1,001 Days...Enter GREGzilla!

 Dear Spartan Nation, If you’re a dyed-in-the-wool, true green blooded Spartan fan, you might have noticed a few things over the last couple years. Number

 

Dear Spartan Nation,
If you’re a dyed-in-the-wool, true green blooded Spartan fan, you might have noticed a few things over the last couple years. Number one is that Michigan States two largest revenue producing sports isn’t doing too bad. Number two is that the school down south of here with the ugliest school colors known to blight the eyes of mankind, isn’t doing all that hot anymore; and the Wolverine faithful have become ever the more unbearable as a result.

While it’s true that Spartan basketball has long been, and remains, an elite 'Institution of Higher-Flyers,' Michigan’s basketball program is not. A program that once basked in the sparkling spotlights of basketballs highest stage with the likes of such bright-futured stars as its invincible Fab Five, has fallen from grace completely. Federal Grand Jury indictments have a way of pooh-poohing even the most seemingly invincible iconic ballers (capeesh, Mr. Calipari ?), and when they fall, the plumes of ash and the ensuing dirt-fest, creates dark times upon the program in its wake(brace yourself Trojans). Michigan basketball is a hollow- near dormant- shell of its former self. Spartan basketball’s accomplishments in the wake of the scUMmy disaster have eclipsed almost every other basketball program in the country. It’s grown into its shell as a perennial super-power, with a true “Michigan Man,” who by all accounts does things the right way, at the helm. MSU is a living, breathing, feasting and destroying beast of a Basketball Program. I don’t care where they are seeded in the NCAA Tournament come March, if your team has the misfortune of playing the Green and White, you’d be wise to keep a bag packed back in the hotel room for a quicker less-humiliating escape after the game. Michigan by contrast, has slumbered through the postseason for what seems an eternity now. And the coaching carousel has resembled a duller more drawn out version of musical chairs. Speaking of which, that brings us to Spartan football.

LONG before I was born and indeed when my parents themselves were just starting to cut their teeth, Michigan State Football was a legit powerhouse Program. A real crackerjack squad. The record books tell me about their heroic feats, and 6 National Championships in rapid succession. Great names like George Webster and Bubba Smith still- I’m confident- instill pride and vivid memories for our green blooded Spartan elders who were fortunate enough to witness that old dynasty. Though I grew up in the ‘80’s and 90’s, I still respect that history, and through the rough times of MSU football I can still, somehow, draw some modicum of condolence from the simple second hand knowledge of our being a once truly dominant and feared program, who could stand toe to toe with anyone. I appreciate history and all the cherished memories it invokes in those much wiser than myself. I’ll sit cross-legged and wide-eyed upon the telling of the old Spartan Lore most any night.

http://www.cqql.net/msu-1966.htm

But, there’s a time I don’t like to hear about and would assume just pass-over if it were not for my conscience disallowing such a thing. Apparently dark times fell upon MSU’s football program much in the same way it has since exacted it’s harsh justice upon the Blue’s basketball program as I described above. Through a perfect storm of past reported rules violations, a changing social climate, and some perhaps questionable coaching hires, MSU began a long slow descent into college football mediocrity and relative national obscurity.

Now few if any teams can boast with the likes of UofM on time-honored tradition. They are “the winning-est ”college football Program in history. I like to ruffle their feathers occasionally for including such feats of heroics as emerging victorious in a hotly contested grid iron battle with Ann Arbor Pioneer High School into this, their favorite statistic, but that’s another story.

While they have reached the summit, and earned the distinction of National Champions, LESS than their noble in-state rivaled Spartans since 1950, they had however, been the poster-child of consistently tough, on the field. When you’d see those winged helmets emerge from the tunnel for game-time looking like a roiling cloud of pissed-off hornets, you swallowed hard; I don’t care who you were. You could circle the Michigan game on your calendar as soon as the schedule was released as one of the toughest games you’d play that season. They maybe only reached the summit and staked claim to the whole shebang once (recognized ‘97) in the past several decades, but they slaughtered a lot of people on their yearly ascent, hoping to get there. That’s a fact. I don't necessarily like it, as a Spartan, but it has less of an after-taste than instead choosing delusion. Them there Wolverines knew how to win; even long after we seemingly forgot how to. The only thing more consistent than the assurance of a winning record for the blue and a good bowl, was the annoying vehemence of the wolverine smack talk each season. They called us “little brother,” and we usually had to just take it. For the past 40 years while Michigan was out slaying football dragons, MSU in it’s slightly disinterested mode, either seemed to be a bit too sleepy or were trying to revive itself with the help of the wrong doctor (Muddy, Denny, Bobby, JLS, etc..).

But, History is ever evolving. And so are little brothers. Whereas Michigan once with virtual impunity could call us “little brother,” as a mark of shame, it’s now reaping the less than appealing fruit of letting nature take its due course on even her most tender morsels. In lack of complete delusion, MSU basketball now eclipses UofM’s on a global galactic level. Any comparisons aside from geography and Conference affiliation are futile and are perceived by nearly everyone as a thinly veiled desperate act by some reality absconding maize-crazed dinosaur. And it just so happens too- and I take much delight in saying this- the nature of our football dynamic has shifted immensely recently as well. In short, little brother put away childish things and grew up strong and worthy of respect. UofM through a series of, still unanswered, potentially fatal blunders is now re-charting the path of its own disgraced basketball program. The once bright lights are now flickering and Major NCAA violations loom nerve-wrackingly over them. Its strength now wanes and MSU’s waxes brighter by virtue of a couple, in my opinion, right-on-the-money coaching and AD hires. In what very well may prove to be a big-sticked wrecking crew of: Izzo, Dantonio, and Hollis, the new foundation has been laid and the slumbering Spartan giant appears to be reviving and getting restless. Today on July 31th, 2010 it is 1,001 days since Michigan has been able to beat MSU in either of the two major sports.

http://www.michiganlastwon.com/

While it is meant to be a dishonor to us Spartans when a raving Wolverine calls MSU its “little brother,” when you see the analogy through, it actually holds up quite well. Whereas UofM was a giant in the world of collegiate athletics back in its hay day, it now, for analogy sake, must then be the older brother past his prime. A once svelte and finely chiseled specimen has now become a pot bellied, receding-hair-lined-has-been with a rap sheet and a penchant for talking solely about the bygone glory days (an Al Bundy?)And while history, as I’ve already explained is great, winning in the now, surely is better, and it's victory far sweeter. I have never sat in my living room and screamed in jubilation at the history book on my lap, and I doubt I ever will. But, with Mark Dantonio and Tom Izzo here at MSU, I know I’ll be doing lots of awkward white-boy dancing and screaming in jubilation there in front of the big screen. MSU is now winning against its brother consistently and decidedly.

And no matter how you slice it,UofM just aint so “crackerjack” anymore.

And ole “little brother,” well…he just aint little anymore.

In fact, he now eats his brothers lunch.

Go Izzo! Go MD! Go Spartan Nation! And Go Green!

 

Football season is upon us and now may GREGZILLA enter as the Spartans travel to Ann Arbor in just two months and nine days.

 

Reprinted from the Phalanx Forum with slight edits!