It wasn’t the prettiest game — MSU was held to 131 passing yards and finished with 320 total yards for the game — but it once again proved Dantonio can keep his team focused on the task at hand. In four seasons at MSU, Dantonio has followed up big losses with strong follow-up performances and will get a well-earned bye this Saturday.

“It has been an emotional long stretch here, and I think, from an emotional standpoint, we just need to get away from football for a couple of days and just sort of be regular human beings,” Dantonio said.

Dantonio has won 31 games in his career and was a few plays away from winning about a dozen more. He’s been more successful than any other MSU coach through four seasons by keeping his team emotionally ready for the task at hand, whatever it might be.

MSU hasn’t let the distractions of Dantonio’s health and getting off to the best start since 1966 affect its play thus far, which has been a staple of Dantonio’s four seasons at MSU.

After November 2009’s Rather Hall assault caused 14 players to miss the bowl game, Dantonio’s team hung with heavily favored Texas Tech in the Valero Alamo Bowl and played tight until the end.

The previous year, MSU responded to a difficult 45-7 blowout loss at home against Ohio State by defeating rival Michigan, 35-21, at Michigan Stadium en route to a 9-3 finish in the regular season.

Even this season, the Spartans have responded from a disappointing 6-7 finish in 2009 to post nine wins by early November and haven’t missed a beat despite increased attention and earning the best starting record since 1966.

All of this has helped MSU maintain stability and have reason to believe it can grow in coming seasons. In four years, the Spartans have lost 12 games by eight points or less, but Dantonio’s stability can be measured in the way his team has responded to that and still managed to play meaningful late-season games.

MSU reached the nine-win mark for just the 11th time in school history Saturday and is in its second November Big Ten Championship race in the past three years, making future double-digit win totals look more promising.

Additionally, three straight wins against U-M and an 18-12 conference record during Dantonio’s tenure have helped contribute to MSU’s stability and look especially significant given the way other college football programs have been inconsistent in an environment that’s been characterized by parity. In the last three seasons, the only Big Ten teams to go to three bowls are powers Ohio State, Penn State and Wisconsin, along with MSU.

The Spartans have had their share of ups and downs in the past four seasons — namely in last season’s disappointments on and off the field — but reaching four-straight bowl games speaks to coaching stability.

It’s been a far-from-perfect run, but Dantonio has built a foundation that helped his staff step in and coach the Spartans to victory when he was forced to watch back-to-back games from the hospital after his heart attack this season.

The Spartans have won nine games for the second time in a three-year span for the first time since 1965-66, and it’s reasonable to think they will avoid the distractions of being Big Ten contenders in the final two games against Purdue and Penn State.

In just four seasons, Dantonio has taken MSU from a Big Ten bottom-feeder to a program consistently contending for bowls and potential championships.

“To win nine games in two out of the last three years is a major accomplishment for our football team,” Dantonio said.

“With that being said, the benchmark is to win 11. The next one makes it 10.”

Jeff Kanan is a State News football reporter. He can be reached at kananjef@msu.edu.