MSU football fans have been invited to join head coach Mark Dantonio when he unveils the 2007 recruiting class Wednesday at Breslin Center as part of the NCAA National Signing Day. Spartans football and Detroit Pistons announcer George Blaha is slated to serve as the host of the event.
Senior quarterback Drew Stanton has been selected to represent MSU today in the College Football All-Star Challenge in Miami. Stanton earned team MVP honors last season after tossing 17 touchdowns for 2,252 total yards.
MSU head football coach Mark Dantonio scored a pair of verbal commitments over the weekend. Guard Arthur Ray Jr.
New football coach Mark Dantonio has already brought seven of his Cincinnati coaches with him to MSU.
Mark Dantonio is wasting no time in his effort to turn around the MSU football program. On Thursday, he penciled four names into his coaching staff: offensive coordinator Don Treadwell, defensive line coach Ted Gill, offensive line coach Dan Roushar and tackles/tight ends coach Mark Staten, who also will serve as recruiting coordinator. On Friday, he named three additional position coaches: secondary coach Harlon Barnett, linebackers and special teams coach Mike Tressel and quarterbacks coach Dave Warner. All seven worked under Dantonio at Cincinnati. "When I first found out and knew that there were possibilities about coming to Michigan State, the first thing I did was check with our staff, in terms of where they would be at with everything," Dantonio said Friday.
Seven members of Cincinnati's football coaching staff have resigned on the heels of former head coach Mark Dantonio's departure and are likely to assume a role on Dantonio's staff at MSU. Tom Hathaway, Cincinnati's assistant athletics director, confirmed the resignations Wednesday afternoon and said the coaches will return to prepare and coach Cincinnati in its bowl game. The coaches who resigned are: • Offensive coordinator Don Treadwell • Tight ends coach Mark Staten • Defensive line coach Ted Gill • Linebackers coach Mike Tressel • Secondary coach Harlon Barnett • Offensive line coach Dan Roushar • Quarterbacks coach Dave Warner Defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi, Cincinnati's interim head coach, told the university it has until Dec.
New MSU football head coach Mark Dantonio's five-year contract will pay him $1.1 million annually, which puts him in the bottom half of the Big Ten football coaches.
"He seems to be the right fit for us at this point because we need someone with defensive experience.
When Keith Nichol was offered a football scholarship by former MSU head coach John L. Smith two years ago, he didn't toil over the decision for six months like most recruits — he accepted the offer right away and planned to play for the Spartans in 2007. Since the Lowell High School quarterback's decision, it seems like everything in the MSU football program has changed.
The last time Mark Dantonio coached in the Big Ten, it was 2003 and he was defensive coordinator under Jim Tressel at Ohio State.
Mark Dantonio's salary just doubled, and then some. But if you think his decision to become MSU's third football coach in five seasons was solely about the money, think again. Several Ohio media reported Monday that Cincinnati had offered to match MSU's $1.1 million contract, but Dantonio went with the Spartans anyway. Why? One likely reason: Institutional support.
When Dantonio was a graduate assistant at Ohio State from 1983-84, the head coach was Earle Bruce, a 2002 inductee to the College Football Hall of Fame.
Many MSU players were upset that the university didn't inform them of John L. Smith's firing last month until after an announcement had been made to the media. MSU officials didn't want that to happen again. So, the day before the Spartans played Penn State, Mark Hollis, senior associate athletics director and one of the lead directors of the coaching search, met with junior linebacker Kaleb Thornhill and junior running back Jehuu Caulcrick and asked them what the players were looking for in a new coach. While neither player would reveal what he told Hollis went wrong during Smith's tenure, both appreciated their input was sought. "I just want to thank (the administration) for involving us, letting us have a say in what we thought would be beneficial for this program," Thornhill said Monday. Caulcrick said Dantonio will be a players' coach like Smith — albeit a more hard-nosed one — but one who should help address the problems the players saw with the program. "Thinking about all the stuff that we mentioned to him that we needed," Caulcrick said, "Coach Dantonio is the guy that we were talking about."
Newly named head football coach Mark Dantonio and his family — wife Becky and daughters Kristen, 14, and Lauren, 12 — are returning to East Lansing after leaving in 2000 for Ohio State. During Monday's press conference, Becky wore a necklace from the Spartans' 2001 Citrus Bowl appearance, for which her husband was MSU's defensive secondary coach and associate head coach.
As I arrived at Ford Field on Saturday to watch my alma mater, Dakota High School, play in the Division 1 state football finals, my expectations were low. I didn't think Dakota would come out with a win, seeing as it was the school's first appearance in the finals and its opponent was Rockford, which had won the last two state titles and has a lot of kids with more facial hair than I have now. And I didn't think I'd be all that excited by the game, seeing as I don't recognize any of the names on the jerseys anymore and my expectations had been raised by rooting for a real football team (kind of) for the last four years.
Top MSU officials said late Sunday night an 8 a.m. board meeting was planned for today with only one item on the agenda related to their search for a new football head coach. University spokesman Terry Denbow would not comment on who is likely to be named to the position late Sunday.
Two MSU football commitments faced each other in the Michigan High School Athletic Association Division 3 state football finals on Saturday at Ford Field. Two-way lineman Darrell Davis-Budanauro and his East Grand Rapids team defeated wide receiver Mark Dell's Farmington Hills Harrison squad, 42-17. Davis-Budanauro (6-foot-4, 370 pounds) played both nose guard and offensive tackle, helping East Grand Rapids score five consecutive rushing touchdowns.
Former MSU quarterback Jeff Smoker is getting another chance at playing football. After a stint with the NFL's St.
Senior punter Brandon Fields was named first-team All-Big Ten by both the coaches and media Tuesday, and senior offensive lineman Kyle Cook was named second-team All-Big Ten by the coaches. Fields led the Big Ten in punting yardage average, with 43.3 yards per punt, and also had the longest punt, 73 yards, of All-Big Ten punters. Fields' selection was his third first-team All-Big Ten award.
Assaulting someone off the field hasn't always led to a suspension from the MSU football team. But this year was a whole new game. Six players were suspended indefinitely for their involvement in fights or violent incidents. In previous years, players, such as former senior running back Jason Teague and former starting bandit Cole Corey — both of whom were involved in criminal incidents, were allowed to play and practice with the team. MSU head football coach John L.