Michigan State Football: It’s finally time to move on from Mark Dantonio

After yet another heart-wrenching loss, Michigan State football suffered the worst loss of Mark Dantonio’s tenure. And it’s finally time to move on.

For the longest time, I defended Mark Dantonio. When the Spartans went 7-6 in 2018 following a 10-3 season in 2017, I was all on board for giving him a chance to prove it was a fluke. When Michigan State lost three games in a row in October, I gave him the benefit of the doubt for a tough schedule.

When he was up 31-10 on Illinois in the fourth quarter on Saturday, I was ready to sing his praises. I was ready to tell everyone that Michigan State was only going to get better and Dantonio got the message from the fanbase, putting the hurt on an improved Illinois team.

The keyword there is was.

And then Michigan State gave up an 83-yard touchdown pass on a third down. And then they allowed a touchdown run after a long Illinois drive to cut the Spartans’ lead to seven. And then Brian Lewerke threw a pick-six that looked to be the tying score, but Illinois missed the extra point and Michigan State got a second wind.

The Spartans went down the field and kicked a field goal which looked to put the game away because there was no way this defense would allow a touchdown to lose at home to Illinois in the final minutes, right?

On fourth-and-16, the game was over. Michigan State made some big stops and pressure was in Brandon Peters’ face all drive. The ball he threw on fourth down hung in the air for about five minutes and was brought down by an Illinois receiver in between two Spartan defenders for a first down.

Wait, what?

Dantonio and the Spartans decided to steer away from what was working in the first half and in the first drive of the second half to give Illinois a shot, let the Illini hang around and then they struck for the game-winning score after driving down the field in the final minute.

It was the worst loss of the Dantonio era and the sign of the end.

It was easy to defend Dantonio when times were tough because he had proven himself numerous times before and he earned the benefit of the doubt. It’s no longer easy to defend him.

When Bill Beekman said that letting Dantonio go was not even a discussion, I agreed. Now, I think it’s a crazy statement. And that was earlier this week.

Whenever you lose, you’re judged by how you bounce back. After three straight losses and a bye week, Michigan State bounced back by mounting a 25-point lead on its home field against a 5-4 Illinois team and then blowing it in one quarter.

It’s time to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

Thank you for the memories, Mark. You will go down as the best coach in school history, most likely, and have given this program so much, but you need to realize that you’re hurting it now. It’s time to move on.