Winning the Rose Bowl will change the way in which a program is perceived. It can certainly give a head coach the freedom to speak boldly about his team and announce to the world that the past no longer matters.
Michigan State was an “almost-but-not-quite” program for a long time. However, a Big Ten championship and a Rose Bowl conquest of Stanford have stripped away the “second-class citizen” label from the Spartans. Their coach, Mark Dantonio, is speaking with the confidence of a man who knows his program is strong, and who wants his players to carry themselves accordingly.
Here’s the Tuesday statement from Dantonio which caused a particularly big stir, especially in that ever-vigilant community known as #FSUTwitter:
Dantonio thinks about if the playoff was last year. "I think we would have been national champions, to be honest." #MSU
— Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) July 29, 2014
Added context from Coaching Search and 247 Sports appears here:
Here are Dantonio’s full comments on #MSU’s chances for last year’s national championship: http://t.co/VjLswTEWWj
— Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) July 29, 2014
