I mentioned this to Rico last night during a phone conversation that we had while I was driving back from Ft. Wayne, but their were two things that struck me about Dantonio's speech to the recruits at the RAS Camp.
The first thing was the consistency of his message. Although he is talking about Rose Bowls and Cotton Bowls and Top 5 finishes, Dantonio's message is still essentially the same thing now as it was when he was talking to campers at SMSB as a first-year Spartan head coach during the summer of 2007. Dream big, set goals, work hard, and put your teammates ahead of yourself, etc. hard.
The biggest thing to me from his speech was his honesty about wanting more than a Top 5 finish, an 11-win season, and a Cotton Bowl Trophy last year.
A lot of coaches would be thumping their chest about a Top 5 finish and the season that Michigan State had in 2014. There is also no doubt in my mind that Dantonio takes a lot of pride in what his team accomplished a year ago despite losses to Ohio State and Oregon. But the fact that Dantonio made a point to say that Michigan State failed to win a championship in 2014, speaks volumes about the way he runs his program.
Dantonio doesn't deliver a salespitch, or make empty promises to get commitments. When a head coach has the same, or likely higher standards of accountability for himself that he has for everyone else in the program, it creates a winning culture.
The first thing was the consistency of his message. Although he is talking about Rose Bowls and Cotton Bowls and Top 5 finishes, Dantonio's message is still essentially the same thing now as it was when he was talking to campers at SMSB as a first-year Spartan head coach during the summer of 2007. Dream big, set goals, work hard, and put your teammates ahead of yourself, etc. hard.
The biggest thing to me from his speech was his honesty about wanting more than a Top 5 finish, an 11-win season, and a Cotton Bowl Trophy last year.
A lot of coaches would be thumping their chest about a Top 5 finish and the season that Michigan State had in 2014. There is also no doubt in my mind that Dantonio takes a lot of pride in what his team accomplished a year ago despite losses to Ohio State and Oregon. But the fact that Dantonio made a point to say that Michigan State failed to win a championship in 2014, speaks volumes about the way he runs his program.
Dantonio doesn't deliver a salespitch, or make empty promises to get commitments. When a head coach has the same, or likely higher standards of accountability for himself that he has for everyone else in the program, it creates a winning culture.
