Arrogance isn’t such a bad thing, when it’s properly applied.
Arrogance fueled the Michigan-Michigan State rivalry before Mark Dantonio’s arrival in East Lansing. Arrogance fuels it now. Separating the right from wrong arrogance is the trick.
Before Dantonio took over at Michigan State, Michigan fans held a long-standing reputation as the “Arrogant Asses” among the Spartans faithful.
What did you expect? From the time Bo Schembechler arrived in 1969 through the Lloyd Carr era, the Wolverines held a 30-9 advantage in the rivalry. Schembechler alone went 17-4, and Carr went 10-3. If you beat somebody that bad for that long and they still mouthed off, you’d be arrogant, too. Michigan fans simply followed their leaders.
Dantonio didn’t run from that. He asked, “How long will we bow to Michigan?” He embraced this rivalry, even after a 28-24 loss to Carr in 2007. He attacked 40 years of arrogance one day at a time.
“There’s no question we point toward this game and it’s a rivalry game,” Dantonio said this week. “It’s important to our program on a day-to-day basis. It affects your perceptions day-to-day in this state.”
The perception then and now is former Michigan running back’s Mike Hart’s “Little Brother” comment following that 2007 game marked some cosmic turning point in the rivalry. Michigan State won five of the last six since and is a 17-point favorite to beat the Wolverines on Saturday.
That’s only a half-truth. Hart wasn’t wrong at the time. Michigan State were not taken seriously in the Big Ten before Dantonio’s arrival, even with Nick Saban. Bobby Williams lost to the Wolverines 49-3 in 2002. John L. Smith slapped himself at press conferences four years later. The Spartans lost six straight to the Wolverines at that point.
But Michigan’s arrogance off the field led to problems on it. App State. Rich Rodriguez. Now Brady Hoke is sifting through a 3-4 seasons. Dave Brandon. Two Cokes, free tickets. The beat goes on.
“Michigan State is ahead of Michigan right now,” Michigan State play-by-play announcer George Blaha told Sporting News before the season. “It doesn’t add up any other way.”
The numbers back that up. In 2013, Michigan State held Michigan to minus-48 yards rushing in a 29-6 blowout. Now, with a scheduling quirk, the Wolverines must go back to East Lansing for a second straight year.
Will this be the coup-de-gras for Hoke? Can anything be done to change last year’s outcome?
“We know what the results were from last year and how we played,” Hoke said. “These are college kids, there’s no question you talk about what they did to attack us from a defensive standpoint.”
Protecting Devin Gardner would be a start. He took seven sacks last year, and without a monster performance from Gardner, Michigan doesn’t stand a chance against a Michigan State team that averages 47 points per game.
There’s still an arrogance in this rivalry, only it’s where it belongs. It’s not on the message boards or in the stands. It’s on the field.
Michigan State plays arrogant football – that is we’re better than you, and we’re going to show it. That brand didn’t slow down against Ohio State in the Big Ten championship and didn’t speed up against Stanford in the Rose Bowl. The Spartans didn’t play keep-away from Oregon this season either. This Michigan State program is what Michigan used to be. Win or lose, the Spartans dictate the game, especially against the Wolverines.
The fans are finally starting to follow Dantonio’s lead. There’s less obsessing about Michigan’s misery (though that’s still a factor) and more thought into the bigger picture, or in this year’s case, the four-team playoff. Folks in Columbus are starting to notice.
“Collectively as a team we look at where we’re at the end of the season,” Dantonio said. “Our overall success generates long-term stability.”
The painful kicker is Dantonio isn’t all that different than Carr. He’s prickly, blunt and dishes out the occasional one-liner with an awkward smile, and you can almost feel him tense up at the mere mention of “Michigan.”
Michigan State is arrogant all right, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Now, the only question is how long Michigan takes to match it, or if it’s time to look for another coach who won’t back down from Dantonio. Hoke gets another chance Saturday, and it might be his last.
Michigan can’t afford to wait 40 years for a response.
