Chris Solari

Detroit Free Press

EAST LANSING – Coach Mark Dantonio didn’t want to revisit the Notre Dame game. He wanted to keep Michigan State’s focus solely on its Big Ten opener.

And he wanted to remember all of those close games against Wisconsin the past decade.

The No. 8 Spartans host the No.10 Badgers at noon Saturday, and MSU’s 10th-year coach concentrated on how he tried to emulate the consistency with which Wisconsin has played over the years.

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“When we came, I looked at Iowa, what Kirk Ferentz has built. I looked at the Wisconsin program and what was built there,” Dantonio said Tuesday. “They did it the hard way, where they had been down a little bit at one point, built it back up, had a consistent winning program and stability and continuity. I thought that was one thing we wanted to have.”

Current athletic director Barry Alvarez resurrected the Badgers during the 1990s until he retired in 2005, when understudy Bret Bielema continued to win. Gary Anderson had a strong two-year stint before leaving unexpectedly for Oregon State. Paul Chryst, an assistant under Bielema, returned last year after three years as Pitt’s head coach.

Wisconsin is 219-108-4 since 1990. Chyst is 13-3 in three seasons, including 3-0 this year. He also was Bielema’s offensive coordinator in 2005-11. Chryst said he respects the job Dantonio has done to emulate the Badgers.

►Paul Chryst uncertain on starting QB vs. MSU

“Michigan State, what they’ve done the last few years,” Chryst said Tuesday on a teleconference, “that is the bar you try to reach.”

The Spartans and Badgers have played some epic games during Dantonio’s decade at MSU, with their seven meetings decided by 34 combined points (4.86 per game). They haven’t played since 2012, when the Spartans edged the Badgers, 16-13, in overtime. Dantonio holds a 4-3 edge in the series.

The programs met twice in 2011 — MSU defeated the Badgers at home, 37-31, on Kirk Cousins’ last-second “Rocket” TD pass to Keith Nichol. Less than two months later, Wisconsin edged the Spartans in the inaugural Big Ten championship game, 42-39, to earn a Rose Bowl berth.

Dantonio said he thinks MSU’s conference opener “is no doubt bigger” than last week’s game with Notre Dame.

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

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