The New Same Old Michigan State Spartans

“The team will play better when the coach gets players that understand his way of doing things."

This now famous refrain of the Michigan football fan since last December has morphed from the "objective hope" of wanting Christmas Day to come into the "anxious hope" that comes with wanting and praying for the end of April 15th (or Friday the 13th?).

More remarkable than the spectacular ruination of this optimism for fans of the Wolverines is that the most appropriate application of this hope was never Michigan football to begin with. Since before that December day when the Wolverines hired Rich Rodriguez, and even more so right now, it is a better description of Michigan State and Mark Dantonio.

Two years ago next month, the Spartans were on their way to being a demoralized 4-8 football team with a fired head coach and an uncertain future that likely didn't include a postseason anytime soon. But one year later—one year ago—they had become a 7-5 team headed to a bowl game and had lost no game by more than a touchdown.

Using whatever new recruits were willing to take a chance on a reclamation project, and motivating what remained of the guys that had won just four times the year before, Mark Dantonio and his staff had whipped somebody else's players, used to somebody else's system, into his team—winners—in just 12 months.

Best of all, they were getting noticeably better as time went on, with their comeback win as underdogs against Penn State to end the regular season arguably being their most impressive performance of the year.

At this point, Spartan fans were justified in upgrading their expectations. It was reasonable to conclude that the 2008 season could step up a notch from there.

With full confidence that Michigan State had a real winner of a coach, my version of boundless optimism this spring was to predict an 8-4 season with a fourth-place finish in the Big Ten, noting that a "better team than last year is playing a much tougher schedule."

In that prediction linked above, I expected the four defeats to be against Cal, Ohio State, Wisconsin, and Penn State. But halfway through those projected failures, and for the second season in a row, I am again forced to set aside more reasonable pessimism and mutter in amazement that the "team will play better when the coach gets players that understand his way of doing things."

Wondering how many more pleasant surprises are in store for a Spartan team that is punching above its weight is turning into a regular holiday tradition. You could almost start referring to it as the "Same Old Spartans."

With perhaps only one exception—Northwestern last season—these new "Same Old Spartans" have won every game that they should have been expected to win. Last year, against Wisconsin, Michigan, and maybe on the road at Iowa, they found ways to lose winnable games against teams that were their equal or better.

This year, they have evolved another step, finding ways to beat teams that outplay them—even potentially better teams—such as Iowa and now Wisconsin.

Two games remain, and a New Year's Day bowl game may have already been locked up. It's November, and they still control their own destiny for the Big Ten title and a trip to Pasadena. Even if they don't win another game, they've already passed all the tests put in their path at the beginning of the year.

To get an idea of how outsized this group is playing, get a look at the BCS rankings, which say that they are the No. 18-ranked team in the land. Then compare this to their rankings for everything else.

66th for total offense: Eighth in the Big Ten.

60th for total defense: Seventh in the Big Ten.

50th for scoring offense: Fourth in the Big Ten.

37th for scoring defense: Sixth in the Big Ten.

Etc.... In just about every statistical category, they are not a top 25 team, and often not a top 50 team—except one: They find a way to get wins, even against teams that are statistically superior.

Brian Hoyer, foolishly maligned by some ignorant media and fans earlier this year, is one reason why. He has thrown just four interceptions all season—roughly on par with where he was last year.

His oft-cited low completion percentage has been mostly a combination of avoiding those interceptions and having many good throws mishandled by his receivers (a problem still much in evidence during the Wisconsin game.)

The Spartans win because they have a smart quarterback who minimizes their mistakes and keeps them in the game. This is to his credit as a player, but it is also great coaching.

Remember last season, when Devin Thomas, who had been virtually ignored under the previous offensive system, came out of nowhere and became Michigan State's most dangerous weapon at receiver? This season, that role has been taken over by former walk-on Blair White.

I'm not sure which evolution is the most impressive—and we still have another season to watch White get even better—but in either case, there's a coaching staff that gets to share credit with some hard-working players.

Of course, you cannot leave out the contribution of Javon Ringer. But even with him, the Spartan rush offense is ranked just 60th in the nation and eighth in the Big Ten. When Ringer is gone and no longer carrying the load all on himself, it's possible that those who remain and those yet to arrive could step it up a notch and even make things better.

Iowa, behind the bruising running of Shonn Greene, now has the nation's 26th-best rush offense. Greene, a junior, is Iowa's version of Devin Thomas or Blair White. No season with more than 200 yards before this one, and suddenly he is into November with more than 1,200 yards, ranked third in the nation, and running people over every time you watch him.

For Michigan State, similar stories exist at other positions, such as the defensive secondary, but in every case what is going on is still a work in progress. Most of the college experience for most of Michigan State's team is under a different set of coaches.

It's too bad this year's seniors can't hang around and make up that lost time, because the Same Old Spartans will probably be playing much better after the coach gets players that understand his way of doing things...