Mike SDawg4L

Saban Alumni 96-00 - WOODSHED Veteran - 4 Letter Longsnapper - Spartan Football Realist - Habitual 8 Win Predictor

[Mike SDawg4L @SpartansFTMFW]

I like my upside down M better 😏

[Justin Spiro @DarkoStateNews]

I’m told Pat Fitzgerald has heavily emphasized a “return to Spartan football” in his first weeks with the program.

He has told staff there will be an enforced expectation of toughness and an embracing of what MSU’s identity was at the program’s peak.

One staffer put it best:

“The chip-on-our-shoulder is back, and that’s because of (Fitzgerald).

He knows what this place was. He knows people don’t think (MSU) can get back there, that he can’t adapt.

He is fired up - like, at an almost alarming level.

He wants to prove everyone wrong and shove it up their ass.”

[Mike SDawg4L @SpartansFTMFW]

Connor Stallions being in the background of this picture is pure artistic irony.

[dunc 🌎 @SpartyWRLD]

Michigan State’s Carson Cooper vs Duke’s Cameron Boozer was a classic battle of Bigs 💪

Cooper:
16 PTS | 16 REB | 58% FG | 1 BLK

Boozer:
18 PTS | 15 REB | 53% FG | 5 Fouls

From Cooper’s High School B Team to outplaying the projected #1 overall pick in the NBA Draft.

[Justin Spiro @DarkoStateNews]

Wouldn’t even interview with Michigan.

💀

[Brian Lewerke @brianlewerke14]

Could not be more fired up about this. I was recruited by Northwestern, and other than Coach D, there was no other coach I would’ve loved to play for.

[Mike SDawg4L @SpartansFTMFW]

To a man… Every Saban era Spartan I have talked to is excited about this hire. Welcome to the Spartan Family Coach Fitzgerald. I’m ready to get excited about football again.

[Michigan State Football @MSU_Football]

A new era begins in East Lansing!

Welcome home, Coach Fitzgerald!

[Justin Spiro @DarkoStateNews]

4-straight losing seasons for MSU Football.

Mark Dantonio inherited an awful program and had 1 losing season in 13 years.

Get the hire right this time, @michiganstateu.

Let me know if you need help. I wish you would have listened last time, but I’m still here.

[Justin Spiro @DarkoStateNews]

I believe it’s time to raise the flag.

[Mike SDawg4L @SpartansFTMFW]

We lost to a bad Michigan team tonight. If there’s any credibility left in our athletic program leadership they know what to do next.

[Justin Spiro @DarkoStateNews]

Mark Dantonio - Year 1

INHERITED...

- 4-8 (1-7 B1G)
- 3-straight losing seasons (2004-2006)

YEAR 1:

- 7 wins
- 6 losses --> all by 1 score

avg. loss:
3.1 points (OT loss = 1 pt.)

Even old era rebuilds could produce competitive football…

[FitzManMSU @FitzManMSU]

Spiro was right

[Peach - CPT @msupeach]

What we saw today from MSU and Jonathan Smith is one of the most unacceptable performances we've ever seen in East Lansing. Blown out and dominated before the halftime whistle. During your homecoming. Fans booing you off the field. Team regressing in real time. Same mental mistakes over and over again.

Changes need to be made.

[Mike SDawg4L @SpartansFTMFW]

@DarkoStateNews @DarkoStateNews are we getting this train back on the tracks? I’m ready to Raise The Flag

[Justin Spiro @DarkoStateNews]

Who do you think would make a better ruler?

[Mike SDawg4L @SpartansFTMFW]

Another @DarkoStateNews banger.

[Justin Spiro @DarkoStateNews]

Their judgment cometh, and that right soon.

〽️ 🔨

[Mike SDawg4L @SpartansFTMFW]

@GPSparty @GatorBillMSU @bones327 @Spartan_dawg12 @snowonthegruff @Sheehan_Sports @cwharris773 2nd post: DL and OL are fucking brutal positions for body wear and tear. injuries are taken more seriously now than they were and for good reason. So where in my day you would play through it and be injured the rest of your life, now they take better care of the athletes.

[Mike SDawg4L @SpartansFTMFW]

@GPSparty @GatorBillMSU @bones327 @Spartan_dawg12 @snowonthegruff @Sheehan_Sports @cwharris773 I played in 48 games as a longsnapper and only 7 or 8 as a lineman. But have arthritis in my ankles from repeat injuries. Also sciatic pain and a limp that I’ve had since my sophomore year, I didn’t know until recently is due to a fractured lumbar vertebrae that was never treated

[Mike SDawg4L @SpartansFTMFW]

@DarkoStateNews @bryan09657464 @OdellBretthamJr @MSU_Football The die has been cast. It’s going to take an earth shattering decision to break out of our self imposed mediocrity. Saban for AD, then it’s time to “raise the flag”

[Justin Spiro @DarkoStateNews]

In the 89-year history of the AP Poll, only 2 coaches have won a national championship at 2 different schools.

The first coached Michigan State for 5 seasons.

For years, he pleaded with university leaders to invest in the football program with upgrades for its dated, dilapidated facilities.

For years, they said no.

Finally fed up, he bolted south for the SEC.

One night before his introductory press conference, the coach sat on a chair in the corner of his Louisiana hotel room.

He realized he couldn’t do it.

He couldn’t leave Michigan State.

He couldn’t leave the campus he once described as “perfect, like a national park with a school in it.”

He couldn’t leave after his best season, with so much business left to finish.

The coach told his wife they were going home.

Still in his hotel room - just 12 hours away from his press conference - the coach called M. Peter McPherson.

He told the MSU president his heart was in East Lansing, and his job wasn’t finished.

He said he would find a way, with or without a new facility.

He was coming home, if they’d have him.

McPherson said “no, thank you”, and wished his former coach well in the SEC.

The next morning, Nick Saban was introduced as head coach of LSU.

His last MSU team (1999) finished 7th in the AP Poll, the school’s best finish in 33 years.

It was the program’s only appearance in the Poll from 1991-2007.

Saban would win 7 national titles.

……….

In December 2002, the second coach called MSU inquiring about their head coaching position.

The 36-year-old wunderkind was fresh off a miraculous 2-year turnaround at Bowling Green, but still relatively unknown on a national scale.

He wanted the MSU job, and was disappointed he had not been invited to interview.

He told friends there was a sleeping giant in East Lansing. He would win at a rate they hadn’t seen since the 60s.

He would walk from Ohio to sign the contract, if offered.

Eventually, a headhunter for MSU reached out.

“Sorry, we are only talking to Tier-1 coaches in this search. We might call you if the others fall through.”

MSU eventually hired John L. Smith, Tier-1 coach.

Urban Meyer, not a Tier-1 coach, ended up at Utah.

21 years and 3 national titles later, MSU got a second chance.

In 2023, Meyer had returned to broadcasting after a short, disastrous NFL stint.

He said he was done coaching forever, but something burned him inside.

He told friends he was disgusted the last line of his coaching bio would forever be his failure in Jacksonville.

Meyer’s intrigue with the MSU job from decades earlier remained, only affirmed by their ascension under Mark Dantonio. They had been his only foil at Ohio State, twice derailing perfect Buckeye seasons.

Meyer traveled to East Lansing, covertly meeting with MSU representatives to discuss their newly opened coaching position. It would be the first of several such discussions.

Sources vary on details, but agree on a few key points:

-Urban Meyer was highly interested, but not certain he’d return to coaching

-Urban Meyer laid out a general structure of what he would need to deliver a national title to East Lansing

-MSU AD Alan Haller did not want Urban Meyer, and bemoaned the dalliance

-The dalliance was prolonged, and serious

Talks suddenly cooled and MSU moved on, to Haller’s delight.

The school hired Oregon State’s Jonathan Smith, Haller’s #1 target in the search.

For the 2nd time in his career, Urban Meyer had expressed interest in the MSU job and been bypassed for a guy named John Smith.

Multiple sources believe former MSU AD Mark Hollis would have delivered Meyer to East Lansing.

No one can say for sure…

****

Only 2 coaches in history have won national titles at multiple schools.

MSU told the first “good riddance”.

And the second “no thanks”.

[Mike SDawg4L @SpartansFTMFW]

@CB_Wolverines …Yes…