Loss, win, loss, win, loss - it's been a bumpy ride for the MSU football team thus far.

"It really has been an up-and-down season emotionally, like a roller coaster," senior tackle Sean Poole said. "We're just trying to stay focused. Week to week we really stress forgetting about the last game, we bury the film on Sunday and it's over-and-done-with and we move on."

The Spartans have yet to put together back-to-back wins or losses. After the loss at Rutgers, MSU beat Central Michigan, but could not carry that momentum into the Notre Dame game. Then, the Spartans bounced back against Indiana with a second-half comeback, but were beat by three touchdowns at Iowa.

Senior safety and captain Jason Harmon said he can't remember ever having a season like this, where MSU alternated results.

"It's just been really tough this year," Harmon said. "We show spurts of being real good, then we show spurts of being bad; we show spurts of being terrible."

The last time MSU alternated wins and losses over a five-game period was between Sept. 22 and Oct. 27, 2001. With a win on Saturday, MSU will have alternated wins and losses in six games, something that hasn't happened since 1992.

At this point last season, the Spartans were 4-1 and were excited and had a swagger to their game, said sophomore defensive end Clifton Ryan. Their goal for this season, now, is to find that attitude once again.

"We know from the staff and from a player standpoint, we are much better than a 2-3 team," Ryan said. "It's time for us to start proving that and get back to the way things used to be. We need to get our swagger back, the swagger we had when we were 7-1 last season."

Head Coach John L. Smith said the problem is not effort, and Harmon agreed with that, but both mentioned the team needs some enthusiasm.

"It's about getting more excited as a team," Harmon said. "It shows more when you get excited, when you have a guy come over and pat you on the back and get the crowd excited."

Last year's team played with excitement, which led to turnovers and big plays on both sides of the ball, Harmon said. This season, the mental mistakes and penalties have resulted in the Spartans "killing" themselves.

Senior defensive tackle Kevin Vickerson remembers 2002, when problems off the field and a negative attitude led to a 4-8 season for the Spartans, their worst since 1991, when MSU went 3-8.

"We're not trying to have that around here," Vickerson said. "That losing attitude and the attitude that we lose a couple games and people's heads drop down, because that's when the whole season can go wrong. Everyone wants to get better, everyone's thinking about getting better."

The positive attitude the players have now is a complete 180 from what would have happened two years ago under then-head coach Bobby Williams. Ryan and Harmon gave Smith and the coaching staff a lot of credit for helping the players keep a positive attitude.

"Our coaching staff does a great job of keeping us upbeat after a loss," Ryan said. "The first thing we do is look at the positives and then we go back and look at the negatives. I just want to give credit to them for keeping us upbeat."

After Tuesday's practice - one that players said was the best of the year - the attitude seemed to be brightening.

"I think once we focus on the things we've been having problems with and keep our emotion going, then that will help us get wins," junior receiver Agim Shabaj said.

"We need to stop worrying about making big plays and go out there and just play and have fun."