A couple of post-bowl game memes I wanted to touch on now that the season is over.
Spartans Fall to Texas Tech in Alamo Bowl
Kirk Cousins in the Valero Alamo Bowl
For all the talk before the game of suspensions and terminations and how it would effect the focus of each team, the game was surprisingly competitive. MSU lost the game, 41-31, but it was competitive well into the fourth quarter. And considering the absolute decimation MSU faced at the wide receiver position, the offense performed valiantly well.
After the game, I heard some noise from a handful of groups of people around the interwebs that Coach Dantonio should be on the hot seat after a 6-7 campaign and zero bowl wins since he took of the reigns of the program. But here’s the deal, you can’t just look at this with such a short term mentality. I’d like a bowl win as much as any Spartan fan, but we need to put this in the perspective of how long it takes to build a championship program. Anyone who thinks that the foundation is built overnight needs to reassess their expectations.
Dantonio has taken MSU to three straight bowl games, something the Spartans haven’t seen since the Saban era. This season was his first losing season at MSU, but let’s not forget that we started the year with two quarterback options who were each looking at being a first-year starter, and no clear option at running back. I don’t care who you are, those gaps are going to make it a tough road to winning a conference title.
Keith Nichol as Wide Receiver
I’m not going to deny that Nichol is one heck on an athlete. Whether that’s at quarterback, at wide receiver, hell he’d probably be good as a punter (okay, that’s maybe a bit of a stretch). But I’m selling this notion that Nichol will line up at wide receiver for significant snaps next season.
Coach Treadwell pulled out all the stops against Texas Tech, whether it was Wildcat formations or flea-flickers or TD passes from Keyshawn Martin. But when you’re playing your final game of the season, and you’re down pretty much every wide recevier you have save for two, you’re a little more willing to shuffle your athletic players around to fill gaps.
But Coach Dantonio has already reinstated many of the players that were suspended against Texas Tech, including WRs Mark Dell, B.J. Cunningham and Chris D. Rucker. Given that, I just don’t see why you would risk lining up a very talented quarterback at the wide receiver spot, especially after Dantonio has shown that he will use Keith even in games where he’s not the starter. Also, when you consider that the next guy on the depth chart would be redshirt freshman Andrew Maxwell, I just don’t think it makes sense to play Nichol a whole lot at receiver. No knock on Maxwell, I just feel like it makes more sense to go with Nichol if Cousins were to get hurt.
New Commitments
National Signing Day for football is just a few weeks away (February 3rd, to be specific), and we’ve seen a few recent commitments since I last reported LeVeon Bell’s commitment to MSU.
MSU received a commitment this past weekend from linebacker Justin Wilson out of Western High School in Davie, Florida. Wilson is a three-star commit, who also had an offer from West Virginia. The Spartans also picked up a commitment from Tyler Calero, a three-star defensive end from Beverly Hills, Michigan.
So Long, Dan Enos
The nature of the beast when it comes to coaching at the college level is that when you are successful at developing your assistant coaches, it won’t be long until they are presented with the opportunity to leave your program and start their head coaching careers. This was the case for Dan Enos, who was presented the opportunity to become the head coach at Central Michigan after Butch Jones left to take the head job at Cincinnati. Enos wasn’t just a great coach with deep ties to MSU, he was without a doubt our best recruiter for the state of Michigan. Best of luck to Enos, he will definitely be missed inside the MSU program.
Welcome Back, Greg Jones
If you haven’t heard, Greg Jones decided to come back to MSU for his senior season.
Obviously, this was huge. No doubt there was some disappointment for Jones this season. While he performed very well on and individual level, he certainly wanted to go out on a better note from a team perspective. The larger reason for staying in school was further development, as many with inside knowledge into Jones’ decision said that Greg wanted to go in the first round, and when draft projections had him in the second round, he decided to come back. Jones mentioned that he wants to become a bigger force in pass defense, and we could certainly use all the help we can get in that respect.
Next Up, William Gholston Please
The next big news for the Spartan football program will, hopefully, be national signing day on February 3rd. The William Gholston situation has made me nervous since he said that he was going to take his official visits to other schools, and yet he has remained steadfast in saying he will be suiting up for the Spartans. I’d hate to see a signing day switch-a-roo, and honestly I won’t be totally confident until I hear Mark Dantonio announces the signing day class for 2010.
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