For the past two weeks, the MSU football team survived grueling two-a-day practices, complete with countless sprints in 90-degree heat and intense sessions in the weight room.

All that hard work raised many players’ expectations for the season and the mediocre pre-season media predictions have left some of them miffed.

“I hate it,” senior wide receiver Herb Haygood said. “We work so hard during the summer, and we still don’t get respect.”

Most pre-season prognosticators and college football experts, including Sports Illustrated and The Sporting News, predicted MSU to finish in the middle of the Big Ten.

But just because a few magazines have questioned its ability, junior tailback T.J. Duckett said the team would not bother practicing if it took stock in the collective opinion of the media.

“If we believed it we wouldn’t be out here practicing every day,” Duckett said. “We just gotta let the games speak for themselves.”

Head football coach Bobby Williams said media predictions are based on a team’s past performance, and the Spartans have set high standards for themselves.

“(Predictions are) based on reputation,” Williams said. “Those are expectations of your guys - someone has to be picked first, and someone has to be picked last. Our expectations are high for this team.”

One reason for those high expectations is the improvements on offense, said offensive coordinator and quarterback coach Morris Watts, because the two quarterback system will give MSU capable signal callers in sophomore Jeff Smoker and senior Ryan Van Dyke.

“We are ahead of anything last year,” Watts said. “And in what we have in quarterbacks is competition every day to make them better.”

Watts is also optimistic about another new aspect of the Spartans offense - freshman wide receiver Charles Rogers.

Even with the fans’ and media’s high hopes for him, Watts said Rogers should deliver.

“Charles Rogers is a special player,” Watts said. “The expectations are maybe higher than they should be, but they are not higher then he thinks they are.”

But it’s not just the pocket that has the coaching staff so geeked.

Williams also said the entire team has grown from last season, so much, in fact, that MSU could be bowl-bound despite the experts’ doubts the team can win the required six games.

“I expect this team to be a much-improved football team,” Williams said. “If that means a bowl, bring it on.”

Haygood said the team sets its sights on the Rose Bowl every season and is not going to change that goal just because the Rose Bowl has been set aside for the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the nation this season.

“Rose bowl, that’s where we set our goal,” Haygood said. “Every year that’s where we set our goal, and that’s the national championship (this year).”