Greg Waddell:
Iām not the most philosophical guy.
I like words - I like saying words, I like listening to words. Sometimes I believe in words. Other times I donāt believe in words. Sometimes words stick with me.
I donāt quite remember when, but years ago, someone once said to me: āYou should always leave a place better than you found itā
I donāt know what it is about those words but they have stuck with me for 15ish years since, through high school basketball coaching stints, to random desk jobs in Corporate America, to various jobs in the sports media world, to personal relationships, all of it.
Leave it better than you found it.
Itās not the easiest thing to do. Life is hard. Sometimes unexpected obstacles get in the way. Sometimes the odds are stacked against you. Sometimes good people lose when they donāt deserve it.
And other times the head coach you gave 95 million dollars to breaches his contract masturbating on a zoom call to the most famous sexual assault prevention advocate on the planet that he claims heās having an affair with.
Hey, thatās life sometimes right?
In shocking news, Mel Tucker did not leave Michigan State better than he found it.
Many people would argue that his predecessor, Mark Dantonio, didnāt either. He was, after all, the coach of a team that went 7-6 in his first season at Michigan State, just like they went 7-6 in his last season at Michigan State.
Nevermind the 12 bowl games in 13 seasons, or the Rose Bowl win, or the three Top-10 in the country finishes, or the 8-5 record against Michigan, or the Rich Homie Quan appearances, or the No Fly Zone, or the trick plays, or all the other miraculous, fun, endearing moments that made the Mark Dantonio Era special.
Somewhere after that dreary 2016 season, things turned. Michigan State fans grew impatient. The heights they had reached under Markās guidance left them longing for more. They reached higher, they dreamed bigger, they wanted more.
It was ātime to move onā as so many of my Spartan friends told me.
That may have been true, but it never sat well with me, largely for one reason -
It felt like Mark Dantonio wasn't going out on good terms.
Most people know this by now, but I went to high school with Mark Dantonioās daughters. Because of this fact, I had the pleasure of interacting with Coach D in settings outside of the football field. In fact, the first time I ever spoke to the man in person was at the Dantonio house. Itās a story worth telling.
I was meeting his oldest daughter to work on a project. I drove to their house, arrived and didnāt see any cars, lights on, or signs of anyone being home. I called her - she answers and says āIām running late - should be back in about 15 minutes. But my dad should be there!ā
I look up and Mark is pulling into the driveway in a suit and tie. I realize it would be awful to hide in my car, so High School Junior Me gets out and says hello. He invites me inside.
We make brief small talk, I tell him Iām there to work on a project, he tells me sheāll be home soon, and says āyou can wait in the living room, hereās the remoteā and tosses it to me. I flip the TV on and he heads down a hallway into a room I canāt see.
Itās a weekday afternoon in the fall of 2010, shortly before the football season began. Markās Michigan State teams hadnāt won anything of significance yet, and he was coming off a 6-7 season and his third consecutive bowl loss.
The TV turns on - itās Big Ten Network. I sit there nervously, hoping his daughter shows up immediately before I mess anything up. The weekday BTN crew is doing some generic āBuy or Sellā segment talking about Ohio State. I think Iām in the clear.
Before I could do anything about it, they immediately switch to Michigan State. Some talking head that I canāt remember proceeds to DESTROY Dantonio - āthis is a make or break year, I just donāt see it working out in East Lansingā
I squirm frantically to turn the volume down.
āHis program has no vision, Mark Dantonio just isnāt the man for the jobā.
Mark walks out of the room in a t-shirt and shorts. Looks me dead in the eyes with the stare of a serial killer.
āDo you believe that shit?ā
āNo sirā, I said.
His face immediately flips from the menacing Dantonio death stare into the trademark Dantonio smirk.
āGoodā.
Michigan State went 11-1 in the regular season that year with road wins at Michigan and at Penn State. It was the first of many great seasons of the Dantonio era.
16 years after his debut as the Spartans head coach, Dantonio returns to East Lansing this Saturday.
This weekendās game against Washington is not just about Mark Dantonio - Interim Head Coach Harlon Barnett should be the headline. Quarterback Noah Kim is the reigning Big Ten Player of the Week. The entire Spartan community - one that knows more about coming together in times of tragedy than any college campus ever should - is erasing the #RELENTLESS hashtags, and the Deep End signage, and the Keep Choppin hand gestures, and the Woodshed imagery, and the Tuck Cominā t-shirts. I hear theyāll even be going back to the traditional pregame path for the Spartan Walk.
Maybe theyāll go back to good football next. Maybe Thunderstruck will even play.
Because sometimes the ābetterā we want isnāt actually better than the ābetterā we already have. For the next two months, for the second time in his life, Mark Dantonio gets one more chance to leave Michigan State Football better than he found it.
Do you believe that shit?
I still donāt.
Records:
CFB picks: Greg (8-3), Cart (8-3)
G-Teazy Teaser of the Week: 2-1
NFL picks: Greg (0-1), Cart (0-1)
note - last weekās Longshot Parlay hit every leg except Alabama ML, if you tailed it before the Friday night game and bet $100 to win $18K, you had a cashout offer of over $4K live during the Alabama game
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