With expletives and fury, Mike Panasiuk takes control of Michigan State's defense
Nate Atkins
EVANSTON, Ill. – Michigan State was just days removed from one of its most heartbreaking and mind-numbing losses in years when Mark Dantonio had two requests for the defense that did almost everything it could to try to win.
First, he asked the players to reach their dark place.
Then, he asked them to be perfect.
He wanted anger, outrage, embarrassment for one of the best defenses he’s ever had. He wanted that defense to feel what the fans felt after a 10-7 loss to Arizona State. The target of that outrage would be Northwestern, a team that’s given his squad fits in recent years. It’d be the Big Ten opener, and it’d come on the road.
He was placing them at the 1-yard line and asking them not to budge an inch.
The weight fell on them all, but it centralized in the middle. Defensive tackle Mike Panasiuk was the senior captain, the kid from the Chicago area. He doesn’t always have much to say, but his coaches figured he’d have something this week.
So they asked him to give the speech to the team the night before, in a hotel in Chicago, his home area.
What they received was a profanity-laced bomb.
Panasiuk went to his dark place, his face reddening above those bushy strands of beard. He spoke about the opportunity they all had to play a game -- not just any game but one kids fantasize about, that they all have to hand over at some point in their lives. One day, whether the kid inside is 11 or 45, the electric man will show up to turn the lights off on his dream.
When he does, the fury won’t matter anymore. All that matters is what you paid.
“Everyone has a why: Why you’re out here, who you do it for,” Panasiuk explained later, saving the expletives. “So if you take that opportunity away, that ‘why’ starts to simmer down and starts changing.”
He’s seen the why slip away. As a freshman in 2016, it was when the Spartans went 3-9 and players transferred or were kicked off the team, including two he joined as Chicago-area recruits.
As a junior in high school, it was teetering in a kid named Aywol.
Aywol was an immigrant from Africa and a backup defensive back on Panasiuk’s Lake Park High School team in the western Chicago suburbs. He was the target of the hazing and pranks that can come in a high school environment, and one night at an overnight retreat at Northern Illinois University, Aywol retreated to the lobby of the dormitory covered in baby powder.
He told the coaches he didn’t want to do this anymore. He was ready to go home.
Those coaches were conflicted, because as much as they preach togetherness and commitment, what they couldn't stand for was a culture of bullying.
That's when Panasiuk stepped in.
Along with a teammate, Panasiuk took Aywol off to the side and told the kid covered in baby powder that he didn’t have to leave, that the bullying would stop because he would make sure of it.
He told him he had his back.
Aywol stayed in the dormitories and on the team, thanks in part to the 6-foot-3-inch, 285-pound bearded Big Ten recruit he now could call a friend.
“There’s just something about having the scary football players be the ones that take care of the team,” Lake Park High School coach Chris Roll said. “(Mike) did a really good job of always making people feel like everything’s going to be OK.”
Somewhere along the way during Panasiuk's rise from son of Polish immigrants to the captain in the middle of arguably the best defense in college football, he found a voice that could spread his heart to those around him.
It wasn’t always natural. High school teammates teased him about his first interview with a reporter, where he said “you know” for about half of his answer. When he got to Michigan State, coaches asked him to take control of his freshman class and he didn't always know how.
“Mike isn’t a big talker, but when he does, everybody listens,” Michigan State linebacker Tyriq Thompson said.
The Spartans listened on Friday night. The day after the speech, they went out and came as close as they know how to playing perfect.
They beat Northwestern 31-10, leading the entire game and only allowing a touchdown in the final minutes of a blowout.
On its second series of the game, trailing 7-0, Northwestern was at the 1-yard line on second down and ran the halfback up the middle for two straight plays that went nowhere. On fourth down, the Wildcats went for it with an option to the left. Before the quarterback could even pitch the ball, he ran head-first into a bearded defensive tackle in the middle of the Michigan State line.
Panasiuk had shot a gap, slid past two linemen and slammed Hunter Johnson to the ground for a turnover on downs. His defense needed him, with no room to give, and he showed up and delivered a hit.
He told them he had their back.
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Contact Nate Atkins at natkins@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @NateAtkins_.