Dantonio On Rivalry: 'Things Happen Over The Course Of Time That Just Begin To Set You On Edge'

By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak

CBS DETROIT - If the emotions of the Michigan-Michigan State rivalry have dulled at all because the Spartans have turned the tables on the Wolverines in recent years, one would not know it by listening to Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio.

"This is still the most important game on the schedule for me personally and for our program," Dantonio said in his weekly press conference. "When you compete day in and day out with them, and that's what we do on recruits and day in and day out for fans, for everything ... that still is a game that we have to point to and say, 'Hey, this goes beyond our schedule, this goes beyond the future, this goes beyond what we're doing right now.' It's just the way it is."

Dantonio has 5-2 record against Michigan, and his .714 winning percentage in games against the Wolverines is the best of any coach in the history of the Michigan State program. Dantonio said he will never call the Michigan game just another game because that would not be truthful.

"Ever since I've come here, I think [this game] always has a tendency to ground you a little bit, first of all as a person, because you're involved in this and it's a great rivalry, and but also to establish your credibility as you move forward," Dantonio said. "To me, there's the football season, and then there are these type of games.

"It was 1995 when I came here, and that's when I first got a taste of it," Dantonio added. "It was embraced at that time because of the past. I've said all along here, I didn't make these rules. I'm just playing by them ... It gets in your blood ... There are just things that happen, things happen over the course of time that just begin to set you on edge, I guess."

Dantonio said the dominance of the Spartans in recent years - though he would not use that term even to characterize last season's one-sided victory - does not diminish the meaning of the game for Michigan State.

"Not for me, not for our players, and I'm sure not for them," Dantonio said. "I think it's the same ... I don't feel any lack of luster."

Dantonio has also coached at Ohio State, another rival of Michigan, so his competitiveness against the Wolverines runs deep - and so does that of his family.

"It's a little different," Dantonio said. "I remember when my daughter was in second grade, we were at Ohio State then, but she wrote a little story ... that if you wore blue and gold, you went to jail for a week, so it's a little bit different, yeah. They remind me."

Players echoed Dantonio's feelings about playing the Wolverines.

"The hits are always bigger, the plays are always bigger, there's pushing and shoving after the whistle," quarterback Connor Cook said. "The energy is always that much more.

"You've got all the coaches flying around, the coaches are moving faster, the players are moving faster, the scout team's energy is up a little bit," Cook continued. "Everything is just moving faster, everything's done with more intensity, with meetings, probably there's more intensity in the meetings, I don't know how you can do that, but there's just - everyone is a little bit more on edge."

Linebacker Taiwan Jones said the Spartans take the rivalry personally because for so long Michigan State has been an underdog - though the Spartans are favored by 15 points by Vegas Insider in Saturday's game - and because in the state the emphasis always seems to be on Michigan.

Cook referenced the infamous comments made by Wolverines running back Mike Hart in 2007, when Hart called Michigan State the "little brother" to Michigan.

"After Mike Hart made that comment and kind of upset Coach D and kind of upset everyone here, and [Dantonio] said to us that things were going to change, that we're going to come back and we're going to - the tides are going to turn and there's going to be a power shift," Cook said, "and we've done that through the years."