Couch: It's time for Mark Dantonio to explain his vision for Michigan State football. Or to at least say something.

Silence from Mark Dantonio in January used to be a good thing for Michigan State’s football program. The absence of noise was comforting to a fan base that trusted its coach wholeheartedly. The chaos of hirings and firings was for less stable programs, programs still trying to find their way.

Never before in the Dantonio era have I seen MSU’s fan base yearn so intensely for a taste of that chaos. They’d settle right now for signs of life. The silence is becoming maddening.

What they really want from Dantonio is to hear his plan. A plan of action. Folks who’ve supported the program with their time and money for years and decades deserve that.

So, as their conduit, I’ll ask: What’s the plan here, Mark?

As the days and weeks pass since MSU’s Dec. 27 Pinstripe Bowl victory, marking the end of a second straight disappointing season, the rest of the college football world has been busy moving and shaking, tweaking and overhauling. And from Dantonio … crickets.

That’s OK if he’s been maneuvering and preparing behind the scenes. But he’s got to unveil his plan soon. And if it sounds anything like the status quo, that’s not OK this time. Fans won’t buy it. And he’s reached the point where he has to recruit his fan base again and sell them on the dream, just as he would a high school prospect.

Fans are his constituency. They will vote this fall with their presence or lack thereof at Spartan Stadium. They’ll speak up with their season-ticket renewals, which aren’t cheap and helped to pay his $4.3 million retention bonus, which Dantonio collected Thursday. He needs them on his side for the program to have any shot at a rebirth during his tenure. Frankly, he could use some better headlines in a Google search, too — without phrases such as “lack of talent,” “questions hover over Michigan State football,” “attorneys for Curtis Blackwell” and “Auston Robertson.”

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It can’t be easy for Dantonio and Co. to recruit in this climate of negativity. But that’s also largely on Dantonio — his lack of communication, his unwillingness to make bold moves, the absence of contrition over Robertson’s recruitment.

So much of this could be improved by saying the right things. But to do that, he’s got to say something.

What MSU fans fear is that the only staff changes coming will be a retirement or two, that the lone roster upgrades will be a recruiting class that ranked 11th in the Big Ten, that the plan at quarterback isn’t sufficient — like it wasn’t in 2012 or ’16 — and that the plan is largely to run it back again with this coaching staff, hoping the second year in a revamped offense, with a more experienced offensive line and an intriguing group of young receivers sets the program on a different course.

If that happens, terrific. If MSU’s offense is more palatable, that’ll help. It’s not enough.

The man who once told his players to “Chase it” and then led them to the Rose Bowl appears to have stopped chasing excellence. Because chasing excellence means evolving ahead of the pack, instead of two years behind. It means taking a chance on bright, young coaching minds, like LSU did with passing game coordinator Joe Brady — even after a 10-3 season, when the Tigers finished in the top 10 — and as Michigan did with offensive coordinator Josh Gattis, at the expense of head coach Jim Harbaugh’s preferred offense.

It means acknowledging that a staff that recruited well together for years when the program was on the rise, might now need to add dynamic recruiters and/or young personalities who kids simply want to play for, no matter the circumstances.

Maybe that’s all part of Dantonio’s plan. Maybe we’ll hear it soon. Maybe I’m reading him entirely wrong this time. Maybe he’s changed his mind and isn’t bringing everyone back. Or maybe he’s changed his mind and, after collecting his retention bonus, is planning to walk away. That’s fine, too. He earned that check. Better to step aside than to coach just one more season, hoping for a better lingering taste.

Whatever the plan, it’s time to hear it.

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