John L. Smith knows desperate times call for desperate measures.
After starting the season 4-0, the MSU head coach has watched his team lose four of its last five contests, squashing hopes of a Big Ten Championship and a trip down south to a big-name bowl game.
After last Saturday's emotionless 28-21 loss at Purdue, Smith showed the Spartans the tape of last year's 51-17 win against then-No. 19 Minnesota in an attempt to inspire the team.
"(We) tried to show them, take a look at the film, see the emotion that you're supposed to play with and that we need to play with," Smith said. "We're not good enough to win without that.
"It's hard to maintain that high peak of emotion, and the good teams are able to do that and still win."
In each of Smith's first two years as MSU head coach, the Spartans went 1-4 in the final five games of the season and failed to take advantage of good starts.
This season has been no different.
"There's some frustration throughout the program," Smith said. "I'm frustrated with myself, I'm frustrated with a lot of things.
"(Success) starts with us (coaches) and carries over just to execution from there."
In almost three years on the MSU sidelines, Smith has compiled an 18-16 record, including one bowl loss in 2003. Smith's predecessor, Bobby Williams, posted a 16-17 record in almost three years as the Spartans' head coach. Two of those wins were in bowl games.
Smith said the team rebuilding process has taken longer than he initially expected.
Upon his hire as head coach, Smith said it was his goal to return the Spartans to Big Ten contenders within three years.
Currently, with only two wins in the conference, Smith's goal is going to have to be delayed at least for another season.
"We're not there yet," he said. "Part of that has to do with us kicking them in the tail and trying to get them to do that.
"We all have to look at ourselves, we all have to make more of a difference. There's not one man on the boat — it's all of us on the boat."
Smith has been in familiar situations with his past teams. In 1998, he inherited a Louisville team that went 1-10 the previous season and turned it into a 7-5 team. He said that a turnaround just takes time.
"Every program I've been in has been the same," Smith said. "Just do what we do. Keep working, keep recruiting, going to the field and working hard. It's all we know, it's not magic."
But after almost three seasons as coach, Smith hasn't seen his team execute the way he expected several times in MSU's four losses, notably last Saturday at Purdue when good field position was diminished by a string of four penalties called on the offensive line.
"It's totally unacceptable," Smith said. "If there's any group that really prides themselves on that, it's the offensive line group. It's a matter of focus."
Senior offensive lineman Gordon Niebylski has taken some of the player responsibility into his own hands.
Following the team's latest loss, Niebylski said that he and senior center Chris Morris planned to talk with the players about finishing the season successfully.
"We said what we needed to say," Niebylski said. "Everybody got what they wanted out and then we came out here and had a great practice (Tuesday).
"It's always tough when you've lost a few games in a row. You try to stay positive. It's not so much that you're not emotional and it's not that you don't care. You lose a few games and you get down on yourself."
