One day before their teams will play in the Capital One Bowl at 1 p.m. Saturday in Orlando, Fla., MSU football head coach Mark Dantonio and Alabama head coach Nick Saban both spoke at a press conference at The Renaissance Orlando. Dantonio talked about the keys to to victory for his No. 7 Spartans (11-1 overall, 7-1 Big Ten), while Saban discussed what it will take for his No. 15 Crimson Tide (9-3, 5-3) to come out with a win. Both coaches also spoke about their coaching relationship, as Dantonio was a defensive backs coach for Saban when he was the head coach at MSU for five years beginning in 1995.
Orlando, Fla. — The league of the elite in college football is one of the most exclusive clubs in the world.
Earning entry into the club doesn’t happen overnight. The only way to get out of the cold and past the bouncer is to win some big games, a championship or two and establish your program as a team that nobody wants to play.
This season, the MSU football team has been doing everything it can to get noticed and let in the door to join the rest of college football’s elite.
Starting the season unranked, the Spartans (11-1) have squeaked out close wins and made spectacular plays on the way to a Big Ten championship and No. 7 finish in the AP poll.
Still, MSU is on the outside looking in at the schools that are or near the top of standings nearly every year.
Saturday, all that might change if Spartans can knock off one of the kings of the elite club — No. 15 Alabama (9-3) — in the Capital One Bowl in Orlando, Fla.
“We’ve got a good football team,” MSU football head coach Mark Dantonio said Friday during a press conference at The Renaissance Orlando. “But are we one of the elite teams in the nation right now? We’re going to find out tomorrow, because I do believe Alabama is.”
The Crimson Tide came into this season as the defending national champion and the one of the favorites to win it again. Led by head coach Nick Saban — the Spartans’ head coach from 1995-99 — and last season’s Heisman Trophy winner running back Mark Ingram, Alabama easily was considered one of the best in the country.
After three losses in the tough Southeastern Conference, though, the Crimson Tide were taken down from their perch for the time being.
But Dantonio, who was an assistant with Saban during his time at MSU, said a few losses doesn’t change the fact that his team has a chance to beat one of the most storied programs in the country and establish itself as a top-level program.
“We’re very excited to be here, and I think the unique thing about this is what we have an opportunity to play the defending national champions, and the defending Heisman Trophy winner,” Dantonio said. “We get an opportunity to make a statement whether we are one of the elite teams in this county at this point in time.”
In the last four years, Dantonio has been working on building the Spartans into a program that’s respected throughout the country.
Making three straight bowl games helped. Losing all three did not.
However, after winning a school-record 11 games and leaving a mark on the 2010 season, Dantonio said he believes MSU is in a perfect position to grow into one of the best.
“There’s been a lot of things that we’ve done this year for the first time,” Dantonio said. “This program is on solid ground right now, and we will continue to build the foundation.”
In order to keep building, Dantonio and the Spartans have to take the next step Saturday by winning a bowl game for the first time since they beat Fresno State in the Silicon Valley Football Classic in 2001.
Making it to a bowl game is nice, but winning them against the best teams in the country is what sets apart the good programs and the great ones.
And to get into the club every college football program in the country strives to be a part of, you have to be great.
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