OSU's Ryan Day Applauds What Jonathan Smith is Building at MSU
The scoreboard would say otherwise, but given the circumstances, there's a lot Michigan State should take pride in frokm its loss to Ohio State on Saturday.
The Spartans competed from start to finish against one of the best teams in the nation, a program that year in and year out is is a national championship contender.
Nobody had this new-look Michigan State program defeated the No. 3 team in the country on their Bingo card, and if they were to meet nine more times, it would still likely end in a Buckeyes triumph.
But the Spartans came out with a mindset that none of that mattered. They were ready for the task, and again, while a 38-7 final wouldn't depict it, they showed the rest of the conference they aren't the same team that would have rolled over in the past.
And that's on coaching.
Ohio State coach Ryan Day recognized that.
"I thought the atmosphere was excellent early on," Day said after the game. "They came out and they played really hard, Jonathan [Smith] is doing a really good job of putting his culture and thumbprint on the program here. I have a lot of respect for him and his staff. I thought our guys responded well and had some good poise, that was something we talked about having in the game having poise in the noise. Those fourth down conversions were pretty clutch."
Ohio State's past victories against Michigan State include 38-3, 49-20 and 56-7 wins over the past three seasons. For Spartan redshirt senior linebacker Cal Haladay, who was a part of all three of those contests, felt this year was different.
"I thought we were in this game the whole time," Haladay said. "I think we did what we needed to for the most part. I mean, we gave up some explosive plays and were still responding. But we need to execute better, finish drives and on third down, get off the field. But I felt for most of this game we were in it until the end."
The Spartans will look to bring the same intensity they did against Ohio State when they take on another formidable foe in Oregon on the road on Friday.
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