During his childhood, Don Coleman learned to respect everyone that he came in contact with, but that respect wasn’t always returned by his opponents.
Football leagues such as the XFL, NFL Europe and the United States Football League, or USFL, have tried, and ultimately failed to challenge the NFL for football supremacy over the years, but now another league is trying to break onto the football scene with a different objective.
The Spartans have said their schedule only gets tougher as the year goes on – Saturday’s 17-13 victory over Pittsburgh was a testament to that statement.
Senior linebacker Sir Darean Adams started 23 consecutive games for the Spartans, but that streak came to a halt when he took a back seat to redshirt freshman Jon Misch for MSU’s season opener two weeks ago against UAB.
The dead bolt has been cut from the cage, and the dogs of the MSU defense are out hounding opposing quarterbacks this season. Bowling Green quarterback Tyler Sheehan felt the bite last Saturday, getting sacked seven times – giving MSU 12 total sacks in two games. Last season, the Spartans ended with only 16.
While junior wide receiver Devin Thomas was busy fielding questions from the media about his four catch, 156-yard performance that included a touchdown last Saturday against Bowling Green, senior defensive end Ervin Baldwin made the receiver who was almost impossible to stop do just that.As Baldwin was exiting the press trailer, he exclaimed “showtime,” referring to Thomas’ nickname. The interjection prompted several questions aimed at the Spartans’ new big play threat.
When it comes to seating in sections 14 and 15 in the south end zone, it’s a no-holds-barred scamper to find a slab of aluminum to stand on if one of the 13,600 students with tickets decides to arrive too close to game time, or leaves his or her seat during the first half.
While Pittsburgh will come to Spartan Stadium looking to avenge last year’s loss to MSU, the Spartans are looking to get a little retribution of their own for head coach Mark Dantonio. In Dantonio’s three years as Cincinnati’s head coach, he never beat its Big East opponent Pittsburgh — losing 33-15 in 2006 and 38-20 the year before.
It may not have been as statistically sexy as the blowout win last week, but MSU took a crash course in adversity on their way to defeating Bowling Green, 28-17, on Saturday. “The thing that impressed me about our football team is that we did handle adversity,” head coach Mark Dantonio said. “We didn’t just go in there and all of a sudden quit playing and hang our heads. We kept coming back and someone kept making a play.”
With an 0-2 start, no bowl wins since the 2002 Outback Bowl and a never-ending underground movement for his removal, Michigan football head coach Lloyd Carr is likely done after this season as King of the Rodents.
If the MSU pass rush needed a slogan, it might be, “What a difference a year makes.” The Spartans recorded 16 sacks in 2006 – just two more than last-place Indiana in the Big Ten. On Saturday, though, MSU collected seven sacks to bring its season total to 12 in two games.
Spartan football tasted adversity for the first time this season, but they just chewed it up and spit it right back out, defeating Bowling Green 28-17 on Saturday. “The thing that impressed me about our football team is that we did handle adversity,” head coach Mark Dantonio said. “We didn’t just go in there and all of a sudden quit playing and hang our heads. We kept coming back and someone kept making a play.”
MSU fans were introduced to a terrific concept last Saturday called schadenfreude. And, really, we have yet to let that go.
Head coach Mark Dantonio has been saying all along that football is a game of inches, and after several upsets last Saturday, his claim was validated.
Two members of the Thornhill legacy will walk onto Spartan Stadium’s field Saturday, and a third will be there in spirit.
Last season, all it took was a 30-yard run by then-junior running back Jehuu Caulcrick to put the Spartans ahead of No. 12-ranked Notre Dame, 37-21, with just less than six minutes remaining in the third quarter. MSU was in control of the game.
By halftime of the Michigan football game against Appalachian State on Saturday, two tailgaters who had been listening on the radio in East Lansing had a pressing request for custom clothing store Spartan Corner, 103 E. Grand River Ave.