State of chUMps and Spartans Football Programs (From Mlive.com)

From the Comments: Readers discuss the state of the Michigan State and Michigan football programs
Published: Thursday, July 07, 2011, 6:27 PM Updated: Thursday, July 07, 2011, 8:54 PM
By Cory Butzin | The Bay City Times



[PHOTO]
Michigan State's Trenton Robinson tries to pump up fans during a game. The former Bay City Central standout wasn't highly recruited coming out of high school, but has become a big-time playmaker for the Spartans.

BAY CITY — The 2010 season was one to remember for the Michigan State football team.
The Spartans won a school record 11 games, while capturing a share of their first Big Ten championship since 1990 and moving on to a New Year's Day bowl where MSU ran into the Alabama Crimson Tide and 2009 Heisman Trophy winning running back Mark Ingram.
Trenton Robinson was a key cog to the Spartans resurgence.
The Bay City native started at safety for the Spartans and earned second team all-Big Ten honors while tying for the league lead with four interceptions.
Robinson tallied a career-high 69 tackles last year, while finishing second in the Big Ten with 12 passes defended and eight pass break-ups.
The former Bay City Central standout has blossomed into a standout defender for the Spartans, despite not being highly recruited coming out of high school.
Some Spartans fans have expressed worry over the current recruiting success of arch-rival Michigan, while others looked to players like Robinson and Jerel Worthy as examples of the strength of Michigan State’s coaching staff being the determining factor rather than recruiting rankings.
In typical Michigan State/Michigan rivalry fashion, readers have had differing opinions of the state of the two big football programs in the state.
Mlive.com user 18sparty doesn't seem to mind how Michigan State's recruits are ranked, so long as the results on the field stay the same:
"michigan has technically been beating msu in recruiting for 3 or 4 years, dantonio has the eye to catch diamonds in the ruff. greg Jones was a 3 star recruit coming out of high school and he turned into one of the best linebackers in the country. Four and five star recruits would be nice to have but it is nice to beat michigan when they continually say that their recruits are better and its a matter of time before msu looses to them again."
Meanwhile, wolves1997 thinks the Spartans should enjoy any success they can get for it will be brief.

"You Spartan fans are funny. You go 11-1 and get the Rose Bowl taken away by those cheats in Ohio and all you worry about is Michigan... You may win this year or you may not but after this year you may be lucky to win 3 of the next 10. Face it your so called Fat boy is out recruiting MD by a wide margin,,, You do realize how lucky you were in games. ND, Purdue, Wisconsin, Northwestern PSU come to mind. All could have gone against MSU and you guys know it. Funny how Cousins was throttled at Iowa.. Good luck on your season.. If MSU wants to go all the way you better do it this year."

And ATownAndDown thinks Michigan State is legitimate and here to stay, while feeling Michigan has a few things to iron out before fans can critique other programs.

"First I would like to say how rediculious the U of M fans sound on here. You come and troll the MSU articles and message boards and MSU fans are the ones that are worried?

Second, Dantonio has shown over the years he recruits like Izzo. Not necessarily looking for diamonds in the rough but rather recruiting guys that fit his system. Further along these lines, recruiting grades are usually wrong. Guys on high school teams are usually playing in a system or in a position they are not going to excell at in college. TJ Duckett played quarterback in HS. Desmond Morgan (U of M recruit last year) played QB in high school they have him slotted as an ILB. The stories of a guy playing one position in high school and another in college are a dime a dozen. There is a reason why these guys are moved around. So how do you grade a guy that played QB but is going to be a RB or a DB? Also, if you actually believe that rivals, scouts.com or ESPN is sending their people out to watch every recruit play you are mistaken and dillusional. There are hundreds of games in Michigan every friday night in the fall with 50 to 100 guys playing in them all. Do the math on that. Do you think they miss the boat on one here and there?

Finally to the "getting lucky" last season comments. Isnt that a part of football? Getting the ball to bounce your way every now and then. I have to agree with spartyalum about the Wisconsin game. That was one MSU controlled. As for ND and NW, can't it be said that MSU made there own luck in those games. PSU was a let down the strech and MSU hung on to win (thats not really luck but a team having a mental lapse and coasting after controlling for 3 quarters. You can probably argue that good teams can make a mistake like this and still win as MSU did). As far as the Purdue game I don't remember how MSU got lucky in it or rather Cousins picked up the team for a come from behind win. I guess if comeback wins are all luck, Joe Montana had a pretty damn nice career on luck alone.

I guess the overall point is U of M fans go to your own boards and talk about how Brady is going to wave his magic wand and magically change your defense from one of the worst in the nation back into a "Michigan Defense". Maybe you will get "lucky" this year and actually be competitive against the top of the Big 10 and not just beat Indiana and Purdue."


At last count there were 57 comments about the state of football between Michigan and Michigan State.

What are your thoughts?