This week I’ve watched some of the football recaps and commentaries on BTN regarding a dark night in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. I get the feeling that the BTN crew is as mystified by MSU’s strange, volatile, and often flat-footed night in Minneapolis as our fans and the coaching staff were. Then there was that rather full moon overhead, with a thousand ghouls in the bleachers, and suddenly Spartans everywhere are wondering if next year we can possibly get stabilized at the top of the Big Ten. However, the dark side of things is always a slippery slope, so I’m going to try to look up a bit toward Izzo and hoops, as well as the future of the Dantonio era. And, there’s some very good early-season success on the hockey rink too with a 6-2-0 record and respectable ranking, so I actually do find myself breathing easier again.
Getting back to the grid-iron front, I’ve looked back at our recent trend in recruiting and saw that the Spartan class of 2010 is looking balanced and could still collect as much talent as the 2009 class. This means, building on the change of culture over the past three years, the future really could be very bright. Nonetheless, it’s apparent that we need to pick up some receivers and will continue to look for a four-star running back. I’m really happy with the class and its balance at this point and am confident we’ll have another top-25 class by early 2010. Still, I’m not so pie-in-the-sky that I’d suggest we’re where we need to be on pass defense. "Ouch!" for the season. That’s got to get fixed and fast, just like our first-and-goal "offense." Double ouch!
On the hoops side of things, of course, we’ve had some injuries and flu, but nothing to take any of our richly talented guys out for long. Naturally, I’m getting ready to flip my Spartans switch over to the Brez’ by Thanksgiving. As with last year, even in an increasingly talented Big Ten, this looks like a very promising season filled with tough, but beatable, competition. It should be a gas to watch.
Finally, on the recruiting front Izzo and staff have taken it to Calipari and Kentucky twice in a week and we’re off to the start of a great 2011 with Bandan Kearney committed to MSU. And, Adreian Payne’s commitment last week should put us in the top five nationally for 2010. So, I’m pulling out my Sparty cap for the gym again and thinking we’ll survive 10/31/09. I’m expecting the Spartans will look like they've come out of the stupor too on Saturday versus WMU and then get ready for a very, very volatile Purdue.
OK, after the darkness, is anyone else starting to catch a silver lining in the big picture here?






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