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Dantonio on Matt Allen, interesting story about when Matt was 11-years-old

Dantonio: “Matt Allen will go for a state wrestling meet, big championship meet this year. Obviously he's the third Allen - Brian Allen, Jack Allen - coming here. And I can only tell you this: When you have somebody's family coming here over and over and over, it signifies to me that we're doing things the right way, that their young people, their sons are moving forward, not just as a football player but in their life as well.

“I remember Matt when he was 11 or 12 years old sitting in the basement as I went in to recruit Jack. And the wrestling mat is literally in the basement laid out. Okay. And Matt's talking to me about when he gets that age and how he's going to whoop up on his brothers.

“So exciting to have Matt here. Watched him wrestle Josh King the other week and just a tremendous athlete. Again, wrestler, tough guy. Will have a great future in front of him. Understands our offense already terminology-wise, conceptually. Will play center here, but obviously could play some guard as well just like his brothers. So it'll be exciting to watch him grow.”
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Dantonio on deWeaver, "you can already see what he's going to do..."

Dantonio only had one or two sentences of comment on deWeaver, after profiling him during the Jan. 15 mid-year enrollee press conference.

But deWeaver has apparently impressed the coaches a bit further since then.

Dantonio's lone comment on deWeaver from Wednesday:

“Messiah deWeaver is a guy that recruited and really initiated the dream team hashtag for the '16 class. Messiah is enrolled. We spoke a lot about him early on, but another young man that I think you can already see what he's going to do, just by the way you watch him carry himself."

Dantonio on d-linemen: King, Jones, Panasiuk

“When you look at our defensive line, I think it's one of the strengths of our recruiting class as well. Certainly Naquan Jones, is a big-body guy, highly recruited guy in the inside from Chicago. Brad Salem, Ron Burton were involved in that recruiting process.

“And you know, there's an absence of big guys, and we've made a living on great big players playing here and playing very, very effectively on defense. So he's a guy that will have an opportunity to play early in his career. Everywhere he's gone, I think he's been successful in that area. He was a basketball player as well early on, and we're looking forward to him coming from Evanston, Illinois. Big-body guy.

“Josh King, a wrestler. I watched him wrestle a week and a half ago. 6' 6 frame. That's a legitimate 6' 6. Some would say would be bigger. 255 pounds, won the state championship in wrestling as a junior at the 220-pound level. Athlete. Very good athlete. Big body, really can run. Very athletic.

“We like wrestlers here. They can get into you and take you down, and they understand hard work, hard work and sacrifice.

“Another four-star guy that was recruited by everybody across the nation. Again, Ron Burton recruited Josh to Michigan State, and just will be an outstanding player and person. So we've got two big-time players in that capacity.

“Mufi Hunt, defensive end who when we recruited him last year, 215 pounds, went on a mission, came off his mission, so he enrolled here in January as you guys know. Now weighs 265. So a little update on Mufi as we move forward. Very, very flexible athlete.

“Mike Panasiuk, another four-star guy, was the strongest man at The Opening. Brad Salem recruited Mike. Very, very active player; dominant defensive lineman, quick-body guy. I'm not sure how much he repped. But (he was) the strongest man at The Opening, which would probably make you the strongest person in high school football.

“Very athletic, has snap, played a little bit of running back as well. They used him at running back or as a blocker in the backfield a little bit throughout the season. Mike will be another guy that will be active immediately, I think.”

Dantonio on Brandon Randle and Joe Bachie at LB

“When you go to the linebacker position, two guys that we took, we're addressing need, so we felt like we could take two guys. Both these guys are multi-sport athletes.

“Joe Bachie, the guy that played tailback, punt returner, shortstop, all-conference in basketball, point guard, and he plays middle linebacker and runs. And Jim Bollman recruited the Cleveland area. He's from Berea-Midpark, outstanding player, very intelligent player, and he's in as well as we've talked about before about Joe.

“Brandon Randle is a young man from Battle Creek, and I think he was one of the guys that we really saw throughout the process of recruiting and recognized as being a guy that's an outstanding athlete and can play at an extremely high level. size 17 shoes, basketball player, track athlete, high hurdler, low hurdles, long jumper, those type of things.

“At 225 pounds he's going to be an outstanding player for us.

“A little unique situation. His parents lived in North Carolina, so he spent time back and forth a little bit. The decision was made for him to continue his education at Battle Creek. And he excelled there. Some people helped out. Coaches helped out with his living situation. He lived with his grandfather as well. His grandfather is an outstanding athlete from Ferris State, actually had one of the fastest high hurdle times in the nation at one point. His mother ran track here. So very loving family, does an outstanding job in terms of handling their child and moving him forward in this process.

“But Brandon plays defensive end, linebacker, wide receiver, tailback, punt returner, kick returner, and he's a big athletic guy that can really run and get off blocks. So we are extremely excited about his development and what he'll be able to do as we move forward.

"I'm not even sure how many stars Brandon Randle has, for instance. But I can tell you Brandon Randle probably is a five-star player in my mind. He's an outstanding football player."

Dantonio on Layne, Trishton Jackson

"All these guys (including Chambers and Corley) are big guys that play multiple positions, multiple sports.

“I watched Trishton Jackson pour in 30 points the other night playing basketball. Quarterback on their football team. Played wide receiver. I thought Coach Bellamy did an outstanding job with him developing him at West Bloomfield, but (he is a) playmaker, very explosive, ran in the 4.4s, mid 4.4s for us in camp and came here in camp and really electrified everybody.

“So initially we were going to take three wide receivers. After seeing Trishton perform, we decided we would take four. He's that type of player, that level of player. Brad Salem was involved with that recruitment and obviously Terrence Samuel as his position coach.

“Jim Bollman recruited Justin Layne out of Cleveland Benedictine High School. Again, another young man that I watched him play basketball the other day. I'm not sure how many he had; about 20. It was a quiet 20, but he was up around the rim the whole night.

“Very explosive, quick-body guy, punt returner, kick returner, in the secondary, plays wide receiver. Very highly sought-after recruit guy who made his decision in June and has stuck with his decision throughout the process. So extremely impressive as a person, very, very tough-minded people.

“So you've got four wide receivers coming in who I really think are going to play as young freshmen. I really do believe that. Two of those guys, Corley and Justin Layne, could play on the other side of the ball. I don't think there's any question about that as we move forward. And that's been proven here that you can do that when you look at Lippett and some of the other guys that have played here on both sides.”

Rico Cooney story on Noah Davis (link)

Good stuff from Rico Cooney on Noah Davis. Michigan State coaches think he's going to be a great fit at tight end, and I agree with them. There aren't many places left where guys are required to block at TE like St. Xavier. He's got a good pedigree, size, hands, runs good routes.

Also, based on what he said at NSD it appears that Mark Staten will not be jumping on the sleepover bandwagon anytime soon.

https://michiganstate.n.rivals.com/...t-to-thrive-at-tight-end-in-pro-style-offense

MEN'S BASKETBALL Five Things to Remember in mid-January

Five things to remember about MSU basketball:

1) Happiness = Reality minus Expectations

I must admit that I was seduced a bit by this team in December and November. My expectations were not super high coming into this season (maybe Sweet 16) and I was frankly just still basking in the afterglow and pride of getting back to the Final Four last year. But, in late December I got greedy (as we all did), and now we are feeling the effects

2) A team is never as bad as their most recent loss and seldom as good as their most recent big win

MSU just lost two games by a total of 2 points with the starting PG on the bench and best player maybe not 100%. If Denzel hits those last two shots (@ Wisconsin and last night), everyone we be celebrating how resilient the team is and talking about getting the #1 seed in Chicago. Now, there is talk about not making the tournament. Most fan bases are bipolar, and we are no different. Take your sports-fan lithium and chill out.

3) Izzo does not coach to win in January. He coaches to win in March

We have all seen this movie before. In November and December, Izzo figures out what pieces he has and what their ceiling is. In January, Izzo works to try to correct the small (or large) problems that will keep his team from reaching that ceiling. In February, Izzo takes what he has learned so far and builds the team back up to be the best that it can be. In March, Izzo wins. I would have to go back season by season, but I don’t remember an Izzo team EVER playing well early and then just fading and continuing to fade, especially a team with this much depth. I don’t expect it this year either.

4) This team looked REALLY good just a few weeks ago on both offense and defense and nothing fundamentally has changed.

Guys are hurt and out of sync, but I see no reason why MSU can’t adjust, get its mojo back, and start winning again. Deep Izzo teams with this much talent (and yes, there is enough talent on this team) wind up being successful.

5) At the end of the day, this team will get what they deserve

MSU has a lot of quality wins and a reasonable excuse (injuries) for all its loses. If they can turn it around and finish strong, a high seed in March is certainly possible. If they continue to struggle, the seed will continue to drop. As Comp always says: 30 games; get your crap together. There is still plenty of basketball left to play.

New, revamped SpartanMag & Rivals.com coming in the next few hours

We are excited to give our SpartanMag members a heads-up about some changes scheduled to take place within the Rivals.com Network, which will include SpartanMag.com, this week. For now, the switch-over is scheduled for later today (Tuesday).

When the change kicks in, the front page of SpartanMag.com and all content pages (stories and features) will be completely different. We've been using some of the new content pages already and you can see an example here: https://michiganstate.n.rivals.com/news/worth-the-wait-corley-to-state

Here's a quick FAQ regarding the upcoming changes:

Why are the changes being made?

* No. 1 - The Rivals network has essentially been unchanged for 15 years. Rivals.com was first to this market, and has become the leader in this industry, but it came at a cost. We were first, but our stuff is old. When programming engineers were enlisted to find solutions, they said fixing the old Rivals.com was like trying to repair a 747 aircraft while it was in flight. The process has taken awhile, but we’re not ready for a relaunch of sorts.

* No. 2 - Mobile! When Rivals was launched around 15 years ago there was no such thing as reading online content on a smart phone or tablet. Now, over 50% of
people that are online are doing so from a mobile device! The old configuration
(content and front page) was never designed for mobile and doesn't play nicely
with it. We tried a workaround by developing an app, which was OK for a while
but essentially hasn't worked since last summer. The new network is 100%
mobile responsive and optimized for all devices.

What will the changes mean for SpartanMag members?

* For content pages, there will be a slightlydifferent look but more importantly they will be optimized for mobile. Everything should be much easier to read on smart
phones and tablets, and they should load faster. There will be no need to scroll
from side to side or to increase the size of the page in order to read it. And
because it's compatible with all devices and operating systems, every page should
look fine whether you are using an iDevice, Android or Windows.

* With the network now stabilized and with everything compatible with mobile, it meanswe are one step closer to getting a working app that should be dramatically more
functional than the old one (even when it was working).

* Please be patient but I plan to make getting a new app out a priority going forward.

* The front page of SpartanMag.com will look very different. Here's an example of Auburn's front page: https://auburn.n.rivals.com/

* Because there was a priority to make everything mobile friendly, we had to sacrifice some features that have been mainstays on the front page - Twitter feed,
a video module, links to quick updates, and the look will be more streamlined
(you will need to scroll down more to find recent features and stories).

* When the changeover takes place, some old, old stories might appear on our site at first. But after a day or so, as news and coverage takes place, the most recent content will rise back up to the top.

What does this mean going forward?

* When we at Rivals.com finally gained approval from Yahoo’s upper management for funding to design and launch a new network, one of the best things that happened was getting Rivals away from the constraints of being on Yahoo's servers. For all intents and purposes, Rivals is now independent (from a technical standpoint) from Yahoo and will no longer be constrained by having to go through 20 layers of bureaucracy to get an upgrade. As a result, a lot of cool features and changes will come quickly in the next few months.

* The new leadership at Rivals is putting more of an emphasis on listening to the publishers, which means we have more of say in the direction of the network. It
also means we have a lot of input on needed changes.

* Yes, there will be some bugs. The new network has been essentially running in the background for over a month to weed out as many bugs as possible. But with any major technological change/upgrade, glitches and unforeseen setbacks are inevitable. We will work as quickly as possible to get through these problems so
please be patient.



From all of us at SpartanMag.com, and our families, we thank you for subscribing and being a part of the SpartanMag web community. We hope you will remain subscribers for many years to come as our SpartanMag news organizations grows and evolves.

Sincerely,

Jim Comparoni
Publisher
SPARTAN Magazine & SpartanMag.com

MEN'S BASKETBALL Early Bracketology Thoughts

With the calendar telling me that it is December and MSU sitting up #1 in both polls with no ranked team on the schedule for 6 weeks, I have the sudden itch to start thinking about bracketology. It is never too early, it is? The selection committee is putting more emphasis than ever on keeping teams close to home and with the current trajectory of MSU’s season, it seems reasonable to assume that we will be in the hunt for a top seed come Selection Sunday. By looking at the game locations, you can already get a feel for how this is going to shake out, even here in December.

It seems safe to assume that MSU is going to stay in position to get a preferred location in the first 2 rounds. Looking at the possible options, there frankly aren’t a lot of good ones. Des Moines, IA and St. Louis look to be the closest, and the biggest competition for those locations will be Iowa State, Purdue, Kentucky, and maybe Xavier and Butler. The rest of the Big 12 will prefer Oklahoma City, Duke and UNC will prefer Raleigh, teams like Maryland and Virginia will most likely prefer up in Brooklyn, and most Big East teams will prefer Providence

As for the Regional locations, things get a bit more interesting. The West Regional is once again in Anaheim, and so the Pac 12 champ is almost certain to get a 1-seed or 2-seed in that Region along with Gonzaga, if they have a good season. The other Regional locations are Louisville, Chicago, and Philadelphia. The good news here is that while MSU would clear prefer to be in the Chicago Regional, Maryland would prefer Philadelphia, as would the winner of the ACC (likely Duke, UNC, or Virginia). With Kentucky playing in what is effectively a Mid-Major conference, they seem to be a heavy favorite to get the 1-seed in Louisville unless something catastrophic happens. So, the seeds most likely in play for MSU are the 1- and 2-seeds in Chicago and the 2-seed in Louisville. The competition for these seeds is most likely:

-The top 1-2 Big 12 teams (Kansas, Iowa State, and Oklahoma)
-Purdue
-The second place ACC team

It seems likely that MSU, Maryland, and Purdue will all get split up, and since MSU and Purdue both prefer the same region, it seems quite important to finish ahead of the Boilermakers in the standings in order to secure the 1-seed in Chicago and avoid playing in Kentucky's region, which still seems like a good team to avoid. MSU’s win over Kansas in November also certainly helps, but the fact that MSU only plays Purdue once and the game is in West Lafayette is a bit concerning. From an NCAA seeding point of view, this could be the most critical game left on the schedule.

Now, if MSU falls out of the Top 10, all of this is moot, but for now this is what it looks like to me.
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Saban vs. Dantonio II Set for Dallas

Saban vs Dantonio II Set for Dallas

Jim Comparoni
SpartanMag.com Publisher


EAST LANSING - When Michigan State trudged down the field for Saturday night's instantly-historic, 22-play touchdown drive to beat Iowa in the Big Ten Championship Game, there was a noteworthy, interested observer watching closely, on a television set, during transit somewhere between Atlanta and Tuscaloosa: Mr. Nick Saban.

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"I got to see that 22-play drive last night, and it was pretty awesome," Saban said, during Sunday night's Cotton Bowl teleconference, featuring the two head coaches who will square off in the College Football Playoff on Dec. 31 in Dallas.

"I was rooting for the Spartans after being there for 10 years myself and rooting for my former assistant Mark (Dantonio)," said Saban, Alabama's head coach. "And glad they came out on top."

Because of that victory, No. 3-ranked Michigan State (12-1) will face No. 2 Alabama (12-1) in the CFP semifinals on Dec. 31.

No. 1 Clemson (13-0) will play No. 4 Oklahoma (11-1) in the other semifinal.

Those match-ups were announced on Sunday.

The winners will face one another in the National Championship Game, on Monday, Jan. 11 in Glendale, Ariz.

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Saban, during his coaching debut at Michigan State in 1995.
Saban served as head coach at Michigan State from 1995-99, leaving prior to the Spartans' Citrus Bowl game in December of 1999 for the head coaching job at LSU.

Saban worked as defensive coordinator forGeorge Perles from 1983-87, constituting his first five years of experience in East Lansing.

When Saban became head coach at Michigan State in 1995, he hired Dantonio to be his defensive backs coach. Dantonio held that post until he left MSU following the 2000 season to become defensive coordinator at Ohio State.

Sunday's teleconference served as a reunion of sorts for the two men, who are similar personality types in terms of their laser-sharp organizational skills and dead seriousness about football. On a personal level, they are different. Dantonio is a calm, listening-ear type of hugger, a giver who motivates by showing players and subordinates he cares. The bombastic Saban motivates as a tyrant, telling players that he'll treat them like men if and when they act like men. Both have been wildly successful.

Saban has won four National Championships at tail-wags-dog Southeastern Conference football factories. Dantonio has won at previously-underachieving Michigan State, a program Saban said on his way out the door "would always be number two" to in-state rival Michigan.

Saban offered Dantonio and all of his MSU assistant coaches jobs at LSU in December of 1999, if they wanted to come with him. None of them did. LSU's charter plane that was scheduled to bring his MSU assistants to Baton Route left the Lansing airport with nothing but pilots and empty passenger seats.

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Saban during his last press briefing at MSU, after announcing his departure.

Saban came down with a case of cold feet and called MSU officials during a flight from Lansing to Baton Rouge, inquiring if he could get his MSU job back, shortly after accepting the LSU post. But the door had been closed. Saban landed in LSU and went on to win without his former staff members. But he left bruised feelings behind him in East Lansing.

Dantonio has done well, too. And Dantonio has remained respectful of Saban, restating during Sunday's teleconference that he wouldn't be where he is without Saban.

"The relationship between he and I is one to me as a mentor," Dantonio said. "He's a guy that I've called on occasion when I could help or when he could help me in any way. And I have great respect for him and his family and what he's been able to accomplish."

A Rising Tide

Dantonio is 87-32 in nine seasons at Michigan State. This year, Dantonio became the first coach in Big Ten history to win at least 11 games in five of six seasons. Dantonio is 38-4 in his last 42 games, including six straight post-season wins. He is 7-1 in his last eight games against Top 10 teams.
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Saban, during his introductory press conference at LSU, later that day.


Michigan State had failed to earn a bowl bid in five of the previous seven seasons prior to Dantonio's hiring. Dantonio has engineered one of the greatest turnarounds college football has seen in the past 30 years. A National Championship would cement his place in not only MSU history, but college football history.

This year's Cotton Bowl will mark the second time Saban has coached against Dantonio. The two met in the 2011 Capital One Bowl, with Saban's defending National Champions defeating MSU 49-7.

Saban has faced former assistants several times, including last weekends SEC Championship Game against former Alabama offensive coordinator Jim McElwain, who is now head coach at Florida. But Saban has never faced a former assistant who is as accomplished as Dantonio is now.

"It always makes me proud and happy for the guys that did a great job for us when they were part of our staff and they go on and move on and have success other places," Saban said.

Saban was 34-24-1 in five seasons at Michigan State. He was 0-3 in bowl games, losing by 19, 38 and 28 points in his three postseason appearances as MSU's head coach in the Independence Bowl, Sun Bowl and Aloha Bowl to LSU, Stanford and Washington.

Saban was asked on Sunday evening if Dantonio's level of success could have been attained in East Lansing when Saban was head coach.

"Well, when I was there, it was a difficult time for Michigan State," Saban said. "I took the job and we were on probation and didn't really have the number of scholarships until the last year we were there. And we certainly had a good team that year. Probably not as good as Mark's teams have been the last couple three years.

"But I think he's done a phenomenal job there, and I think as well as anybody could be expected to win the Big Ten championships that he's won. And to have the kind of consistency and performance they've had over the last few years is pretty phenomenal, but not surprising to me. So I think, you know, Mark has exceeded expectations of all of us in terms of what he's done at Michigan State and certainly done a better job than I ever did there. I can tell you that."

Brutally Effective

Saban's Alabama team was brutally effective against Michigan State in 2011. Saban even seemed to attempt to keep the score down with inside running plays in the fourth quarter.

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Saban, at bowl practice prior to the 2011 Capital One Bowl against Michigan State.
"I'm not the kind of guy that has to dislike my opponent to play well against him," Saban said. "Sometimes respect is a better word. And when you know somebody is a really good coach and has done a great job for you, it's really easy to respect them. And that's certainly the case in this game."

The two coaches heard each others' voices over the phone during Sunday's teleconference. Although they are friends, they aren't ones to reach out and touch each other with frequent phone calls.

Following the teleconference, Dantonio was asked by local media whether it's a bit of a trip to hear his old boss's grumpy voice on the other end of a telephone.

"Oh, yeah, it takes me back," Dantonio said with a laugh. "I was Nick's secondary coach for five years, so I learned a tremendous amount of football: Organization, preparation. So much of what we do in terms of preparation - in terms of technique and terminology and my mindset as a football coach - has been shaped by the people I've worked for. Certainly Jim Tressel I've talked about a lot, but Nick Saban is probably the guy from a defensive system, and then also from just an overall football system, that has been a mentor."

Saban demands that his players are physical, tough and knowledgeable. Dantonio has instilled the same commandments at modern day Michigan State.

"Those are the three things that he (Saban) constantly preached, the three things that took no ability, and those are the three characteristics that I constantly talk to our players," Dantonio said. "You want to be able to run the ball, power run, you want to be physical, you want to be tough. You need to have great knowledge of what you do."

And, as Saban says, there is often some ugly roadkill along the way.

"There are challenges," Dantonio said. "A lot of what I learned when I was here, and let's not be … it was difficult. It's difficult. You guys know that. But I think my relationship with Coach Saban, with Nick Saban, is excellent. He's truly a mentor of mine. I would not be in this position as a head coach had I not been afforded the opportunity to come to Michigan State by Nick."

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Precious few of Saban's former players at Michigan State have kept in touch with him during his coaching stops with LSU, the Miami Dolphins and the University of Alabama. He's not easily-approachable. But Saban is fond of his former assistant.

"I consider Mark a friend," Saban said. "But I think in this profession, we're all sort of bigamists in some degree in terms of we're married and we have children and we have grandchildren, but we're also married to our job. So I know Mark is (married to his job), and I think you have to be to really have success because you have a lot of young men that you've got to provide leadership for. And Mark has certainly done a great job of that.

"And we stay in contact and talk every now and then. But like I am with a lot of the guys, I have a tremendous amount of respect for him and consider them friends, but it's not like we talk on the phone every week because I don't think any of us really have time for that. But there's sort of a respect and admiration that you have for colleagues that have done a great job for you and you recognize by how their team plays what a great job they're doing now."

That includes his admiration for Saturday night's epic final drive.

"They certainly were on during that drive because Iowa, I know, has got a really good defensive team, and they're very well-coached," Saban said. "Coach Ferentz does an outstanding job as does Phil Parker, one of our former players (at MSU) as defensive coordinator.

"I think it showed a lot about the grit that Michigan State's team has and the resiliency that they played with on that drive to convert third downs, make plays when they needed to make them.

"They had a big physical back, and they got a physical offensive line. And that's the way we try to play, and that's the way they try to play. And that's the kind of football that a lot of people enjoy watching. So it's going to be a great matchup from that standpoint."
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