Lloyd Carr and Jim Tressel, the commandeering forces behind college football mega rivals Michigan and Ohio State, respectively, may not agree on many things, but they both praise the addition of MSU’s new head coach.
“Mark Dantonio and his staff entering the Big Ten conference will add strength to the Big Ten,” Tressel said Tuesday at the Big Ten media conference in Chicago.
Tressel and Dantonio’s past relationship is creating a significant buzz for this year’s Oct. 20 matchup in Columbus, Ohio.
“It will be special for a lot of reasons,” Tressel said. “It’s a Big Ten game, it’s Ohio State and Michigan State, which is a big deal, and you bring the familiarity into it and it’ll make it even more exciting.”
Dantonio served as Ohio State’s defensive coordinator under Tressel from 2001-03, leading the team to the No. 1 rushing defense in the country during the Buckeyes’ 2003 season.
Dantonio left Ohio State and then took the head coaching job at Cincinnati from 2004-06, where he played Tressel twice – losing 37-7 in 2006 and 27-6 in 2004.
After losing to Tressel last season, Dantonio said he likes coaching against him, but Tressel does not share that sentiment.
“I didn’t enjoy it when we played them when they were at Cincinnati, quite honestly,” Tressel said. “Because two-thirds of those guys on his coaching staff were guys either I coached or coached with us … and those aren’t as fun.”
Dantonio, who replaced the fired John L. Smith, is determined to measure up to the rest of what he called a “very tough conference,” and Carr said Dantonio could help MSU on its way to that goal.
“Well, Mark Dantonio is a great choice at Michigan State,” Carr said Tuesday. “I don’t have any doubts he is going to do a tremendous job.”
Dantonio has said numerous times he will use U-M as MSU’s indicator of success, and while Carr is honored, he is determined not to concede any games to the Spartans.
“Any time a statement like that is made, it’s a tribute to your program and certainly we take it as such,” Carr said. “We’ll just make sure they don’t beat us any time in that course – but it’s a compliment.”
By setting a high standard for his team, Dantonio hopes the Spartans will one day perform at the level of their rivals from Ann Arbor. During the past seven seasons, MSU has defeated U-M once, 26-24, at home in 2001.
“Wherever you go, you need to have a measuring stick in terms of what dictates success,” he said. “In our state, we need to point down the road to U-M, it’s a natural rivalry for us … and if you point to something, then you have a chance to achieve that.”
MSU football can gauge its success when the two teams meet Nov. 3 at Spartan Stadium.
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