Michigan State Football: Despite blowout loss, Spartans should be proud of championship season

While the 38-0 blowout loss was discouraging, there’s no denying this was a successful season for Michigan State football.

So it’s been over a week now since the Michigan State Spartans were demolished by the Alabama Crimson Tide 38-0 on national television New Year’s Eve.

Must Read: Michigan State Football: 5 biggest disappointments of 2015

Spartan fans have had to slowly allow reality to set in. This team just wasn’t good enough for the juggernaut that is known as Alabama.

Was the loss itself embarrassing? Absolutely. There’s literally no way around it.

Nobody wants to get shut out and shut down like that in front of a national audience. Nobody wants to send off the winningest class in program history in an awful way like that. Nobody wants to realize how far this program has come, only to see how far they still have to go.

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But that’s just what reality is sometimes, and it’s harsh.

Guys like Connor Cook, Shilique Calhoun, and Jack Allen are just a small part of 20 graduating seniors that have shaped this program into what it is today. What they’ve meant for this program has been so much more than some fans realize.

If you haven’t, Kirk Cousins of the Washington Redskins and formerly the Spartans, wrote a wonderful piece over at The Players’ Tribune. It was prior to the College Football Playoff, but still holds a strong message now.

One of his biggest points was the progression of different freshman classes that arrived every fall to East Lansing. His own in 2007, Cook and Calhoun’s in 2011, and this upcoming one in 2016.

And his point rings true for not only the Spartan team, but the program itself.

Among the incoming freshman class, some are going to redshirt and some are going to play immediately. But there’s one thing that can be sure, this team knows how to compete for a national championship.

This culture Cousins mentioned is there. This culture of been-there, done-that is still there and will continue to be there for the incoming Spartans.

And with success, obviously will come the detractors. Michigan and Ohio State fans will, for the rest of time, quickly point out this blowout loss. How embarrassing it was for the Big Ten, how embarrassing it was for this program.

They’ll even mention all the lucky bounces that the Spartans were fortunate to run into. From Jalen Watts-Jackson’s miracle to the interception that bounced off a player’s back in the Big Ten Championship Game.

Unfortunately, a little bit of what they say is true, too. It was a devastating loss, Spartans fans will envision nightmares of this game for years now.

To be completely honest for a second, these Spartans were a bit lucky to be there. Even the weather in the game against the Buckeyes worked in their favor after Cook was unavailable due to his shoulder injury.

And in all honesty? The Buckeyes probably did have more talent than the Spartans this year. Their 42-13 win on the road against the Wolverines is nothing short of impressive.

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But, there’s also the other side of the spectrum. The Spartans deserved to be in the stage that they were in. They deserved every single thing they got throughout the season.

When you beat Michigan at Michigan, Ohio State at Ohio State, and Iowa for the Big Ten Championship, you absolutely deserve your spot in the College Football Playoff.

Critics of this Spartan team will quickly point to their on-field lucky bounces and conveniently ignore the off-field injuries this team sustained.

Nobody mentions how backup Quarterback Tyler O’Connor is also the backup punter, meaning he took four out of five punts against the Wolverines that fateful October night.

The offensive line was decimated by injuries to key cogs like Jack Conklin and All-American center Jack Allen. Guys like R.J. Williamson and Vayante Copeland went down too. Ed Davis didn’t even play a snap this year after tearing his ACL before the season started.

Here’s the thing, injuries are part of the game, they happen. But so are all the lucky bounces that the Spartans were fortunate to receive.

This team deserved every bit of the success that they achieved throughout the season. After so many memorable moments, fans should celebrate this team’s accomplishments.

Any year in which a team achieves the Big Ten Championship is impressive. Even for a team that had its eyes set on the National Championship.

Look, let’s be honest here for a second. This isn’t the same program Mark Dantonio inherited prior to the 2007 season.

These aren’t the same “little brothers” that Mike Hart infamously mentioned following the 2007 UM-MSU game.

There’s no denying though, that this was a successful season for the Michigan State Spartans. After the Rose Bowl win in 2014 and Cotton Bowl win in 2015, fans have slowly started to expect more and more from this football team.

But at the end of the day, when you beat both the Michigan Wolverines and Ohio State Buckeyes on the road, that’s a great season. Even the Iowa Hawkeyes were a good team the Spartans had to claw past.

Between the MSU Miracle, the windmill, and “The Drive”, I’d call it a pretty noteworthy season for Spartan faithful.

All in all, there are plenty of reasons to be proud of this Spartans team. While the end result was a tad bit disappointing, the accomplishments of this team cannot be denied.

Dantonio has brought this program a long way since arriving to East Lansing nearly a decade ago.

There’s still a lot of work to do to win a national championship though, but for a guy like Dantonio and this program, that’s just the next natural step.