Cover Story: Meet Mark Dantonio, New Football Coach
MSU has given Mark Dantonio a place on which to stand. Can he move the earth? Spartan Nation is abuzz with excitement.
On the day Mark Dantonio was officially named new MSU head football coach, an instant tsunami of approval from alumni, fans, media and football experts seemed to spread across Michigan and beyond.
The comments bouncing across airwaves and Internet message boards were uniformly positive—a rare phenomenon for MSU football in recent years.
Credit President Lou Anna K. Simon for successfully conducting a model, inclusive search. Simon had to navigate adroitly around a number of timelines, schedules, protocols and hiring issues and processes, in a timely manner to satisfy alumni, trustees, donors, fans, players and recruiting timetables. She and her core team, which included basketball coach Tom Izzo, athletics director Ron Mason, senior associate athletics director Mark Hollis, and former player Lt. Alan Haller of MSU Police, worked quietly but efficiently, effectively and ethically. The final choice not only met her announced criteria but also secured unanimous support from MSU trustees.
In Dantonio, MSU has landed a coach who solidly meets every major selection criteria—and then some. He even boasts a surname that ends in O, a criterion Izzo had inserted in jest. Dantonio--like “paisans” Izzo and Palombo (as in Joanne P. McCallie)—has produced success at the highest level of competition, boasts a terrific football pedigree, has BCS conference head coaching experience, knows MSU’s recruiting territory intimately, knows the university, and perhaps most importantly, truly wants to be at Michigan State, his “dream job.”
Don’t think this last point is a minor one. When Dantonio appeared on Izzo’s radio show a couple of days after his naming and when his daughters Kristen and Lauren sang the MSU Fight Song on air, it electrified many listeners who were longing for a Spartan to lead the football program. While Mark did not graduate from MSU (he has degrees from South Carolina and Ohio University), his heart lies at MSU. He spent six years as Nick Saban’s defensive backfield coach and Bobby Williams’ associate head coach from 1995-2000. East Lansing is where his children essentially grew up, where the family made some great friendships, and where they consider home. As he puts it, “This is our final destination.”
“We still lay on Spartan blankets at home,” he noted at his introductory press conference at the Duffy Daugherty Building auditorium. “We have a lot of things from Michigan State that are really just cherished as part of our past.”
While at Cincinnati, he recounts, Mark and wife Becky had decided that MSU was one of only two Big Ten jobs for which they’d leave Cincinnati.
His words leave no doubt they come from someone who bleeds green.
“It’s tremendous to be a Spartan,” he said. “To me, I know the phrase ‘boldness by design’ exists here right now. I can tell you as a Spartan, whenever I walked into any school in America . . . I walked in with boldness because I knew I represented something that was very special. I knew I represented something that had history behind it, had tradition behind it, had championships behind it, a place that was nationally known for its athletics. . . . I’m so proud to be here today, to represent Michigan State University in this capacity.”
In December, Dantonio made a brief appearance at Breslin Center during the halftime of the Chicago State game. To thundering applause, he quickly announced his three goals—to graduate players, to have players become productive members of society, and to win championships. He also deftly had the crowd circle Nov. 3—the date of the Michigan game.
Dantonio’s credentials go way, way beyond simply deeming East Lansing as his dream destination. Dantonio, 50, boasts an impressive pedigree, counting Nick Saban, Jim Tressel and Earl Bruce—all championship caliber coaches—among his key mentors. He has 27 years of experience as football coach, the last three as head coach at Cincinnati, where he led the Bearcats to two bowls and where he significantly improved a program as it made a transition from “mid-major” Conference USA to the Bowl Championship Series’ Big East Conference.
Dantonio’s three-year record of 18-17 at Cincinnati is deceptive, argues Jim Comparoni, editor and publisher of Spartan Magazine. Cincinnati, notes Comparoni, had to compete in a major-conference environment with mid-major resources. He adds that Cincinnati gained significant credibility by beating No. 7-ranked Rutgers, a previously unbeaten team. Cincinnati played the second-toughest schedule in the country and four of its losses this season were on the road against Top Ten teams—West Virginia, Louisville, Ohio State and Virginia Tech.
“I don’t think there are 20 teams that could have beaten one of those teams on the road,” notes Comparoni. “Cincinnati was playing its best football in the last half of the season, winning four of its last five.”
Before Cincinnati, Dantonio was defensive coordinator at Ohio State and helped the Buckeyes win the 2002 national championship. Dantonio does not usually wear his championship ring, but he did show it off at this introductory MSU press conference to symbolize what can be achieved when one has the will along with resources.
Dantonio is best known for his defensive expertise. Those who remember OSU’s win over Miami in the championship game might recall the stinginess of Dantonio’s defense, and it made a difference. Five years under the tutelage of defensive guru Nick Saban, now head coach of the Miami Dolphins, clearly has helped hone his defensive understanding. In 1999, Dantonio played a key role in MSU’s 10-2 season—during which the Spartans beat Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State, and Penn State, and then Florida in the Citrus Bowl. MSU led the Big Ten in total defense that year. In a previous stint, when Dantonio worked as defensive coordinator for Tressel at Youngstown State, he played a key role in an 11-0 season enroute to a national championship.
Spartan Magazinecredits Dantonio for helping design the 2000 MSU defense that shackled Purdue quarterback Drew Brees and ended the Boilermakers’ Rose Bowl hopes as MSU won 30-10.
As President Simon put it, “He’s been places that have achieved the objectives that Michigan State University hopes to achieve. . . And at every place, he’s been one of the people who has been the most respected in a coaching staff.”
That point was echoed by Tressel when he said, “We’re looking forward to competing against him, but the neighborhood just got a little tougher.”
Dantonio has a reputation for being a great teacher and role model for young student-athletes. During his tenure at Ohio State, for example, 6 of his defenders made First Team All-Big Ten while 13 were NFL draft picks, 2 in the first round. At MSU, he tutored three defenders who earned All-American honors and six defenders who were drafted by the NFL.
Perhaps even more important, Dantonio is known for his ability to recruit. Some analysts believe recruiting is the key to college football success.
“We wanted someone who had successful networks around the country and who had built them in a way that people really did respect him and we could call on those networks in order to help assure the success of Spartan football,” explains Simon on announcement day.
Dantonio’s “network” spans Michigan and Ohio, the two most critical recruiting areas for MSU. He is a native of Zanesville, and after playing at South Carolina, he coached at Youngstown State, Ohio State and Cincinnati—three programs located in the major geographical regions of the talent-rich state. Besides Ohio and Michigan, he has also personally recruited Chicago, Florida, Texas, California and various parts of the East Coast. While at MSU, for example, he helped land talented players like Desmond Thomas, Plaxico Burress and Sorie Kanu from the Chesapeake Bay area.
Dantonio’s familiarity with MSU’s recruiting base is a huge asset. To paraphrase MSU quarterback Drew Stanton, Dantonio will not need a road map to get to Grand Rapids. Saban has described him as “one of the top recruiters on (our MSU) staff.” And Spartan Magazine reports that Dantonio has a “ready-made recruiting train” for the Great Lakes region.
Indeed, after Dantonio hired seven assistants—all from his Cincinnati staff, a testament to his strong desire for program continuity—he promptly deployed them in a recruiting drive across Michigan, Ohio, New Jersey, Atlanta, and Tallahassee, FL, after a quick meeting on an airfield. “We’ve been around,” he told media on his first press gathering since his introduction as coach. And recruiting “verbals” began to pop up on message boards.
He has since completed his staff by hiring an 8th assistant from Cincinnati, defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi, and by retaining quarterback coach Dan Enos from the John L. Smith staff. Enos was a former MSU quarterback who previously coached under Dantonio at Cincinnati. Enos will coach running backs under Dantonio.
“With continuity, you can keep the system in place, keep the teaching progression the same,” explains Dantonio. “They know how we do things, the vocabulary, the terminology, the way we manage people, etc.”
It’s easier to sell something you believe in, and Dantonio believes MSU is easy to sell. “Some guys we couldn’t get a sniff on,” he notes, “But now you got on this shirt . . . (He points to the Spartan emblem) and they’re returning your calls.”
Dantonio’s familiarity with MSU is also an important asset. Knowing the landscape will help him not make mistakes spending time on some things rather than more important things required for program success. Knowing how things work at MSU will save time and effort.
Dantonio’s football philosophy will have a familiar ring to longtime fans of MSU football. Echoing the philosophy of former coach George Perles, now an MSU trustee, Dantonio says he believes in “toughness” above other measurables such as “speed” or “strength.”
“I want a football team based on toughness,” he says. “That’s what I want. That’s what we’re gonna do.”
He notes that toughness is both mental and physical, and toughness is a time-honored Spartan tradition harking back to Saban, Perles, and even Duffy Daugherty. Indeed, “smashmouth” football is a time-honored concept in the Big Ten, where the best teams have historically excelled at establishing the run on offense and stopping the run on defense. In the Big Ten, experts have noted, trick plays tend to be favored by the also-rans.
“The key to our offense is to be multi-dimensional,” says Dantonio, who notes that in his first year at Cincinnati he had a quarterback who passed for 2,600 yards and 24 touchdowns, as well as a tailback who rushed for 1,000 yards and a wide receiver who caught for 1,000 yards. “I want to be able to walk up to a tailback and say, ‘Hey you could be a 1,000-yard rusher here,’ because we are going to run the football. I also want to be able to say to a wide receiver or a quarterback, ‘Hey, you are going to throw for 300 yards a game.’
“I want everyone to know, ‘If you come here, we can feature you if you’re a good enough player.’”
Dantonio says offensive linemen will have to learn how to pass protect and run block. “I don’t want an offense that just runs the zone play,” he says. “I want to run power football, I want to be able to get that yard when we need a tough yard yard.”
Dantonio wants to re-establish the fullback position, which Smith had eliminated in his spread offense. “We will have a fullback on this team,” he avows. “We need to run some gap plays, some power plays.”
Don Treadwell, who previously coached at MSU and helped develop wide receiver Charles Rogers, will run Dantonio’s offense. Treadwell has excelled as offensive coordinator at four schools, including Youngstown State, where he won a national title, Boston College and Ball State. “He brings tremendous patience and stability,” says Dantonio. “He does a great job of listening. He’s right on time with a play. You never see us with a game delay penalty. He gets plays in quickly, and that’s half the battle.”
On defense, Dantonio believes in zone pressures. “This is the age of zone pressures, so we’ll zone pressure a lot,” he notes. “We will also feature a lot of man-pressures.”
Allowing that his defensive formation will be somewhat dictated by personnel, he likes to use a “base, 4-3 front.” Others have described his defense at Cincinnati as an attacking defense. He touts defensive coordinator Narduzzi as “young, energetic and very passionate.”
Dantonio intends to let his coordinators run the show. While he will help determine the game plan, he does not like to change things in the middle of a series. “I want to empower our coaches and give them ownership,” he explains. “When you have ownership . . . you look for ways to succeed. You take it personal, and because of that, you attack things more passionately. Like everything in life, if you’re passionate, you’re more likely to succeed.”
When asked how he would upgrade MSU’s overall team speed, Dantonio says, “You have to recruit to that, and there’s a certain level of speed you can increase. When you know what you’re doing, you have the ability to play faster. But more than speed, you need explosiveness.”
Dantonio is very mindful of MSU’s storied history and tradition—one that includes seven national championships since 1950—and wants to bring that to the forefront again.
“I want to embrace MSU football’s past,” he says. “That’s very important to me. We’ll have an honorary captain for every game, and it’ll be an ex-Spartan player.”
At his introductory press conference, MSU Trustee Joel Ferguson, vice chair of the board, emphasized that Dantonio was everyone’s first choice and not a “compromise” candidate.
“Mark Dantonio is absolutely the best fit for Michigan State University,” he said. “He was a unanimous choice by this board not because anyone else had flaws, because the other candidates were excellent also. He just happened to be the best.”
Izzo believes Dantonio will succeed so long as all Spartans unite to support him:
“He’s got pedigree and great character. If you have those two things with a great work ethic, everything else kind of falls in place as long as we’re all with him.”
Dantonio’s favorite metaphor is a quote from Greek mathematician and philosopher Archimedes, who said, “Give me a place to stand on and I can move the earth.” The more Spartans unite behind Dantonio, the more solid the platform. And the more solid the platform, the more likely he will be able to move, if not the earth, at least the MSU football program.
ASSISTANT COACHES
Harlon Barnett Secondary
Dan Enos Running backs
Ted Gill Defensive line
Pat Narduzzi Defensive coordinator
Dan Roushar Offensive line
Mark Staten Tight ends/tackles, recruiting coordinator
Don Treadwell Offensive coordinator
Mike Tressel Linebackers/special teams
Dave Warner Quarterbacks