and a win away from capturing the national championship.
MSU”s John Hannah saw football as a major instrument in gaining national attention for what had been a small Midwestern college.
Why did they Michigan State have so much success back then?
There are many reasons, but one big reason is leadership. John Hannah, who viewed football as an institutional building block, was president. Biggie Munn, who engineered football success as head coach in the early ’50s, was athletic director. Duffy Daugherty, who with Magic Johnson is one of the most recognizable names in Spartan sports history, was the head football coach.
The Spartans had leadership.
And it wasn’t leadership from just one person. It was aligned, coordinated leadership. You need that kind of leadership–as a precondition–to achieve long-term success.
I view it as the “It Factor.”
Without that kind of leadership you might have a good season or two, but you won’t have sustained success. With it, programs are better able to weather down years and return to high years, faster and repeatedly. They will be resilient.
The good news is that MSU had that kind of leadership back then. The even better news for today’s Spartan fans is that MSU has it now.
President Lou Anna Simon knows football. She supports it unconditionally. AD Mark Hollis is inarguably one of the most admired and effective athletic executives in the country. And what Coach Mark Dantonio has done at MSU is, in a word, remarkable.
The MSU story isn’t unique. Study why UM, Alabama, USC (you pick the brand name) transitioned from feast to famine and back to feast again and you’ll see a similar pattern–of leadership during times of great success and something quite different during times of distress. A good example is the story John U. Bacon tells in his sobering, but ever so relevant, Endzone: The Rise, Fall, and Return of Michigan Football.
So take heart, Spartan fans. One season does not a program make. State will be back…and back soon.
