Mark Dantonio
Mark Dantonio
Mark Justin Dantoniois an American football coach and former player. He is the current head football coach at Michigan State University, a position he has held since the 2007 season, presiding over one of the most successful eras in the program's history. He's led the Michigan State Spartans to three Big Ten Conference championships, and seven victories over archrival Michigan in eight years. In 2013, he coached Michigan State to its first 13-win season and the program's fifth trip to...
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth9 March 1956
CityEl Paso, TX
Chet did a nice job. He had a couple of real nice punts. He'll go into this game as the punter. But we're always going to hold people to a standard as we move through this.
I'm sure they do. We're working. We know where we're at.
I asked him about that. They wanted to make the commitment to play one or the other. I brought up the basketball issue, but there was no interest in doing that. Right now, from an academic point of view, he needs to concentrate on one sport.
He plays consistently. We've got to get all of our football team playing like that.
It's not just another game, it's a huge game on our schedule. We'll measure our success as a football team against that game, and we always will.
It's an extremely great class for us. This year's class builds on our previous two and has established a foundation for us to build championships.
They look like a team that can play with just about anybody.
They'll have that roar. It gets loud. There will be times when you can't hear. We need to be able to play under those conditions. They're going to have to experience it. We'll put music on (during practice) and play it loud so they can't hear each other, but it's still different.
They remind me of our Ohio State defense in 2002. Teams are not going to score on them. They don't give up big plays. They pressure the ball and force turnovers.
They controlled the line of scrimmage up front. Usually when you're able to do that, you're able to win the football game. It was difficult to run the football.
The difference in this game was we got no pressure on their quarterback and they got pressure on Dustin. Those were the two biggest factors. Louisville has a great front line and there was somebody in his face all day.
I think the defense had a little bit to do with that. When the ball got out in space, they got there quick.
It was as tough an experience as I've had in coaching. It was one that we will remember.
I'm not going to walk out of here with my head down. I'm not looking for moral victories. I'm just looking for guys who will play with toughness and will compete and I think we did that. Maybe (Penn State) thought we were going to go in the bag, but I was going to keep playing.