Couch: 4 keys to Michigan State football's hard climb back

EAST LANSING – This used to be a happening weekend for Michigan State’s football program. 

Championship games played, bowl destinations learned, all the while existing in the middle of playoff chatter. 

The question that looms on this quiet MSU football weekend, as the rest of the college football world bustles about: How soon will the Spartans get to be part of it again?

What once seemed like a retooling year is followed by darker thoughts after a 3-9 season that rivals the worst times in MSU football history. 

As a college football coach once told me, “The hardest thing to do is to get it back once you’ve lost it.”

Can Mark Dantonio, who did what many thought impossible at MSU, work his magic again? This time, everything he’s built is at stake. This time, expectations are crazy high. Promises have been fulfilled. Times have changed. He made MSU a Big Ten power and national player. And then, as he once famously forecasted, pride fell.

I believe he can if he’s willing to take a critical eye to every aspect of his program and act on his instincts, however uncomfortable. Because what got MSU to improbable heights might not be entirely the same as what it takes to get back.

MSU is only one year removed from the College Football Playoff, but it feels like a longer road back. Because 3-9 is not 7-5. Nine losses is reason for deep introspection, no matter what you’ve done in the past. 

Much has changed since the pinnacle of the Dantonio era at MSU — sometime between 2013, when the Spartans might have won a national title had the current playoff system been in place, and last season, when they reached the playoff.

Here are the four most pressing things to address:

Program toughness

Following MSU’s loss at Penn State last weekend, Dantonio made a point of saying, “I can’t coach toughness.” 

Toughness can be recruited. It can be developed within over time. But it has to be ingrained. It can’t be coached during game week. MSU’s program has been flush with all-conference and NFL talent in recent years. But beyond anything, it’s had tough kids. 

Toughness is relative, because anyone who steps onto a college football field has some measure of toughness. But this isn’t about pain tolerance. It’s mental toughness, it’s grit, a willingness to grind tirelessly behind closed doors to win on Saturdays, to buckle down in the fourth quarter — when MSU was outscored mercilessly this season.

Dantonio said long before the 2016 season began that some of his players were “born on third base.” His point: They had never experienced the heartache that comes with losing and didn’t have the sweat equity it produces. MSU’s players had gotten used to finishing the season in Indianapolis and then at a top-tier bowl game. Getting used to anything is dangerous in college football.

The Spartans brought in their most heralded recruiting class of the Dantonio era last year — including 10 four-star kids. Nine true freshmen played this past season. Nine losses, however, aren’t on them. If true freshmen are playing in that number, most often, the issues are elsewhere. 

But it now falls on that class and the ones ahead of it to realize nothing is given — a point last season likely hammered home. That used to be a staple of MSU’s program. It seems to have been lost, perhaps naturally, a victim of newfound success sustained for a while. 

A quarterback

The Spartans have won big or fallen short for many reasons over the last seven seasons. But when they’ve won big, they’ve always had a quarterback. When they’ve fallen short, they haven’t. It isn’t entirely that simple, but MSU isn’t going anywhere without better quarterback play. 

After five and four years in the program, respectively, Tyler O’Connor and Damion Terry weren’t capable of being the quarterback MSU needed them to be this season. MSU has to either be more consistent in picking its QBs or better at developing them. Redshirt freshman Brian Lewerke showed increasing signs of being a good one before suffering a season-ending broken leg against Michigan on Oct. 29. Still, despite an awesome track record of putting quarterbacks in the NFL, MSU too often has questions at the position. 

The Spartans would have been a flawed team this year regardless, but less so if they had a quarterback who could have bailed them out a few times. 

Be it Lewerke, Messiah deWeaver, Terry or a graduate transfer — MSU won’t get off the mat without a playmaker at the position.

RELATED:

• MSU turns the calendar to 2017 - a position breakdown
• Couch: From playoff to punchless - how MSU fell so hard so fast
• Three MSU football questions: Should Dantonio make staff changes?

The defense

Anyone who’s watch MSU’s defense over the last two seasons — since coordinator Pat Narduzzi left to be the head coach at Pitt — knows this isn’t the same defense. Not the same attitude or aggression. And, to be fair to the staff, not the same playmakers. The Spartans have been decimated by injuries defensively the last two years. They also have lacked the dynamic cornerbacks on the edge, corners capable of being left alone on an island. And this last season, they also sorely lacked a natural pass rusher.

MSU will be fine at linebacker and safety. Montae Nicholson, with confidence, is a pro. Chris Frey, Jon Reschke and Co. will be a good linebacker group in 2017. But the Spartans have to find cornerbacks and pass rushers who can get done what their defense requires. It either comes from within or they mine the junior college ranks — but this defense can’t function without those two components. If MSU doesn’t have them next year, it’ll endure a lot of the same frustrations.

The coaching staff

Dantonio made it clear last week: He’s not firing anyone one. But when 3-9 happens, something went wrong. If he sees part of the issue as being on his staff, at coordinator on either side of the ball or anywhere else, he’s got to make adjustments. Stubborn loyalty is no reason to let the ship sink. Likewise, change for the sake of change is the sort of silliness that sunk Charlie Strong’s tenure at Texas. He didn’t do it his way. Not only didn’t it work, but he’ll have to live knowing he gave in to outside pressures.

Narduzzi was the personality of MSU’s defense, a fiery leader who embodied everything the Spartans want to be. That’s missed. No question. 

Offensively, a new voice somewhere might not hurt, however that’s accomplished. 

Dantonio has earned the right to make those calls. This staff has perhaps earned the right to return intact. But if 3-9 happens again, it’s a different conversation. Better to make the tough decisions preemptively, if need be.

Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.