EAST LANSING -- The traffic lights flashed yellow, the streets lining the campus of some 50,000 students cold and bare at 5:30 A.M. on Monday morning.

The only clue that the Michigan State football team was hard at work in its fourth winter conditioning session of the "Fourth Quarter" program inside the Duffy Daugherty Building was dozens of cars in the parking lot between the football complex and Spartan Stadium.

Michigan State's Mark Dantonio invited media to serve witness as to how he plans to restore the Spartans to championship contenders, and MLive was among the few that took the head coach up on his offer for an early wake-up call.

Once inside the football building, it was quickly evident the Spartans' program was alive and well on the heels of Michigan State's school-record sixth consecutive bowl season.

Whistles shrieked between orders delivered in drill sergeant-like fashion from coaches; players grunted while cutting at break-neck speed between pylons and cones, back and forth, racing one other before crossing the finish and gasping for air.

Large grey garbage bins doubled as puke buckets, strategically positioned along the walls, a warning to veterans like rising senior quarterback Andrew Maxwell that the team could be in for a tough morning.

"You do know when you start your warm-up lap, and you see buckets stationed, you're like uh-oh, that's gonna be tough,'' Maxwell said. "When they are anticipating a puke coming on, and they set the buckets there before the workout starts, that's when you know you're in for a treat.''

Each Monday the focus is on agility, Spartans' award-winning head strength and conditioning coach Ken Mannie explained.

"A lot of change of direction,'' explained Mannie, delivering each sentence in a challenging, motivational manner.

"Wednesday morning is speed and mobility, a lot more straight-line running, speed mechanics, body posturing, stance, starts and hip mobility,'' he said. "Friday is a power-emphasis day, we get sleds out, harnesses out, heavy ropes. To get speed against resistance.''

It's very much a science to Mannie, a man who once served beside Dantonio as a graduate assistant coach at Ohio State in 1984 before being brought to the Spartans' program by former Michigan State coach Nick Saban in 1995.

Dantonio prowled throughout the drills Monday morning, casting an icy glare at every turn.

Michigan State redshirt freshman safety Demetrious Cox wears a "bronze" jersey during workouts, symbolizing a model work ethic as graded by the coaches.

Defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi, meanwhile, brought the heat, louder and more energetic than anyone in the building while directing one of eight stations.

Narduzzi was quick to single-out players performing at less than their peak within the position-specific groups that rotated through each drill, delivering messages in close quarters, amping up adrenaline and execution.

"It has always been a focus to finish the drills strong, hit each line, round the corners right and not come up short,'' middle linebacker and All-American candidate Max Bullough said. "But now, you can quantify it looking back to last year.

"The difference between 7-6 and 12-1 or 12-2, it's that close.''

Mannie understands that as much as anyone, but coming close last season no longer matters in his estimation.

"Nothing we did last year, good, bad or indifferent, will have any effect on what we do this year,'' Mannie said. "Every year, you have to re-introduce this; this is a completely different team, even though a lot of them are the same guys.

"They need to know we are looking for new leadership, right here, right now, for 2013.''

Indeed, Dantonio and Narduzzi are the same coaches who led the Spartans to their first back-to-back 11-win seasons in school history.

But as Mannie correctly points out, it's the leadership within the framework of the team that will ultimately determine how next season's Michigan State squad handles adversity.

The Spartans were 9-1 in games decided by 10 points or less over the course of the 2010 and 2011 seasons.

Last season? 3-5, and that is how a talented team ranked No. 13 in the preseason ended 7-6 after flirting with a losing record.

"We can work hard, but it's not going to work unless you hold each other accountable!'' Mannie told his troops as they broke practice, later expounding on that with gathered media.

"Come game time not one single coach is going to be on that football field, when all hell is breaking loose, there' s gonna be 11 guys on that field at a given time, making decisions, expressing different techniques, having to know and execute assignments, and having to lean on each other,'' Mannie said. "That's one of the main purposes of the beginning of this program. As physical as this was today, it's a lot of neck-up components: mental toughness, leadership, pulling together, chemistry. That starts to get established right now.

"The great teams, the cornerstones of chemistry come from the players.''

Mannie is also cornerstone, in addition to being part of the answer to an often-asked question: "How can Michigan State have more wins in the Big Ten over the past five seasons than any other program despite having just one recruiting class ranked in the top 20?''

Another answer is Dantonio's proficiency red-shirting players.

Redshirt freshman safety Demetrious Cox serves as a prime example of a player who could have likely contributed in a minor capacity last season but got on board with saving a year of eligibility by sitting out.

"I had put myself in that category of having a chance to play right away, but once I got here I had to slow down and learn,'' Cox said. "Standing on the sidelines last season was a sick feeling, but you've got to do what you've got to do.

"I see myself in a good place now, and I just need to keep working.''

Cox has been working hard enough to have earned what Michigan State officials insist on referring to as a "bronze" jersey, even though it is gold in color.

While the vast majority of the players working out wear green or white, a select few wear gold-colored jerseys that symbolize a model work ethic.

Maxwell explained how each player is graded on a scale of 1 to 12 by the coaches after each workout.

"I believe the cutoff for a gold (bronze) jersey is 10; I was a `9' last week,'' Maxwell said. "This whole workout is a competition, that's why they put you in (workout) teams and design the drills where you're never going alone, you're always going against someone else.

"If you don't have competition, you're not making yourself better.''

Offensive lineman Fou Fonoti, a fifth-year senior returning from injury, was singled out by Mannie at the conclusion of the workout to deliver a message to the team.

"Every day we're being submerged by life's circumstances, with waking up early for these early runs, causing us to be submerged and drowned,'' Fonoti said. "I challenged our team just to surface at all, and the key point is how bad do you want it.''

Bad enough to deliver tears and sweat on winter mornings, street lights blinking yellow, the moon still aglow.