MSU football fans aren’t happy.
Alumni are grumbling, fan mail has soured and administrators are quick to defend head coach Bobby Williams and to chide frustrated fans.
Football analysts and rival coaches hyped the Spartans in the preseason and picked the team to finish third in the conference. And with the return of junior quarterback Jeff Smoker - last year’s most efficient Big Ten quarterback - Heisman candidate receiver Charles Rogers, and the full offensive line, fans seemed to buy into the idea of some sort of championship run.
Instead, the team is 3-3, with wins against Eastern Michigan, Rice and Northwestern. It lost to Iowa and California in blowout fashion and couldn’t hold onto a lead against Notre Dame with less than two minutes to play.
Many fans say they blame Williams, pointing at everything from his record on the road, his leadership, his play-calling abilities, his sideline demeanor and his work as a disciplinarian.
While some blame players, most look first to Williams.
“It’s also Williams’ fault,” said Staci Kurc, a pre-med freshman and season ticket holder. “With Williams, what he’s doing is playing the same secondary-defense strategies and teams are figuring it out.”
Williams admits the season isn’t turning out the way it could have. And he’s heard the grumblings on local radio programs and has noticed the letters calling for his head. He said he tries to ignore them.
“Everybody associated with this program - the players and coaches and mainly myself - knows we’re a better football team,” he said. “It’s frustrating.
“If you focus on the talk radio and the things you guys are writing on, it’ll drive me nuts.”
And there is some positive reinforcement coming from the administrators, who are united, saying Williams still is their man.
“As far as I’m concerned, there is lots of this season left and, in the beginning, our team was over-hyped by everybody, mainly because of Charles Rogers,” MSU athletics director Ron Mason said. “He’s lived up to the hype, and he’s played great. But when you’re hyped to the size we were and don’t win, it’s a bigger story.
“And you have to remember, we were picked third in the Big Ten, we weren’t picked to win it. I do think we’ve stubbed our toes a couple of times. But there’s a lot of season to go, and there’s no question that Bobby’s the coach.”
MSU trustees and MSU spokesman Terry Denbow all agree and stress that it is far too soon to expect Williams to have a firm control of the program.
Williams replaced Nick Saban, who left to coach Louisiana State, as interim coach before the Citrus Bowl that ended the 1999 season. He coached the team to a win against Florida, and the players carried him off the field on their shoulders.
Former Athletics Director Clarence Underwood named Williams head coach in the spring of 2000, after a number of players rallied in front of MSU President M. Peter McPherson’s house.
He is now 16-14 and in his third full-season as head coach. The Spartans ended 5-6 in his first season, playing the NCAA’s 20th-hardest schedule. They closed 2001 with a 7-5 record, including a dramatic home win over rival Michigan as well as a win in the Silicon Valley Football Classic.
Mason says those numbers are good enough for now.
“Check my record after two years and Tom Izzo’s after two years,” he said. “We didn’t do so well either. It takes time to do a program, and our team is still young in terms of football years.”
Williams also has a strong recruiting record in his favor. In his three head coaching seasons, he recruited three top-20 classes, including PrepStar’s No. 2 class in 2000.
But some fans suggest that’s part of the problem - he has good players, but poor results.
“I think they’re underachieving,” said Dan Lafferty, a no-preference sophomore and season ticket holder. “They have the talent to do well. A lot of factors go into it, and one of the biggest factors is the coach.”
Even Don Setter, one of the directors of MSU’s football student cheering section, Bobby’s World, said he’s frustrated by big losses and lack of team discipline.
But the human biology junior said at this point he fully supports Williams.
“I am disappointed with the way the season has gone so far,” Setter said. “Some things we should be able to modify or change to make him more successful. At this point, I don’t think firing would resolve the problems.
“It’s obviously frustrating to not win, and one thing I have noticed at times is a lack of discipline. Whether that’s from the coach or the players themselves, I don’t know.”
Trustee Joel Ferguson, who was on the board when it selected Williams to coach, said more fans should act like Setter.
“Everybody supports Bobby and why shouldn’t we?” Ferguson said. “Why not check the teams that beat us - they’re pretty good.”
He also said things could be worse for fans.
“Good thing they’re not at Florida or Colorado, who gave its coach $1.3 million and he lost the next game,” he said. “It’s midway through the season, so why should we even be talking about this?”
Like it or not, people are talking.
And as one analyst suggests, the season might be only half over, but fans may have their minds made up.
“They can still turn around the season, but it’s going to be hard to match their fans’ expectations,” ESPN analyst Bob Davie said.
Meanwhile, some fans are willing to deal with underachievement - for now.
“I do want to give him a chance to finish the season, but if it continues this way, he may be in over his head,” Lafferty said. “If he doesn’t get better, we should start looking around.”
Reach Kristofer Karol at karolkri@msu.edu.
Reach Krista Latham at lathamkr@msu.edu.
