Mark Dantonio is out at Michigan State, and this is a good thing for the Spartans, which finished three of the last four regular seasons at .500 or worse, and recruiting took a hit. Picture the worst diarrhea you’ve ever experienced. That looked a whole lot better than what Michigan State threw out on the offensive side of the ball week after week. Having said that, there are some decent candidates who could be the next man in charge at Michigan State.
Is this a great job? It’s better than most, but you’re going up against Michigan, Penn State and Ohio State every single year. Toss the Spartans into the Big Ten West instead, and it’s much more likely they’d be competing for conference titles on a yearly basis.
Michigan State is a classic get your 8-10 wins, find yourself in the Outback Bowl and be happy with it program. Every once in a while rise up to the top, but don’t expect it every season.
Pat Narduzzi
What we have here is your Paul Chryst option. Chryst spent a bunch of years as Wisconsin’s offensive coordinator before taking his first head coaching job at Pittsburgh for a little bit before heading back to Madison. Pat Narduzzi spent a bunch of years as Michigan State’s defensive coordinator before taking his first head coaching job at Pittsburgh. He’s been there a few years and could head back to East Lansing.
Neither of them had all that much success at Pitt, but Chryst is doing well at Wisconsin and we could see this exact scenario play out with Narduzzi returning.
Luke Fickell
Yeah, I’m suggesting the guy who turned Ohio State into a 6-6 team, what of it? Luke Fickell took over the program at Cincinnati, a team that - like Michigan State - has gotten a little stale with nothing exciting about it. In his second season, Fickell brought the Bearcats to 11 wins and did the same in year three. If that’s not enough to get a Power 5 job, I don’t know what is.
Fickell has also done a nice job on the recruiting trail and grabbed two four-star players in the 2020 class, which is two more than Michigan State.
Dave Clawson
I’m actually pretty surprised Dave Clawson remains as the Wake Forest head coach. I thought for sure somebody would snatch him. I don’t care what the schedule looks like, if you get Wake Forest to four straight bowl games, you should be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame immediately. Wake Forest started a football program in 1888, and four straight bowl games has never happened till now.
This up-tempo style would provide a much-needed shakeup to the Michigan State offense, which as I said earlier, has been a little bit worse than the worst diarrhea you’ve seen or heard about.
Deion Sanders
Haha I’m just kidding, but he did say he’s going to be a head coach in college football by this time next season. Unfortunately, the culture shock from Mark Dantonio to Deion Sanders would be seismic, potentially hazardous to players’ health.
One of the first three candidates listed will get this job. As for the other two? Act like you want the job even if you don’t because you’ll be a whole lot richer because of it.
Keep the conversation going by reaching out to Erik Buchinger on Twitter or email erik@deceptivespeed.com.
