When things go wrong, people tend to expect less. Whether it's the class you failed or the girl you struck out with, the next time around, your standards drop a little bit.
And MSU football is no exception.
After last season's disaster, expectations for the 2003 Spartans plummeted - rightfully so. They entered last season with an all-world receiver in Charles Rogers and Jeff Smoker, who many thought was one of the Big Ten's top quarterbacks.
But those expectations were too much for Smoker to shoulder, and his eventual collapse contributed to the demise of the entire team. MSU failed to live up to hype, and all their preseason praise became just that - hype.
With last season's failures fresh in the minds of Spartans fans, nobody expected much from this year's team. So when the Spartans raced to a 7-1 start, which put them atop the conference, they already were a success. Or were they?
Since then, MSU has lost two straight games to Michigan and Ohio State. Both teams are perennial Big Ten powerhouses, and their reputations have helped dim the magnitude of this two-game losing streak. But while the strength of U-M and Ohio State doesn't make the losses easier to swallow, the relative success of the team does.
Had the Spartans gone 8-4 last season instead of 4-8, you'd hear a lot more complaining coming out of East Lansing. About the penalties, about the secondary and about losing to U-M for two straight years. But the team was miserable last year, and first-year head coach John L. Smith's brilliant coaching job earns him a free ride for losing the last two games.
After the loss at Ohio Stadium to the Buckeyes, an exhausted Smith called the season "special," and looking ahead to the remaining two games, Smith said he'd like to add to the already special season with a couple of wins.
"It's been a special season, especially if you relate it to last season," junior safety Jason Harmon agreed. "We wanted to go for the Big Ten Championship, but if we win out, you know, 9-3, it'll be a big step up from last year."
Cornerback Roderick Maples was standing next to Harmon during the interview and sensed his teammate sounded as if he were satisfied with the season so far, despite two consecutive losses.
"I'm going to restate what he meant," Maples said. "No, we're not satisfied. We're happy up until this point, because people didn't expect us to win as many games as we have won. Not that we're satisfied. No, we're never satisfied."
I can't argue with Smith's assertion that this has been a special season. Smoker's comeback alone has been special. The new, surprising team-first mentality is special.
If the Spartans lose their next two games, however, nobody should be calling this season anything but another disappointment. It's not how you start; it's how you finish.
If MSU comes out against Wisconsin on Saturday the way it did against Ohio State, it's curtains. I don't care if the Badgers lost to Northwestern two weeks ago and are in the middle of a three-game losing streak. Last week's loss put the Badgers on the always-dangerous list of teams that have nothing to lose. But if the entire team is as pumped up for the Wisconsin game as sophomore receiver Aaron Alexander is, it shouldn't be worried about coming out flat.
"We just have to get hungry again," he said. "Past couple of games, don't seem like we've really been hungry for it; we didn't want it as much, like the first few games of the season.
"This week in practice, we just gotta go hard, man, and just get that taste in our mouth. Gotta taste that blood, you know. You gotta get hungry for it again and gotta want it."
Joe Guillen is The State News deputy sports editor. He can be reached at guillenj@msu.edu.
