Dillon Tatum Feels Responsibility to Get MSU Football Back to an Elite Level
Michigan State coach Jonathan Smith has a tall task ahead of him of building a program back up from the ashes.
The Mel Tucker dismissal left the program in shambles last season, putting Michigan State in a negative spotlight while also deflating a team that had been looking to bounce back from a disappointing 2022 season.
"As soon as it happened, you could tell the morale changed," said Michigan State junior defensive back Dillon Tatum when he addressed the media at Big Ten Football Media Days on Wednesday. "We let a few games slip through our hands, but that's OK. That's all about adversity, but my goal is, my job actually, is to not to let it slip, not to let this thing go backwards. We're only here to build forward because the Michigan State I'm used to, that I was growing up to, win championships. You can see here, you got flags on the frickin' stadium from Big Ten championships. And the first College Football Playoff known, we were there.
"So, it's like, 'What can we do to and how can I help us as a team and a program become great again."
Tatum was right about the banners, of course. When you looked up to the rafters of Lucas Oil Stadium this week, there hung 13 Big Ten championship banners, two of which belonged to Michigan State.
It's been almost 10 years now since the Spartans last won a conference title. The Tucker era resulted in only one double-digit-win season, and since that last 2015 Big Ten championship, Michigan State has gone 36-34.
For Coach Smith, it's likely going to take some time before Michigan State ever gets back to that level of prominence. But there will be an urgency to get there.
"All of us are competitive, so we don't have a long patience for playing quality football," Smith said on Wednesday. "At the same time, I think you're always building. You're starting somewhere, you're going to create a foundation, and then you're building off of that. So I'm looking forward to that approach of we built something before.
"Not going to panic on the first adversity we see, understanding that, yeah, sometimes there is a process to it, but not going to say that we have patience for -- we want to be in a constant state of improvement and build it the right way."
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