“At least we didn’t have to play Furman and struggle,” a Notre Dame writer mused before the game, adding the Irish would more than likely handle MSU easily.

Following their stumbling victory over Furman, the Spartans sent a wave of discontent flooding through fans’ veins. Thoughts of a four loss season or a repeat of 2012 all over again weren’t uncommon.

And perhaps that writer would have been right, if MSU paid any attention to the outside world.

With a 36-28 drubbing of Notre Dame, MSU flipped the script and sought after its new identity.

Those defending Big Ten champs? Still around and looking fresh in some old clothes. MSU’s rip-roaring, dominating, yet still close victory over Notre Dame on Saturday fit the mold and fit the brand.

But it came with a touch up. The picture sharper, the sound crisper and yet, it remained the same marquee of the Dantonio era — a win when needed.

The 36-28 victory over Notre Dame was a stark contrast to the stumbling inconsistency against Furman. The offense moved all night. It was open, but with restraints and conservative with explosions.

There was Tyler O’Connor showing off his arm, zipping the ball to Donnie Corley, R.J. Shelton and others. There was Gerald Holmes shedding tacklers and scampering 73 yards for a touchdown behind a solid looking offensive line.

Shelton exhibited his already keen versatility, taking the end arounds and fighting for tough yards. Corley displayed the future of MSU’s receiving corps and LJ Scott grinded his way to a 98-yard rushing day.

For much of the night it was a dominating brand of football. It somehow almost didn’t end that way, as if the same old palpitation inducing Spartans were going to hit their head again.

The defense buzzed, stifling the run and forcing Irish quarterback DeShone Kizer into overthrows and mis-throws and bottling his legs most of the night. The secondary pressed and floated and kept receivers under wraps.

But even after forcing the Irish into famine levels of offense and defense, MSU called the dogs back, opting for vanilla play style on both sides of the ball.

This time, though, after years of handing away wins, MSU decided it ought to just close one out. The bloodletting of the clock worked in its favor this time, leaking just enough drops of time into the night and holding on to victory.

It looked like a typical Spartan win, Dantonio deploying his usual calls the same way one expects a Tarantino film to be full of f-bombs and Bible verses.

But the characters differed from a year ago.

O’Connor, not flashy, not Heisman-like managed the game, zipping along to a career performance with 19-of-26 completions, two touchdown tosses and 241 yards garnered through the air. It was nearly effortless the kind of game expected out of a player who's had nothing to do but soak in the program for five seasons.

The defensive line, written off as a lowly penetrable line of traffic cones, lined up, rushed Kizer and prevented him from changing the game early on. The linebackers, fully loaded, took it upon themselves to add another interception to their tally, outpacing the secondary.

It’s a different team, a team without hype, a team lacking in flash. And it will win anyway. Its identity is still unknown to itself other than that it’ll include some sort of chip.

It’ll be a contrived chip. As more people move away from the disrespect, MSU will conjure up its own. As it ought to, it seems to work even as collective eyes roll.

“We certainly took a step from our first game, and we came down and we played a good football team away from home in a great environment, and on a national TV, national stage, and you've got to be able to measure up in those times,” Dantonio said. “Lights come on, you've got be able to make big plays when the lights come on, big time. And I think most of our players, whether it's this game or other games in our schedule, they sit here and they dream about these opportunities.”

The lights will flip on again for MSU. They’ll get each teams' best shot and undoubtedly they’ll have two daunting and hotly-contested battles with University of Michigan and Ohio State University.

As for now, MSU has proven itself again. And it might just continue to do so, as it forges its identity.