Ohio State 45, Michigan State 7 (Oct. 18)

[daveeb]

Originally Posted by JXC

Iowa's defense isn't bad. I still think MSU's is though.

MSU's defense follows the Dantonio philosophy of "bend don't break" and "make big plays when you have to", leaving some cause for concern. Their turnover ratio is very high.

[bukIpower]

Well I'm not concerned if they play the bend but dont break. Pryor has shown that if you play tentitive with him he'll make things happen. He's struggled mainly when people come after him and force his hand before he's comfortable to do so. Pryor doesn't turn the ball over so the turnover ratio is a mute point I think.

I haven't been around for a couple days so excuse me if its been said. MSU will be the most one demensional team we have until we play Michigan at the end (they're zero demensional). MSU, while having a good ground game, has a pretty poor passing game. Much like OSU, we both run the ball and make sure we don't turn the ball over. In saying that now, which is more prone to make the turnover Hoyer or the True Freshman? Wisdom would say the True Freshman but sadly for Hoyers sake Pryor does a better job at limiting mistakes. Then, who has the better defense to stop the running game? I'll take OSU on that one as well. We will keep Ringer in check as best as we can and we'll win this game 27-17. Ringer will run for around 120, but Beanie/Pryor will go for around 220 combined.

[JXC]

Originally Posted by daveeb

MSU's defense follows the Dantonio philosophy of "bend don't break" and "make big plays when you have to", leaving some cause for concern. Their turnover ratio is very high.

The sure broke against Cal.

[Crashcup]

I personally am worried about this game...we're just not that good or haven't been playing well this year for whatever reason.

[schwab]

We could have scored 4 points and beat Purdue. In the grand scheme of things, OSU isn't too shabby.

[JXC]

Originally Posted by schwab

We could have scored 4 points and beat Purdue. In the grand scheme of things, OSU isn't too shabby.

We scored enough points in the first few minutes of the game to win it!!!! YOU ARE EXACTLY RIGHT!!!!! Great post. I hate how people just focus on offense. This team is damn good. And this team is growing a lot more than most teams do in a year. And sure there will be growing pains. But the thing with this team is that the growing pains happen during a win, not a loss. Look at Michigan's growing pains. They happen during losses to Utah, and Illinois, and Toledo, and Notre Dame. Our USC loss was a turnaround for this team. Since then we have experienced some growing pains...but they have been during wins. So...if you are having some shakeups on the OL, and a QB that is still growing, and an offense and defense that is still trying to find itself and grow, and you still beat a Big Ten team 16-3...it's a lot [censored]ing better than losing to a MAC team 13-10. And not just a MAC team...but a 1-4 MAC team. It's silly. We are a great team. We really are...and we are SO [censored]ING GOOD that we can fix things, and change things, and go through some growing troubles, and still win games. WE ARE WAY TOO LUCKY. We have so much talent. IT IS GREAT TO BE A BUCKEYE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[osugrad21]

Scout Free--Crunching the Numbers: Ohio State at MSU

[osugrad21]

BSB$--The threat of the Spartans

Rundown of the MSU weapons.

[osugrad21]

Link

Dantonio set to face mentor Tressel, OSU



By Josh Langenbacher
Collegian Staff Writer

Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio worked under Ohio State coach Jim Tressel for five years at Youngstown State.
The prot?g? will try to top the mentor when No. 20 Michigan State (6-1, 3-0 Big Ten) hosts No. 12 Ohio State (6-1, 3-0 Big Ten) in a 3:30 p.m. kickoff Saturday.
ABC will televise the game.
Dantonio was an assistant at Youngstown State when Tressel was transforming the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly 1-AA) team into a national power, then followed Tressel to Ohio State.
Dantonio was also a defensive coordinator on Ohio State's 2002 national championship team.
"I don't enjoy playing against close friends," Dantonio said. "But I enjoy coaching against football teams from where I grew up or football teams I used to coach."
Michigan State has built a chunk of its team from Ohio's fertile recruiting grounds. Running back Javon Ringer, who leads the country in carries per game, is one of 24 Spartans from Ohio.
The Spartans' reliance on the running game and disciplined approach have also modeled some of Tressel's squads.
Cont...

[osugrad21]

Link

Dantonio fine with taking on old friends ? MSU coach wants to beat one on Saturday


By Rick Shepich
DAILY PRESS & ARGUS
? October 15, 2008

EAST LANSING ? Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo has made it known that he would prefer not to compete against his closest friends in the coaching fraternity.
Apparently, it doesn't bother football coach Mark Dantonio quite so much.
"I sort of enjoy playing Ohio State," said Dantonio with a smile at his weekly press conference Tuesday. "I always did when I was here before. I don't enjoy playing people that are close friends, I guess, but I enjoy playing against a football team that is from where I grew up."
Despite being born in El Paso, Texas, and attending the University of South Carolina, Dantonio's deepest roots are in Ohio. His family moved to Zanesville, where he grew up, when he was 1. He was an assistant at both Youngstown State and Ohio State under coach Jim Tressel before becoming the head coach at Cincinnati.
While he may enjoy competing against Tressel and the Buckeyes, like most coaches, he hasn't found much success yet. Dantonio lost to Ohio State twice while at Cincinnati and again with Michigan State last season.
Dantonio, along with Spartans fans everywhere, are hoping that will change Saturday when No. 20/17 Michigan State (6-1, 3-0 Big Ten) welcomes No. 12/11 Ohio State (6-1, 3-0) to Spartan Stadium for a 3:30 p.m. kickoff. The game will be broadcast on ABC (Ch. 7, 12, 53).
Like their coach, no player at Michigan State has beaten the Buckeyes either. The last time the Spartans beat the Buckeyes was a 23-7 win at Spartan Stadium in 1999.
Cont...

[osugrad21]

Link

MSU faces biggest game of season
Win against Ohio State could take team into new era
Patrick Walters
Columnist for NOISE - walters.patrick@gmail.com
Last week in this space, I wrote something that was more of a blog post than a column in regard to the second half of the Michigan State football schedule. The overall point being that 5-1 overall and 2-0 in the Big Ten was a nice start, but by no means the criteria for concrete accomplishment, or even progress.
The main thrust was that 7-5, 8-4, or even 9-3 - given the circumstances that will unfold as the season progresses - could be seen as viable disappointments given the climate of these second-half games. (Additionally, there was some nonsense and jabber about 10-2 being attainable, and some reckless insinuation that if not 11-1 this season, exactly when such a record could be more achievable than this very season. Nevertheless, jabber I stand by.)
Of course, it all took the same tone that all things must take this week, in that there will be no joy in Mudville unless the Spartans make some rampant and notable progress - read: win - in the second half of yet another back-loaded schedule.

So if the victory in Evanston last weekend introduced that point, then this weekend's Thunderdome tilt against the Buckeyes must be seen as Michigan State's qualifier into Big Ten title consideration. It also must be seen as one of the scant remaining chances that Javon Ringer has to re-insert himself into Heisman consideration.
Cont...

[osugrad21]

Dispatch

Spartans toughen mental approach
Dantonio prepares players to deal with difficult situations
Wednesday, October 15, 2008 3:22 AM
By Bob Baptist


THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Mark Dantonio


A few weeks ago, Mark Dantonio talked about the balance beam of emotions a coach must walk and the ever-present danger of tumbling off one side or the other. "If I become unglued," he said, "your team responds accordingly."
In his 30th year of coaching football and second as head coach at Michigan State, Dantonio still has his moments. "You've seen me when I have," he said. And his Spartans still have theirs.
But those moments are becoming fewer and fewer as the Michigan State program more and more embodies the tough, no-nonsense ethic of Dantonio, who was hired two years ago to rescue it from the mood swings that marked his predecessor.
Unglued might have been the title of the highlight DVD from John L. Smith's tenure as Michigan State coach. From Smith slapping himself in the face at a news conference to his infamous meltdown after a field-goal fiasco at Ohio State in 2005, Smith's Spartans were never dull but frequently self-defeating.
A year later, after another in a series of late-season swoons, Michigan State showed him the exit and replaced him with his polar opposite in Dantonio, a Zanesville native and former Ohio State defensive coordinator who has a visage fit for Mount Rushmore and a rock-solid approach to go with it.


Cont...

[buckeyesin07]

Originally Posted by MililaniBuckeye

National total defense rankings:

12. Ohio State, 269 ypg
22. Iowa, 281 ypg

National scoring defense rankings:

5. Iowa
13. OSU

I'm just saying that Iowa's defense isn't bad, and is comparable to OSU's--it's not like OSU's defense is light years ahead of Iowa's, which was the original point of my post.

[bucknutt76]

I believe we can win this game, everyone keeps telling me oh you havent scored a offensive touchdown in 7 quarters and what not. But you know what we are still winning. My buddy brought up a good point to me the other day, he said I remember a team in 2002 that went 14 and 0 and just barely won every single game they played, granted they had some very talented players but they still barely scraped by. We still have alot of great players they arent gone this is 95% of the team that we had last year that was running up crazy number scores if they wanted. I just think maybe we need to wake up a little and we will be back in the zone.

[osugrad21]

BSB$

Coach Dantonio discusses the matchup, the Ohio boys on his roster, and how to stop the Buckeyes.