With Michigan State getting shelled by Wisconsin Saturday, not only did the Spartans suffer their own embarrassing outing against the Badgers on the road but the outcome in a way is resurrecting Michigan’s own shortcomings in Madison just a few short weeks ago.
Now since that loss for the Wolverines, Michigan hasn’t suffered any more setbacks – as far as losses go — but at the same time, it’s not like they’ve been impressive. Sure they shutout Rutgers in the week after 52-0 however, that’s not something you should get credit for, given the opponent. After that, the Wolverines only scored 10 points at home against Iowa and let a shit Illinois team get themselves back in the game Saturday.
For Michigan State, over their past two games they’ve scored a total of 10 points. Now in all fairness they’ve gone up against arguably the Big Ten’s two best teams in Ohio State and Wisconsin however, it’s not like the Buckeyes and Badgers were the first two teams to highlight Michigan State’s offensive inefficiencies this season and beyond.
Mark Dantonio will not adapt
Perhaps not adapting is a trend when it comes to Michigan States athletics. It’s a criticism that can be directed towards Tom Izzo on the basketball side of things and it’s certainly something that you can associate with Dantonio as well.
Dantonio though is a guy who may become a victim of his own success.
Credit Dantonio for being the coach to finally put Michigan State football on the map. He turned what was a regional, in conference program to something that has made its presence known on the national stage. Dantonio has been able to turn under the radar high school recruits into viable college talent and has done a good job in getting his players to the NFL.
Unfortunately though for the Michigan State head coach he seems unwilling to take that next step when it comes to his coaching staff.
Instead of embracing the necessitates of what it means to be a big-time college football program, Coach Dantonio and perhaps the MSU Athletic Department are unwilling to fork over the cash to bring in big-time assistants. In fact, it’s a contentious talking point as we’ve seen from the postgame presser yesterday when Dantonio was asked about addressing his offensive coaching staff.
So what comes with success on the Michigan State side of things, comes the need for more success and unfortunately Dantonio hasn’t been able to deliver.
What the hell happened to Jim Harbaugh?
Before getting into Harbaugh I just want to preface that both Dantonio and Harbaugh are really good head coaches. If they weren’t it’s not like these questions would be that tough to answer.
Specifically though for Harbaugh his struggles are much more perplexing than Dantonio’s.
Harbaugh has acquired high-end assistants and he’s acquired high-end recruits out of high school. However, it’s almost as though Harbaugh himself has forgotten how to coach and develop.
Meanwhile, if it’s not the defense one week, it’s the offense. And if it’s not the offense it’s the defense. Not to mention, Shea Patterson just hasn’t looked good, really at all since making his way to Ann Arbor and this was suppose to be the QB to finally bring everything together.
What’s perhaps even more frustrating though about Harbaugh is he’s had success at just about every coaching stop he’s had expect for Michigan. Whether it’s what he was able to do at Stanford or taking the 49ers to the Super Bowl, Harbaugh has just seemed to lose that coaching edge when he made his way to the Wolverines.
So with all that said, who deserves to lose their job more? Let us know below!
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