Summer Ponderings

Summer is great, don't get me wrong. I love the weather, the baseball, grilling and the lake. The 4th of July rivals any holiday in my book. Seasonal beers? Off the charts.

But for college sports fans (other than baseball) it is a real downtime. The only real exception is reserved for recruiting nerds. Freaks that follow star ratings and the personal lives of otherwise normal 15, 16, and 17 year old boys love this time of year. I can't get into it.

I will say this about recruiting: I like Dantonio's straight forward approach and analysis of high school talent. Kirk Cousins? He was a throw in. Keshawn Martin? He was a throw in too. MSU has more depth at running back and tight end since the late 90's and more depth at linebacker than ever. Ever.

You can question the character problems that sprung up last year. That is fair. I genuinely believe that the second chance (that back fired) given to one player was not based on team needs. I think it was 100% an opportunity to give a hard knock kid what could be his last shot at doing something big. It didn't work. That cancer is gone, at least 2 others are gone, too. The players that stayed are scared to death and were never really problems anyways. Their problem was in following, not instigating.

Finally, Brian Kelly has done an excellent job at every stop. He can certainly "coach kids up." However, I have to believe a good part of the success at Cinci was the talent level. 2010 was certainly the most talent Kelly's ever had. Nine (9) Dantonio recruits were drafted by NFL teams between 2009 and 2010, including 2 all time Cinci stat leaders and all americans. The points isn't really to focus on Kelly. He can coach. The point is that Dantonio's analysis and recruiting are solid.

Dantonio's recruiting doesn't include a lot of home runs, but a lot of singles and doubles. Singles and doubles take time to add up. Last year was a let down because the cupboard was, for the first time in a while, somewhat stocked. Despite the talent level the team never really met expectations. This year is big.

Although the lines are less experienced they should be more talented overall. The DB's are better and there is more depth. Special teams will be dicey, with punting being a hopeful A+ and place kicking a complete mystery. Cousins is solid and has a good arm with great leadership. The wide receivers will suprise some people and offer A LOT of opportunity to run multiple looks, including 2 legit wildcat QB's, plenty of arms on the perimeter, and end around speed with Martin. I like this team as well as any in the last 10 years from top to bottom.

It comes down to winning close games. The close games went to the green and white in 2008, winning 9 games including 2 of 3 points or less. The close games went to the opponents in 2009, with MSU losing 3 games by 3 points or less and 2 by 8 points. That means that 5 games were in play in the closing minutes. In that context, 6-6 doesn't look quite as bad. Senior leadership should help answer that problem in 2010. The soft schedule won't hurt, either. (7 home, 4 true road, 1 in Detroit, no OSU)