Michigan Wolverine Football: We’ll bring the stake, you bring the whine — Part II
Posted at 12:00pm — 10/23/2014
Michigan Wolverine Football: We’ll bring the stake, you bring the whine — Part II
AFTER THE GAME: Interviews with Spartan coaches and players revealed “Stakegate” as the reason why they ran up the score. What’s puzzling is how so many Spartan coaches and players even knew what the Wolverines had done. Few if any in the stands and no one watching on TV saw it. Are we to believe that in the midst of on-field preparations for their bitter rivals, the game they say is the biggest on their schedule, they all stopped to watch them take the field? Isn’t that the slightest bit peculiar?
Still seething, Dantonio expounded on the reason behind his decision. “The little brother stuff, all the disrespect, they didn’t have to go in that direction.”
Truth is, coach, you went in that direction. Each season, you drag the old Mike Hart “little brother” quote out of the attic—a sound byte that dates back three Wolverine coaches, back to the days of George W. Bush—to motivate that year’s team. Priuses don’t get mileage that good. On the other hand the gimmick has led to six wins in seven years, so maybe coach D should stick with it. In fact, maybe Hoke should give it a try too. During Ohio State week he could unearth Terry Glenn’s quote from 1995 about how “Michigan is nothing” and how if the Buckeyes play their game, they “should win by two or three touchdowns.” Hey, if a seven-year-old quote works then a 20-year-old quote’s got a chance.
The Stake Incident was yet another installment in the 12-part comedy series known as Michigan football 2014, the fiction no one could have written, and perhaps the last shovel of dirt thrown atop Hoke’s casket. But it also gave Michigan State a convenient reason to drive up a score that appeared much closer than the game itself had been. This sounds more plausible than the “they made me do it!” excuse. Besides, 28-11 didn’t even cover the Vegas line. And it certainly wouldn’t be seen as impressive to the panel of 12 fixing to release the first-ever College Football Playoff committee’s rankings.
Dantonio continued: “We try to handle ourselves with composure. That doesn’t come from a coach. It comes from the program.” This from the coach of a team whose defense recorded a whopping six personal fouls against Michigan in 2011. Defensive end William Gholston was flagged for two of them, including one where he attempted to unscrew Wolverine quarterback Denard Robinson’s helmet while he was still wearing it. This also from the program responsible for planting an MSU flag on the 50-yard line at Notre Dame Stadium in 2006.
Funny how quickly everyone in East Lansing has forgotten that display in South Bend. Camping stake? Please. After beating that other rival of theirs, the MSU players ran onto the field with a large green flag bearing a white “S” and stuck the four-foot pole into the ground at midfield. Coaches and players also apologized for their behavior after the incident. Lineman Gordon Niebylski echoed Hoke’s very sentiments: “It’s emotional, we made a mistake, and it happens. But we didn’t mean any disrespect for Notre Dame.”
Granted, the arrival of the Dantonio regime was a year away. But as he himself said, composure comes from the program not the coach. So why the outrage when what your school has done to others happens to you, coach? Why the short memory? No statues were defiled with paint—a much more heinous offense to be sure. Heck, I remember a year when kids from the MSU agri school snuck onto the grass field at the Big House and spelled “GO STATE” in fertilizer a week before the nationally televised game. So why can’t we all put this latest ridiculousness in its proper context and just call it what it is—a regrettable yet, in this case, harmless part of a bitter rivalry?
At least the lack of recall from 2006 explains why a sound byte from 2007 still has that just-squeezed freshness.
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Written by GBMWolverine Writer — Chris Hill
Go Blue — Wear Maize!