After a shocking statement announcing the suspension of senior linebacker and MSU team captain Max Bullough, football head coach Mark Dantonio and other university officials have stayed largely silent amid a swirl of rumors and speculation.
Senior linebacker and MSU captain Max Bullough has been suspended for the remainder of the season and will not participate in the Jan. 1 Rose Bowl, according to a release from the school.
Fou Fonoti doesn’t want to be “that guy,” as in the one pestering teammates for extra tickets to the 100th Rose Bowl game.
As far as they’re concerned, MSU head coach Mark Dantonio and defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi are staying in East Lansing for the foreseeable future.
The Stanford Daily is reporting that some MSU fans might be to blame for rapid sales of the university’s allotment of Rose Bowl Tickets. The paper reports that some MSU fans said they took advantage of an offer from the Stanford athletics department granting advance access to up to four guaranteed Rose Bowl tickets if a deposit was made for 2014 Stanford football season tickets.
MSU defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi will be around campus at least a bit longer.
The East Lansing Police Department has removed a Facebook post looking to identity an MSU fan attending the Big Ten Championship game and holding up a “Burn this Couch” sign.
For students who are short on cash but still yearn to visit Pasadena, Calif. to see the Spartans face off in the Rose Bowl, the MSU Federal Credit Union, or MSUFCU, is offering a loan to make that trip possible. The loan has a minimum amount of $1,000 and can be financed over an 18-month period at an annual percentage rate as low as 6.9 percent. Spartan fans who take out a loan of $1,000 will end up paying $58.64 a month for a total of $55.52 in interest.
After 13 games of commanding one of the nation’s most feared defenses, defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi was named as Broyles Award winner. Narduzzi is the first MSU coach to win the award that is given to the nation’s top assistant coach in its 18 year history.
Sunday morning, 8-year-old Cody Ream and his 7-year-old brother Dylan Ream couldn’t wait to see sophomore quarterback Connor Cook. However, this time they wouldn’t be seeing him on a football field or on the TV — they would be seeing him step off the team plane on the tarmac of Capital Regional International Airport.
INDIANAPOLIS — Mark Dantonio told his team they would be “the ones” at his team banquet last offseason, where the book officially closed on a frustrating 7-6 season.
Several weeks into fall camp, head coach Mark Dantonio had a question for his team. “How many of you were alive in 1988?”
Ever since 11:52 p.m. on Dec. 3, 2011, Isaiah Lewis has patiently awaited a moment that was never guaranteed to arrive. At that minute, time ran out on MSU’s Big Ten title hopes. Wisconsin finished a second-half comeback against the Kirk Cousins-led Spartans, avenging a regular season loss at Spartan Stadium and claiming the league’s coveted Rose Bowl bid in the process.
As fans were ushered down the steps and out the exit of Lucas Oil Stadium into a chilly Indianapolis night, Denicos Allen witnessed something he’d never seen before. Max Bullough was there, too — he remembers it well. The then-sophomore linebackers were forced to watch several members of the 2011 Spartans, a band of brothers toward the end of a special season, break down in tears.
Les Brown is credited with coining the phrase “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” For college football coaching staffs coast to coast, landing stars — as many as possible — is the lifeblood of the business. Not star players per se, although that’s the ultimate goal, but rather players with the most five-sided shapes attached to their online recruiting profile. More stars means better players. Better players means more wins. More wins means more money and job security for said coaches. With the advent and evolution of national recruiting analysis services such as Rivals.com, Scout.com and ESPN’s Recruiting Nation in the past decade, any potential prospect worth a Division 1 coach’s time is promptly listed, evaluated and assigned a “star rating” from one to five based on skill. A five-star-rating represents the most elite high school athletes.
Staring down a dream, it’s important to note Urban Meyer has been here before. Several times, in fact.
Max Bullough will never forget the feeling. In the senior linebacker’s four years at MSU, he’s experienced a wide range of emotions. There were highs, from dramatic late-game miracles such as the “Little Giants” and “Rocket” games of 2010 and 2011, to winning the first bowl game under head coach Mark Dantonio. He felt the lows, too, through a disappointing 2012 season and snapping a four-game winning streak against rival Michigan.
“Why not us?” That is indeed the question following Mark Dantonio’s weekly press conference with the media yesterday afternoon. With only a few days before the No. 10 Spartans (11-1 overall, 8-0 Big Ten) travel to Indianapolis for a date with No. 2 Ohio State (12-0, 8-0) in the Big Ten Championship Game, the MSU head coach briefly entertained a scenario that would send the Spartans to Pasadena — not for the Rose Bowl, but for the BCS National Championship Game.
Regardless of what happens in Saturday’s Big Ten Championship Game, No. 10 MSU now can be remembered as the only program with multiple Legends Division titles — the Big Ten is switching to an East-West division alignment next season. Before trying to avenge their 2011 loss in the conference championship at the hands of Wisconsin, the then-No. 11 Spartans had to take care of Minnesota on senior day. Now, the sights are set on an undefeated showdown with No. 2 Ohio State.
With the nation’s No. 1 defense residing in East Lansing, it was all but guaranteed the Spartans would make their presence known in the Big Ten football awards. Six members of the No. 10 MSU football team earned All-Big Ten first team honors from the coaches, the program’s highest amount since 1966 — the last time the Spartans claimed a national title.