Couch: For MSU football, time stands still until Mark Dantonio makes his plans clear

Graham Couch | Lansing State Journal

Show Caption Hide Caption Michigan State football: Analyzing the gap between MSU and Michigan LSJ columnist Graham Couch, Freep beat writer Chris Solari and Freep columnist Shawn Windsor break down the state of MSU football.

ANN ARBOR – If you want to find a way to still be inspired by Michigan State’s football program, I’d urge you to speak with junior linebacker Antjuan Simmons. He’ll tell you he still believes in Mark Dantonio and the coaching staff and in his teammates. He’ll explain that this offseason “really has to mean something” to MSU’s players, that Saturday’s 44-10 loss at Michigan and the losses before it have to make the Spartans mad. He’ll make you think there is still meaning to this season. “These next two games are (about) want-to,” he said.

I left the conversation with Simmons, as I often do, impressed by his resolve and hope and candor, and then realized again this isn’t 2012. This isn’t a blip in the rise of MSU football or the prime of Mark Dantonio’s coaching career.

For MSU football, at 4-6 in 2019, time stops until Dantonio makes his plans clear. There is no other story line.

Because how you and I assess the state of the program hinges on whether Dantonio is coming back as MSU’s head coach and whether Simmons and Co. will be playing for him next season. If he’s done, then these last two games are a period of gratitude and transition, amid a pivotal choice for a new leadership group at MSU. If he’s coming back, then the conversations also turn toward the future, but differently.

If he’s made his decision, then he should make it known this week.

And if he hasn’t, MSU’s administration should let him know it’ll pay him the $4.3 million retention bonus due in mid-January either way. Call it a “Thank you bonus.” Call it whatever you want. You don’t want that to factor into his decision. You don’t want him coaching for any reason other than his desire to stay in the fight, to get this fixed.

Because it’s not a quick or easy fix — beyond, perhaps, some promising young player on offense that could be compelling to watch next season.

It’s clear there are no satisfactory answers coming this season. Press conferences after MSU’s mounting losses are largely becoming exercises in futility.

“Why are you not good?” is the gist of the essential question. I’d like to say it’s being phrased with a bit more sophistication, but not always.

The answers are telling.

“I honestly can’t tell you,” MSU senior defensive tackle Raequan Williams said. “I can tell you everybody here comes to work every day. It’s just the small things.”

Small things like talent and speed, discipline and tackling. Small things.

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“We’re playing pretty good football teams,” Dantonio said. “When it is competitive, you have to be able to win the turnover margin, you have to be able to run the ball, you have to be able to defend the big, explosive play. We’ve got guys with good ball skills. You’ve got to make a play.”

It’s not one thing. MSU isn’t doing any of that.

And, after a month and a half of losing, MSU’s players look like they’re losing some of their fight.

“I don’t know (if that happened). I’ve got to watch the film,” Simmons said. “The score is pretty lopsided, so ...

“We’ve just got to compete, compete a little harder. Just have to do our jobs better than we are. Because I don’t think guys are out of position on plays.”

This is the sort of answer that comes when the actual answer involves a darker admission — that, indeed, you are not good enough, that you aren’t as talented as your opponents. Players would almost rather admit they let up than to concede inferiority.

Seven years ago, MSU’s season found itself in a similar place — 5-6, heading into an off-the-radar trip to Minnesota. It was a “want-to” game. The Spartans had to decide if they wanted to fight for another game together, to play in a third-tier bowl off the radar a month later. They chose yes. They chose to fight. And Dantonio, to this day, considers it one of the more consequential moments and victories in the rise of the program, setting up the Rose Bowl season and speaking to the character within the program.

Saturday’s loss at Michigan was a program game of a different sort — revealing again the competitive gap between MSU and the top of the Big Ten, a gap that didn’t exist seven years ago. A strong finish and an angry offseason won’t close that gap, either.

It’s going to take change. Uncomfortable change. It’s time for Dantonio to say whether he wants to be part of that.

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Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.