Dantonio Says 7th Ranked Spartans Aren't Perfect, But 'We Found A Way To Win Close Games'
EAST LANSING (CBS Detroit) The latest college football poll has Michigan State University ranked No. 7, and coach Mark Dantonio thinks the team reached that high thanks not just to this season, but to their entire body of work.
The team is 8-0 so far this year, 34-3 over the last two seasons.
"We've won close games, we beat some teams, like Oregon, that was very high ranked at the beginnings of this season, the Air Force team that won 10 games last season, so we've beaten some good football teams and the guys haven't been perfect, but we've come out in the back end and we've won," Dantonio said live on 97.1 The Ticket Wednesday morning.
The team's success is all about its strong foundation, said Dantonio.
In this decade starting in 2010, the Spartans are 61-14, 36-8 in the Big 10, 32-3 in the last three years and 19-1 in Big 10 play. They've won four straight bowl games.
"Well, we've had success here and we've tried to create long-standing success and build a foundation of it and I think that's what we're doing," Dantonio said. "We've got great play and leadership from our senior group every single year and our seniors got to have their best years for us to be successful."
Particularly successful this season are seniors Connor Cook, Aaron Burbidge, and Shilique Calhoun. He praised Cook, the all-time most winning quarterback at Michigan State, for overcoming issues and playing well, saying he can take a bad play and create.
"We're winning and we found a way to win close games," the coach said.
There are 128 teams in the country so to be sitting where they are right now is a "great situation," Dantonio said, adding that the No. 7 ranking is "pretty good respect."
He added he would not expect the team to be ranked No. 1, accounting for injuries and other things.
"When you look at the entire picture, it's not perfect, but we're winning games at the end, somehow, some way, whether we make a play in defense in the last 30 seconds or we make a play on offense in the last 30 seconds or we make a play on special teams in the last 10 seconds, we're making plays to win a football game," Dantonio said.
Was he referencing any particular game when he talked about winning in the last 10 seconds? Dantonio chuckled at the question and said "most people probably will (remember)."
The team faces Nebraska this week, and Dantonio said the main concern with them is facing a team whose mindset is that they've been backed into a corner. "They're looking for a statement, a statement game, a statement effort, so that's the biggest concern," he said, adding Nebraska does not recruit bad football players.
Are they working on anything special for Ohio State? Dantonio said he's focused only on the next game. "We're focusing on the moment," Dantonio said.
If he really, really needed to get himself pumped up for Ohio or any other team, what would be on the Mark Dantonio playlist?
"We'd play a little Kid Rock," he said.