Another Great Aticle about the Rise of The Spartan Nation

Written by By Tim Hyland, About.com Guide to College Football I have been saying for more than a year now that Mark Dantonio might be the coach to finally get Michigan State over the top. And the guy just keeps giving me more reasons to believe. Dantonio, a former assistant under Ohio State's Jim Tressel, arrived in East Lansing in late 2006 after a strong three-year run at Cincinnati, where he posted an impressive 18-17 record. Upon settling in at State, he immediately got to work rebuilding the image of a program that, for years, had been known mostly as unpredictable, undisciplined and underachieving. His first season, as one might have expected, was an up-and-down affair: The Spartans ended up 7-6. It should be noted, though, that Dantonio's squad played Ohio State, Michigan, Wisconsin and Boston College very close and could have won any of those games with a break here or there. At the very least, it was clear the coach had the Spartans playing better, smarter football than they had played in years. Now Dantonio is hoping to continue his success while on the recruiting trail. And he's using the same method that his mentor, Tressel, used to build Ohio State into a national powerhouse: He's focusing on in-state talent. As the Detroit Free Press notes, Michigan State has ........