Seven games into the 2010 season, the locker room of the undefeated and now-No. 8 MSU football team has been no different.

Throughout the season, the Spartan players and coaches have emphasized the taking-it-one-game-at-a-time mantra. And as MSU keeps winning, each game becomes more important, while it also gets easier to look ahead to the next big matchup or dwell on the last big win.

So far this season, though, the Spartans haven’t had a problem staying focused on the task at hand, something made evident in their 26-6 win against Illinois on Saturday at Spartan Stadium.

MSU was coming off two huge, emotional wins against then-No. 11 Wisconsin and then-No. 18 Michigan as it entered the game against the Fighting Illini. And although Illinois showed it could be more than competitive in recent weeks, playing a 3-2 Fighting Illini team does not bring the same luster as taking on your undefeated rivals.

It was the perfect trap game.

After MSU came out sluggish and trailed 6-3 at the end of the first half, the Homecoming crowd at Spartan Stadium and the fans watching on television likely thought they were witnessing the trap game get the best of the Spartans. But the players in the MSU locker room were not concerned.

“Coming out at halftime, there was just that mentality of like, ‘Let’s go, let’s step this up, let’s do what we’ve got to do and take care of business,’” sophomore kicker Dan Conroy said. “We are very motivated and driven. No doubt in my mind, we weren’t going to lose that game.”

Conroy’s words, “motivated and driven,” are one way to describe the mentality needed to avoid a letdown. But junior quarterback Kirk Cousins said he prefers the two words preached to the team all week by the coaching staff and captains: humble and hungry.

“We have to stay humble and hungry, and we’ve really said it since camp,” Cousins said. “It’s even more important now, with where we stand at 7-0, to stay humble and hungry.”

It’s one thing to say those words, but it is a completely different accomplishment to be able to put them into place.

Last season, the Spartans lacked the “just-win” attitude they’ve had in every game this season, especially in the close contests. In 2009, MSU lost three games by three points or less, including an embarrassing home loss to Mid-American Conference opponent Central Michigan.

Not only were the Spartans likely looking ahead to playing Notre Dame when they fell to the Chippewas, but they also just couldn’t make the plays needed to win.

This season has been a different story, as the MSU players now know what it takes to come away with a victory each week and, more importantly, have actually learned how to follow through.

Head coach Mark Dantonio, who has coached the last two games from the coach’s box after suffering a heart attack Sept. 19, said he believes a combination of increased maturity along with learning from last season has led to his team’s success.

But the biggest reason MSU is 7-0 for the first time since 1966 might be the fact the Spartans have taken on the personality of their head coach.

Seemingly every player, from fifth-year senior down to true freshman, displays Dantonio’s business-like winning attitude.

They say all the right things, take the right approach into each game and, to this point in the season, have made all the big plays.

Dantonio said he had a feeling this team would be special if his players became extensions of himself and the other coaches on the field, and through seven games, they certainly are proving him right.

“Our players are leading right now,” Dantonio said. “When you can get your players to lead and your coaches don’t have to lead on the field, good things can happen. And I think that’s happening.”

The win against Illinois wasn’t perfect or pretty by any means. But like the sign posted in the MSU practice facility quoting former head coach Duffy Daugherty says, “They all count one.”

And whether it was Conroy making all four of his field goal attempts — giving him a school-record start to the season (13-for-13) — or the defense forcing four turnovers, the Spartans did enough to record the win and continue their undefeated season, taking it one game at a time.

Jeremy Warnemuende is a State News football reporter. Reach him at warnemu3@msu.edu.