MSU coach Mark Dantonio and the football team line up before the game against Michigan on Oct. 17, 2015 at Michigan Stadium. The Spartans defeated the Wolverines, 27-23.
The undefeated Spartans will be leaving their pads and helmets in the locker room this bye week, head coach Mark Dantonio said, as the focus will be on rest and conditioning.
"We have not had any bye — we've been going since August, so we've had no bye, no downtime, and I just think that after eight games, we've done what we needed to do,” Dantonio said.
Dantonio said the limiting of this week’s practice to lifting and conditioning is a new concept for him, but he thinks it is the best idea for the team’s banged-up roster.
“We need to heal up," Dantonio said. "We need to sort of get fresh. We need to look forward. It's not like our guys won't be working. They'll be working a couple hours a day. But I think that the pounding and the hitting is going to be nonexistent this week. We're going to make it into next week without a guy getting a shoulder or something of that nature.”
The players expressed their appreciation after the game on Saturday about this chance to recharge their batteries.
“I think it will help the o-line a lot,” junior guard Benny McGowan said. “I think healing up will be a big thing. We've gone eight weeks straight constantly practicing. I think a week off will really do us a lot of good. It will help us recover and we'll be able to come back strong for November, which, as we all know, is a very important part of the season.”
Junior tackle Jack Conklin is also looking forward to the bye week.
“It couldn't have come at a better time," Conklin said. "We are beat up. We're getting healthy. We've gotten almost everybody back. Hopefully, we'll have everybody back for the Nebraska game.”
Dantonio said past seasons’ bye weeks have provided the opportunity for the coaches to go out and recruit, which he said will remain constant, but he reiterated that the unique circumstance of this season’s health issues is the reason for the practice change.
“(I) was going to practice and then I sort of started looking at it and saying, you know what, what's the value of one practice where you're going to be working — what's the value of it relative to what's the value to be gained if we didn't get anybody hurt, and we just made sure that we were working to condition them and to get their strength level as high as we can going into November, which if you have three really solid lifts as opposed to maintenance lifts, I think that you're going to gain some strength back,” Dantonio said.
“Not that we're a weak football team, but I think you get more of your maximum strength back, and I think that's what we need for the stretch run in November," Dantonio said.
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