Mark Dantonio

Year	School	Record	Bowl
2004	Cincinnati	7-5	Ft. Worth
2005	Cincinnati	4-7
2006	Cincinnati	7-5	International
2007	Michigan State	7-6	Champs
Career		25-23	.521
	Michigan State	7-6	.538

2008 SCHEDULE

Date	Opponent	Location	2008 CHS Prediction
8/30/08	at California	Berkeley, CA	L
9/06/08	Eastern Michigan	East Lansing, MI	W
9/13/08	Florida Atlantic	East Lansing, MI	W
9/20/08	Notre Dame	East Lansing, MI	W
9/27/08	at Indiana	Bloomington, IN	W
10/04/08	Iowa	East Lansing, MI	W
10/11/08	at Northwestern	Evanston, IL	W
10/18/08	Ohio State	East Lansing, MI	L
10/25/08	at Michigan	Ann Arbor, MI	W
11/01/08	Wisconsin	East Lansing, MI	W
11/08/08	Purdue	East Lansing, MI	W
11/22/08	at Penn State	State College, PA	L

	Coaches Hot Seat Prediction		9-3

Coaches Hot Seat Analysis

When one takes a look at Mark Dantonio's career the most interesting things are that Dantonio worked for Jim Tressel at Youngstown State & Ohio State and for Nick Saban as an assistant at Michigan State. When you have worked for guys like Tressel and Saban, it is no wonder that so many people in the game of college football that think so highly of Dantonio. Also, we note that Dantonio was the defensive coordinator for Tressel at Ohio State for three years, including during the 2002 Buckeyes National Title season. One thing that immediately jumped out at us when we watched Dantonio's teams at Cincinnati and Michigan State is how disciplined and physical his players were, and how much of an impact Dantonio had on those two teams in a very short amount of time. Michigan State has a very rich football history, but the Spartans have labored in the shadow of Michigan and Ohio State for the past couple of decades and Dantonio's immediate task is to put the Spartans on at least and even footing with other teams in their conference. Although Michigan State only went 3-5 in the Big Ten in '07, they played Wisconsin, Ohio State, Iowa, and Michigan very tough, and the Spartans beat Penn State. Indiana, and Purdue. The low point of the season was the home loss to Northwestern, but Michigan State was a better team at the end of the '07 season than they were at the start, and that is one of the marks of a well-coached football team. The long-term question for Dantonio at Michigan State is if he can move the Spartans into the top group of teams in the Big Ten, but as we have discussed before here at Coaches Hot Seat, with Zook at Illinois, Bielema at Wisconsin, Rodriguez at Michigan, and of course Jim Tressel at Ohio State, the Big Ten is only getting tougher. In our opinion, if Dantonio stays at Michigan State for 10 years a very successful stint in East Lansing would include a couple of Big Ten championships, a .500 record against Michigan, and a trip to the post-season each year. Can Mark Dantonio achieve those goals? We believe he can, and if he can somehow get a leg-up on Michigan during their current coaching shake-up, he might have an opportunity to do even more.

Coaches Hot Seat Bottom Line

We predict that Mark Dantonio and Michigan State will have an 9-3 record in 2008. We see 2008 as a break-out year for Dantonio and Michigan State as they take advantage of a fairly week non-conference slate and a favorable Big Ten schedule. The opening game of 2008 for Michigan State is almost a no-lose situation for the Spartans as they travel to Berkeley to play the Cal Bears. No one really expects Michigan State to beat Cal on the road to open the year, but they have enough talent to keep this game close, and we would not be surprised if they won this game. In a close game, we see Cal getting the win, but this opening game will pay dividends down the road when Michigan State gets to Notre Dame and the Big Ten schedule. The Spartans return home to play Eastern Michigan in week 2, and that will be a win to run their record to 1-1. Howard Schnellenberger and Florida Atlantic come calling in week 3, and the Spartans have way to much talent to lose this game. Michigan State is now 2-1. Week 4 brings the Fighting Irish to East Lansing and this should be a fascinating game to judge how far both Michigan State and Notre Dame have improved over '07. We see a very close game with Michigan State getting the win over the Irish, which takes their record to 3-1. Next up is a trip to play an improving, but rebuilding Indiana team on the road and we see the Spartans getting the win in another close game. After 5 games, Michigan State is 4-1. The Big Ten schedule continues with Iowa coming to East Lansing in week 6, and this will be a game that the Hawkeyes and Kirk Ferentz will really need to win. Michigan State should be able to handle Iowa, and that would run their record to 5-1. Northwestern is up next, and Michigan State will no doubt want to avenge the dreadful loss to the Wildcats in '07, and we see the Spartans getting a win here as well. 6-1 after seven games. In week 8 Dantonio's old boss Jim Tressel brings the loaded Buckeyes to East Lansing and Ohio State will probably be on the way to another big regular season. Jim Tressel is not one to run up the score on opposing teams so this will probably be a 10 to 14 point game, with the Buckeyes getting the win. After 8 games, Michigan State is 6-2. The next game against Michigan is a tough one to pick, because it is impossible to guess how well the Wolverines will be playing 9 weeks into the season. We think that by this point in the season Michigan will be much improved over the first couple of games, but in a very close game, Michigan State gets the win in the Big House. MSU is 7-2. Dantonio and the Spartans will have to avoid a letdown after the win over Michigan, because Wisconsin arrives in East Lansing in week 10 with a lot of talent and a very good head football coach in Bielema. In what should be a great game, we see MSU finding a way to get the win, which takes the Michigan State record to 8-2. Purdue is up next in East Lansing, and this is one of the games on the Big Ten schedule where MSU will have more talent than their opponent. A win over Purdue takes MSU's record to 9-2. The season ends on the road in Happy Valley against Penn State and in what might be Paterno's last regular season game, and the Nittany Lion fans will probably be at full throttle. This could be a spot where no team could beat Penn State, so we see MSU losing to JoePa, which takes their final regular season record to 9-3.

9-3 would be a great improvement over the 7-6 record that Dantonio posted in 2007 at Michigan State, but winning a lot of games is probably going to be the norm in East Lansing as long as Mark Dantonio is around. The Big Ten is getting tougher everyday, but Dantonio has an opportunity to move the Spartans forward in the next couple of years before Rodriguez gets the Wolverines moving and back onto the national stage, and that is an opportunity that he must seize.

2008 Coaches Hot Seat Prediction: 9-3

Will Mark Dantonio be back for the 2009 season? YES