Grinz On Green: Spartans Look To Bounce Back
9/28/2016 12:00:00 AM | Football
By Steve Grinczel, MSUSpartans.com Online Columnist
EAST LANSING, Mich. â€" The biggest thing Michigan State has going for it heading into Indiana is trust.
Trust in:
• A culture that has allowed a losing streak to occur in just one of the last six seasons;
• A system with a proven track record for producing bounce-back performances;
• Coaching known for solving problems in real time;
• Each other as players to be resilient.
As disappointing as losing last Saturday's Big Ten opener to Wisconsin was, the Spartans know from experience that the world â€" or the championship race â€" didn't end with that 30-6 defeat.
Most members of the team were part of last season's about-face that turned what appeared to be a dream-crushing one-point loss at Nebraska into the East Division title, Big Ten Championship and College Football Playoff appearance.
And the fifth-year seniors who were true freshmen or sophomores in 2012 can verify that Coach Mark Dantonio speaks the truth when he says "things can always get worse."
Tyler O'Connor said he was ready to embrace all the tough times that come with being the No. 1 quarterback as well as the good when he was named the starter at the end of preseason camp, so he considers the criticism accompanying his 18-for-38, 224-yard, three-interception, zero-touchdown performance against the Badgers as nothing more than an occupational hazard.
He watched video of the game twice after returning to his apartment Saturday evening for a short-lived pity party.
"I've been ready for it and I think I'm doing fine with it," said O'Connor, who was elected co-captain along with safety Demetrious Cox and middle linebacker Riley Bullough. "You thought of what it will be like when it's bad and it's worse than you thought it was going to be, and you think about it being good and it's not as good as you thought it was going to be.
"It was a tough Saturday night. Everybody else wants to go do something, and everybody else on campus is going out, and I just couldn't stomach the thought of getting up off my couch after watching it a couple times."
O'Connor eventually did let the healing process begin.
"I watched it start-to-finish, took about 15 minutes off, watched it again and luckily one of my golf friends called and told me to go to (an East Lansing restaurant) with him," O'Connor said. "He was like, ‘The cab's on the way, we're coming to pick you up,' and I was like, all right, fine, I'll go eat some wings."
With a 40-6 record since its make-or-break victory at Minnesota on Nov. 24, 2012, to become bowl-eligible, MSU has responded positively to each regular-season loss.
After falling at Notre Dame in '13, the Spartans won at Iowa to begin a 10-game win streak that ended with a victory over Ohio State in the Big Ten championship game and Stanford in the Rose Bowl. The following year, Michigan State shook off the loss at Oregon to win the next six, only to pick itself up from another harrowing defeat at the hands of the Buckeyes to beat Maryland, Rutgers and Penn State and qualify for a New Year's Six bowl.
O'Connor carried what he has learned from former captains such at Max Bullough, Shilque Calhoun, Jack Allen and Darien Harris in to the first post-Wisconsin practice, which some have described as "angry."
"It's tough to come back from something like that, but everybody's very excited to get back out here," O'Connor said. "Tuesday's our toughest day. They call them ‘Terrible Tuesdays' because our coaches script the worst defense for us. There's always some mental errors when it comes to things like that, but the energy was good.
"The biggest thing to bouncing back is it's 100 percent on the leaders. It starts at the top and has a trickle effect. Riley said it best before practice â€" we have to understand who we are. We say we're Spartan Dawgs here and we've got talent; we've got confidence; we've got the swagger we need to have and that's what we need to play with no matter what's going on or people are saying, and don't lose sight of that."
Of course, words don't mean anything if they aren't backed up by actions, but the response has been on-point so far, according to O'Connor.
"You've got to come in with a positive attitude and really try to relay that down to other people," he said. "We have to create our own energy because it's easy when everything's great and dandy, and you're 3-0 and everybody's talking great about you. But you really get closer, and you come together and get stronger as a unit when you're back's against the wall, when there's pressure, when there's doubters and things like that.
"You know, we have that 24-hour rule, we came in and watched it on Sunday, and you just talk to the guys, ask them how they're doing, see how they're responding, make sure everybody's good and really just grow together. You can already tell this team has grown together and this will make it stronger."
There is also a template that has served the Spartans well in similar situations over the years. Michigan State, No. 17 in this week's Associated Press poll, is 36-2 under Dantonio in games when it's ranked and the opponent is not. The Hoosiers are 2-1 going into their league opener, but not ranked.
Furthermore, the Spartans are undefeated in the games that followed their last six losses.
"When things don't go well for you, you're challenged," Dantonio said. "There is one of two ways to go: take the high road and try to get better, and persevere through it or go the other direction and say, ‘Hey, we can't do this.' We've always taken the road that we're going to get better and learn from our mistakes and carry on.
"If there was a lack of toughness, lack of effort, lack of leadership, then I would be concerned, but that didn't take place. There were enough good things that did happen and you saw enough good players playing well and hard that I think our future is still very bright. Same thing happened in 2014. We lost an early game and we needed to deal with that early loss throughout and we needed fight back from it, and we were able to do that. We've had a history of doing those things -- we need to rely on that history and keep pushing."
It is still early, and the Spartans are only 0-1 in the conference, but that winless state comes with a motivational connotation.
"Coach D always says people don't view you on how you're playing when you're at the top," said junior outside linebacker Chris Frey. "It's how you're viewed when you're at that bottom and how you're going to bounce back.
"This week, we're at the bottom and we can only move up from there. So, we're ready to go. We've got to come out and show everybody how well we can play and who we are. We see it as (Wisconsin is) on the West side. We're going to keep playing hard every single day, and down the road, hopefully, we see them again."
The only chance for a Spartans-Badgers rematch would be in the Big Ten Championship Game.
