Analysis: Shedding 'Same Old Spartans' tag is goal

EAST LANSING - You have to handle failure, handle success, ward off letdowns, be competitive every week, stay away from personal-foul penalties, hold on to leads late in games, and by all means, avoid those late-season collapses.

If you're a Michigan State Spartan, there's a long list of things that can get you tagged as a "Same Old Spartan." It would seem, through 22 games under Mark Dantonio, that most of the items on the list have been crossed off.

But even on Sunday, the day after an emotional 35-21 win at rival Michigan, sitting there with a surprising team that's 7-2 overall and 4-1 in the Big Ten, Dantonio said: "We're working to change a culture here."

From this perspective, comparing the culture of MSU football now with MSU football 22 games ago is like comparing modern America with medieval France. Saturday's home game with Wisconsin, though, will serve as one more test of whether the Spartans champion democracy, have electricity and use deodorant.

A win over Michigan is something MSU hasn't had to recover from in six years. The Spartans are 1-4 after their past five victories over the Wolverines - which has nothing to do with the 2008 team's ability to block and tackle the talented-but-disappointing Badgers (4-4, 1-4), but will be part of the story anyway.

Weekly preparation is where motivation, be it lacking or overflowing, shows up. The Spartans have to shrug off post-Michigan elation and all the people lauding them - a week after shedding the pain of a 45-7 loss to Ohio State so they could get ready for Michigan.

"We need to play inspired football," Dantonio said Tuesday. "We're not to the point where we can just throw our hats out there."

That's the thing to remember. The Spartans are making the most of their material this season, and the Badgers are not. But Wisconsin was a preseason top-10 team that lost 20-17 at home to Ohio State on a late comeback.

Player for player, the Badgers are probably more talented than the Spartans. A Wisconsin win on Saturday would not be a shock to anyone who has watched both teams play.

History lesson

For the record, MSU followed wins over U-M in 1978, 1984 and 1987 with victories.

In 1990, the Spartans' last win in Ann Arbor before Saturday, MSU traveled the next week to play a top-notch Illinois team. The Illini won 15-13 on a late field goal, and those two along with U-M and Iowa ended up in a four-way tie for the Big Ten title.

So that one's understandable. In 1993, MSU beat U-M 17-7 in Spartan Stadium, then got a shot at No. 5 Ohio State in Ohio Stadium. The Buckeyes won 28-21 thanks in part to four missed field goals from MSU's Bill Stoyanovich.

Can't quibble with that too much. In 1995, MSU followed a 28-25 win over U-M with a 31-13 rout of Indiana.

The last great MSU season, 1999, does provide a lesson. After beating the Wolverines 34-31, the Spartans were 6-0, ranked in the top 10 and openly talking about getting to the BCS title game.

Drew Brees and Purdue ended that talk with a 52-28 whipping. Ron Dayne and Wisconsin trashed MSU 40-10 the next week. Both were good teams with great players - but it was still an inexplicable swoon for an MSU team that finished 10-2.

In 2001, MSU followed up its 26-24 comeback over Michigan with a 37-28 home loss to Indiana. A letdown? Sure. But Antwaan Randle El was awfully good.

The Badgers can be very good, too, especially when new quarterback Dustin Sherer plays the way he did in last week's 27-17 win over Illinois.

If Wisconsin gets this win, it might simply be a case of one evenly matched opponent making more plays than the other. That doesn't mean the Spartans will be immune from calls of "SOS."

"We can't have a letdown because all of our goals are intact," MSU senior quarterback Brian Hoyer said. "We still can attain a Big Ten championship. ... I think we're mature enough to handle (this)."

Fair or not, this is yet another "perception" game for MSU. As Dantonio clarified Tuesday, much of the remaining culture-changing work will come outside the locker-room borders.

"We're trying to establish ourselves," Dantonio said, "and obviously we haven't quite established our respect in that area."