Lynn Henning

Mark Dantonio still right coach for Spartans

I can remember, three years ago this week, making another hundred or so phone calls in the latest quest to learn who Michigan State would hire as its new head football coach.

There were names of every flavor: Steve Mariucci, Todd Grantham, Charlie Baggett, Pat Shurmur, Brian Kelly, Ron English, Jim Harbaugh (then at the University of San Diego and very interested in the Michigan State job), and a few others of less serious candidacy.

The guy who was three weeks away from being hired was Mark Dantonio at the University of Cincinnati. He was hardly an unknown. He had the credentials. He certainly wanted the job. Messages had been left at his office in hopes he might fan a flame or two. He simply preferred to keep his mouth shut until he had finished business with the Bearcats.

Whatever you make of Dantonio compared with some of the above names after Dantonio's first three seasons at Michigan State, it seems as if this can be said heading into Saturday's big game against Penn State at Spartan Stadium:

He's done a solid job of stabilizing and constructing a football program in East Lansing. His record is modest (22-15) but a big step up from the 22-26 mark John L. Smith crafted in his four bewildering years in East Lansing.

Brighter days

More than his record, or the fact MSU probably is headed for its third bowl in his three years there, it would seem Dantonio's deeper accomplishments aren't purely statistical.

He has quieted the football culture in East Lansing. There are no storms brewing, no divisions simmering, no investigations under way, no kids in trouble, no serious problems in the classroom (MSU says all 20 seniors will have graduated by next summer).

He's the profile MSU was dead set on bringing to East Lansing after too many previous mistakes. He also can recruit, which is what determines whether any coach has any chance at winning in the hyper-competitive world of college football.

He ranks as a Grade A choice by Michigan State. Mark Hollis, now MSU's athletic director and then an assistant, primarily was responsible for hiring Dantonio and putting a capable captain at the wheel of a ship that for too many years found more rocks than waves.

Important, too, is the appearance that Dantonio isn't going anywhere. Nick Saban, who had MSU football in gear 10 years ago, never made it past Thanksgiving weekend of 1999 before he was talking seriously with LSU.

Dantonio's situation is entirely different. He has an athletic director and a president (Lou Anna Simon) he likes. He has a program in position to improve, and maybe dramatically improve, in 2010 when a younger team has spent so many Saturdays in 2009 growing up.

He and his family know East Lansing (he was on Saban's staff in the 1990s) and are happy with the environment.

Room to grow

Is he above reproach as a head coach?

No. The Spartans have lost five games and are pegged to lose their sixth Saturday. Dantonio and his defensive coordinator, Pat Narduzzi, haven't adequately explained why defensive backs so often this season gave up yardage as if they were conducting a charity drive for opposing quarterbacks.

Dantonio still has tons of work ahead. His defense needs more crunchers, more playmakers, which means his recruiting must steadily improve. It's a long final step for a program that isn't quite at Top 25 elevation to get to that annual Top 25 status. It's tougher yet to recruit a team capable of beating Ohio State, Wisconsin, and Iowa, and grabbing one of those BCS Bowl spots.

But for those of us who spent many Novembers in the past on the phone, checking out the latest rumors, thumbing through coaching records and profiles, the absence of any such commotion in East Lansing says everything about what Dantonio has brought to Michigan State.

He has brought peace. And that's not a word that we often used when describing the state of football in East Lansing.

lynn.henning@detnews.com