Spartan Seasons 2008: Practice Closed for Week Seven

Last Saturday, Michigan State’s offense convincingly demonstrated beyond all doubt that when playing at home against Iowa, they can hang on to win by a field goal. The nailbiter of a win sends Iowa to 3-3 on the season and effectively destroys any possibility of the Hawkeyes playing for the national championship.

By Sunday, virtually every reputable college football poll in the nation was so amazed by this performance that they elevated the Spartans to top-25 status.

This week, in advance of a game against Northwestern, Mark Dantonio shut the media out of Michigan State practices, a tactic he normally only deploys before the most intense games on the schedule, such as Notre Dame, Michigan and Ohio State.

The media speculation for this move ranges from the coach’s desire to hide some super-secret plans to keeping clues about certain injuries out of the newspapers.

All well and good reasons, but they apply to nearly every game at this stage. For example, why not close practice last week before playing Iowa’s rather physical defense? Maybe absent the prying eyes of reporters, some of the MSU receivers might have made peace with their rebellious hands.

My own theory is that after the football writers called his guys the No. 23 best team in the nation, Dantonio would rather not have them around to remind his players of that deed. That would get in the way of them remembering that a very mediocre Northwestern team beat them in Spartan Stadium last year. And that the Wildcats were missing their star running back that day and still hung over 600 yards of offense on MSU.

And that the star running back, Tyrell Sutton, is feeling just fine now and playing for a decidedly better than mediocre and unbeaten Northwestern team. And that this is an always dangerous Big Ten road game.

That’s a more likely reason for the blackout. It’s fully in keeping with Dantonio's no-B.S. style, and just one more rock to add to the mountain of growing evidence that this guy is one damn terrific person to have steering this ship.

And where is this ship headed?

My weekly look at where I think they’re going is as follows. So far, I’ve called every single game perfectly (including the loss at Cal):

@Northwestern -- 60% chance of W (originally 60%)

Last week, I had this up to 65 percent, on the basis of not respecting the opposition that Northwestern was racking up wins against. However, because of Northwestern taking a bye week, both of the teams going into this game have Iowa as their most recent common opponent. Northwestern went down to Iowa two weeks ago and beat the Hawkeyes 22-17, while the Spartans eked out a 16-13 victory playing in East Lansing.

This does not inspire great confidence in Sparty’s prospects. I would have closed practice as well.

The game will unfortunately be very exciting. I still think MSU will win because they are the better team overall and have revenge to motivate them, but Northwestern is better than I originally thought.

How well can the defense contain the Wildcats’ explosive offense? Have they learned anything since chasing Indiana’s spread offense all over the field?

The answer to those questions will go a long way toward determining my guesses on the rest of this list.

Ohio State -- 40% chance of W (originally 30%)

The return of Beanie Wells, the take down of Wisconsin while playing on the road, and the rise of Terrelle Pryor all argue for putting this game back to a more modest 30 percent chance of victory for Michigan State.

But Pryor is still a true freshman, and I see him mix youngster mistakes along with his fantastic talent. He isn’t Vince Young quite yet, and even Vince Young wasn’t Vince Young at this stage of his life. In between racking up some fine highlight reel material, I think this guy has a strong chance of costing his team one game that they otherwise wouldn’t normally lose. Can that be Michigan State?

This remains one of the most likely defeats remaining on the Spartans’ schedule. But getting the Buckeyes at home, and given an MSU defense that has shown some big moments this year, they have a fighting chance.

@Michigan -- toss up (originally toss-up)

The renovations to Michigan Stadium are being done so that the Wolverines can take advantage of the state government’s recently enacted film tax credits.

At first, we thought this studio only did comedy, after the laugh-out-loud funny productions of Utah and Notre Dame. But then they changed up and gave us the compelling thriller, Wisconsin, and then went back to the belly laughs with Illinois.

So versatile! Hollywood has nothing on these guys.

I refuse to guess which script Michigan State will see.

Wisconsin -- toss-up (originally 45%)

It’s at home and I’m really starting to like how the Spartan offense lines up with Wisconsin’s defense. Wisconsin’s probably the better team, but not by as much as I originally thought.

Purdue -- 70% chance of W (originally 65%)

Even the comedy version of Michigan might be able to beat these guys with a stunning fourth quarter rally.

Michigan State will face them in Javon Ringer’s final game at Spartan Stadium. I think he'll be ready.

@Penn State -- 30% chance of W (originally same)

I am not looking forward to being the only thing standing in the way of Penn State getting an unbeaten season. I am somewhat seriously thinking of making contingency plans for the second half of this game so that I have a plausible reason for averting my eyes from the carnage.