Freshman running back Larry Caper is taken down by two Wildcats on Saturday at Spartan Stadium during the fourth quarter. The Spartans went on to win the game 24-14.
Head coach Mark Dantonio always has talked about building a foundation with the Spartans’ football program. When he became the head coach at MSU three years ago, Iowa was one of the programs he wanted to model his program after, he said.
“When you become a head football coach, I think you try and emulate some of the programs around the country that you look at,” he said. “Iowa was one of them that I looked at.”
Dantonio pointed to his experiences against the Hawkeyes when he was an assistant coach for MSU from 1995-2000.
“When I was here in 2000, I remember going to Iowa and they were on a long losing streak,” he said. “I remember they beat Michigan State in 2000 and at that point in time it started to turn. It took time, but I remember that time and I think he built it step by step, and (Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz) built it with a great foundation under it.”
While Dantonio has continued to build a foundation in East Lansing, Ferentz has the Hawkeyes’ faithful thinking about roses. No. 7 Iowa is 7-0 this season and in first place in the Big Ten at 3-0.
“When I look at that football team … they’ve had great success and some of the things (Ferentz has) done, he deserves a lot of credit for,” Dantonio said.
Dantonio pointed to basic fundamentals as the reason for Iowa’s success this season.
“His program is built on toughness,” Dantonio said. “It’s built on running the football and stopping the run. It’s built on not making mistakes and playing very well on special teams and doing the little things that allow you to get the big picture.”
Tightening up?
Coming into the season, the Spartans’ offense featured four quality tight ends that coaches believed could create matchup problems for opposing defenses. But seven games in, the tight ends only have caught 28 passes as a unit, compared to 97 from the team’s top four receivers. The team also has worked out freshman Dion Sims at defensive end.
Junior tight end Charlie Gantt, who was named to the Mackey Award preseason watch list, only has 10 catches and one touchdown this season.
Despite the lack of productivity, Dantonio said he is not worried about the position.
“You take what’s given to you sometimes. I’m not concerned about the amount of production there because it’ll come,” Dantonio said.
“We really use four of them now and you’ve seen all them involved in big plays. All four of those guys can play. The balls will come to them when the read’s there and they do a nice job of catching.”
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