If you want to point fingers as to why MSU lost to Illinois, there's plenty of blame to go around. The easy and popular target is head coach John L. Smith, who started the season on the hot seat and has done nothing thus far to get off it.

Smith even took the blame after Saturday's game, saying he didn't get the players prepared. Smith deserves his fair share of blame, but solely blaming him makes him a scapegoat to avoid the bigger problem — the players.

During Saturday's post-game press conference, Smith and several players admitted the week of practice leading up to the game was poor. Smith sounded like a defeated man when he said he couldn't get his team ready for the game.

So who do we blame for that? Is it the coaches, who tried to deliver the message that Illinois wouldn't just roll over? Or do we blame the players, who clearly wouldn't accept that message?

It's a dangerous thing when players are admitting after the game that they were expecting Illinois to give them the win, as senior defensive end Ervin Baldwin said they did Saturday.

It's easy to get up for games against Notre Dame, Michigan and Ohio State. But real teams have to find some internal motivation for games against teams like Illinois.

If you want to blame Smith for making tactical errors against Notre Dame, that's fine. But be careful about calling for his head because of this Illinois loss.

It's one thing for a coach to not prepare his team. It's another thing for a team to refuse to get prepared.

Steve Highfield can be reached at highfie4@msu.edu.