Michigan State football is in danger of re-entering the dark ages

EAST LANSING — Back to square one?

Or is it back to the dark era?

It’s hard to say. But one thing about Michigan State football’s coaching search situation is clear.

The worst possible scenario just happened at the worst possible time. And not just because Luke Fickell turned down the Spartans.

[ Campus culture played role in Luke Fickell turning down MSU football job ]

Regardless how things get spun from here, with top-candidate Fickell deciding to remain at Cincinnati on Monday, the past week has at minimum tarnished the reputation of a program that was near the top of college football just five years ago. The Spartans are sputtering in terms of public perception, both from a fan base already frustrated with the downturn on the field and for potential candidates who may balk at the job because of the continued optics of ineptness at the university.

Fickell, himself, balked in part because of the campus culture at MSU. Or at least his family did, according to sources with knowledge of the situation. On Monday, he said his decision to stay at Cincinnati was a "family decision."

The news came six days after Mark Dantonio announced his retirement Tuesday, less than 24 hours before signing day. In February. After more than a month of silence. Weeks after programs around the country filled their vacancies.

[ Bret Bielema has 'definite interest' in MSU coaching job ]

One rumored name after another — Pat Narduzzi, Mel Tucker, Robert Saleh — pulled their name from consideration over the past week. All keenly aware that MSU’s search spotlighted Fickell as the primary choice to replace Dantonio, with rampant speculation the pursuit came with the Spartans’ all-time winningest coach’s blessing.

A novice athletic director, Bill Beekman, entered his first major coaching search with only the experience from hiring a rowing coach. A new boss in charge of a multi-million dollar department, who has no experience in athletic administration, got his fan base excited with precise criteria for the next coach, the prospects of having a plan in place and executing it swiftly and succinctly.

Fickell fit the bill.

He is an Ohio guy who has never coached outside the state, whose recruiting ties there run deep. He was already beginning to land the type of regional recruits Dantonio once built the success of his program on while capturing three Big Ten titles, a Rose Bowl, a Cotton Bowl and a berth in the 2015 College Football Playoff.

Fickell had experience at Ohio State, like Dantonio – even running the program for a year. He had shown the ability to win in three years at Cincy, including back-to-back 11-win seasons. He appeared to be on the verge of making the jump to a Power 5 conference and, at 46 years old, is young enough to make his next stop his final destination.

Maybe that will still happen. Some day.

It won’t be in East Lansing.

The Fickell Fallout comes at a point where almost every problem at MSU has been magnified to the nth-degree, every decision scrutinized with a microscope, since fall 2016.

Dantonio’s program collapsed after reaching unthinkable heights. After being shut out in the College Football Playoff, a 3-9 season in 2016 halted all momentum.

Then the sexual assault allegations came in January 2017, followed by the dismissal of Curtis Blackwell and his ongoing federal lawsuit for wrongful termination, in which Dantonio is one of the defendants. The timing of those problems coincided with the Larry Nassar fiasco, which operated in a different silo but gets lumped under the same MSU umbrella.

Then the leadership of the university crumbled, with Lou Anna Simon resigning as president and former athletic director Mark Hollis doing the same two days later in early 2018. Both are defendants with Dantonio in Blackwell’s suit.

On the field, the Spartans’ offensive woes during the 2018 season and Dantonio’s quizzical refusal to make any changes to his coaching staff, other than moving assistants to different positions, hurt the program. It resulted in more of the same in 2019 and an identical 7-6 record.

Dantonio promised to assess the situation after the Spartans’ Dec. 27 Pinstripe Bowl win over Wake Forest, only to go silent until his announced decision to retire last week.

This was a moment the university’s new leadership, with Beekman and president Samuel Stanley, needed to show renewed competence, to rebuild some confidence in an alumni and fan base that has been reeling as it watched one misstep after another for four years.

Instead, MSU out-MSU’d itself. Again.

Now they must scramble to avoid this becoming a Same Ol' Spartans situation.

What’s next? Hard to say, since what is predictable never seems to come to fruition on the banks of the Red Cedar.

Externally, MSU leadership could put their tail between their legs and re-approach Narduzzi at Pitt or Tucker at Colorado. But would either consider the job knowing they were a second or third option? And how much more leverage would that knowledge give them, this far into the offseason?

An also-ran coach at this point, or someone out of a job, will do nothing to appease fans.

It could make sense in timing to turn to the NFL ranks, though Saleh, a Dearborn native, says he isn't leaving the 49ers. An alum like Pat Shurmur, who recently got fired as head coach of the New York Giants, could possibly be swayed to leave his new job as offensive coordinator with the Denver Broncos to return to his alma mater. There are other names who could be interested, but the shift from pro to college can be an extended process.

Internally, Dantonio’s protegee, Mike Tressel, sits at the helm of the football program on an interim basis. Dantonio has been close to the Tressel family, working with his uncle, Jim Tressel, at Youngstown State and Ohio State for decades. The 46-year-old MSU defensive coordinator has never been a head coach at any level, and Dantonio only promoted him to assistant head coach before the 2019 season.

There are a few coaches on staff with head coaching experience, but both Don Treadwell and Paul Haynes failed miserably in their stints at Miami (Ohio) and Kent State, respectively. Offensive coordinator Brad Salem also had a successful stint at head coach at Augustana College in South Dakota, but that was at the Division II level and his one year running the Spartans’ offense this season did little to improve MSU's output.

Depending on how much Dantonio’s input and influence was used to push his understudies, in promoting Tressel and pursuing Fickell, it could be time for the university’s leadership to make a clean sweep of Dantonio’s footprint. That may be hard to admit, and the unknown can be just as daunting (see John L. Smith), but it was his decision and timing that put MSU in such a precarious position. When it could least afford to err.

That’s what the new leadership has done, however. Significant damage already has been done. The program is in a dangerous state of limbo, with spring practices expected to begin in less than a month.

A solid hire can still be made — a Power 5 job with Big Ten resources always will attract top-tier coaches and plenty of interest. There must be urgency, however, for whoever takes over to establish their culture in a few short weeks to begin preparing for 2020.

MSU can’t hire another Muddy Waters. It can’t hire another John L. Smith. But it also doesn’t have much time to make something happen.

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari.