It’s not common for programs to have the success in both basketball and football that MSU has had, which makes it even less common for the two coaches of those teams to be as close as Tom Izzo and Mark Dantonio have become over the years.
Since Dantonio came to East Lansing in 2007, Izzo has taken Dantonio under his wing as the football team has climbed to new heights.
“That was a benefit,” Dantonio said.
Dantonio also said he and Izzo have spoken plenty of times about MSU’s rivalry with Michigan.
“Me and coach Izzo have talked frequently about this,” he said. “We’re kind of on the same wave length.”
Izzo also said during a taping of the popular ESPN show “First Take” that he was instrumental in getting Dantonio to come from Cincinnati to East Lansing.
“Nick Saban and I came at the same time,” Izzo said. “Mark Dantonio came in as an assistant coach and really did an incredible job.”
That, according to Izzo, is when their friendship started.
“We became friends, our wives became friends (and) our daughters are the same age,” he said.
Izzo said he was one of the people who was able to bring Dantonio into town.
“When he left for Ohio State, I watched him win the national championship there as a defensive coordinator,” he said. “Then I watched him go to Cincinnati, and, after the job he did, I got to be one of three or four people that go to interview Mark. Everybody did their job and I played a small part.”
Izzo has always had a love for football. He grew up with former NFL head coach Steve Mariucci and said he almost left his basketball assistant coaching position at Northern Michigan for a football coaching position at Cal State Fullerton with Mariucci.
“I almost did go there,” he said. “There was a position open there in the defensive backs, which is the position I played, and I love football.”
Izzo said in the same interview that he loves MSU’s success in football because he can experience the success of a sport he loves. Dantonio has reciprocated the support by coming to many of the Big Ten basketball games inside Breslin Center during his tenure.
Izzo has been to plenty of football games himself, even sitting in the student section following a lightning delay in 2013 against South Florida.
