From my perspective, the Spartans got a good one.
I spent four years working in Zanesville, Ohio, home of Mark Dantonio, new football coach at Michigan State. I was there when he won the national championship as the defensive coordinator at Ohio State, and when he was named head coach at Cincinnati.
He is worshiped in Zanesville, not so much for his coaching ability as for his straight-up personality. He’s a lot like Jim Tressel and Lloyd Carr, in that he’s thoughtful, serious and dedicated to the principles of building character as well as winning games.
He brought Tressel with him for a benefit luncheon in Zanesville a few years ago. In both of their speeches, the topic was more about doing things right than winning football games. Dantonio isn’t as polished as Tressel, but he has the same discipline and dedication.
It will take a while for Michigan State folks to get used to a Jim Tressel disciple running their program. And only time will tell whether Dantonio can win games in the Big 10. But on the character side, I think they have a winner.
- Dan Shaw, danshaw@monroenews.com