Victory 4 MSU

Florida Atlantic University… what can I say? Not a whole lot without doing a bunch of research I found out. I have heard that they are returning an obscene amount of starters, which is good for them. I also know that the Spartans are playing a 2-for-1 with them. MSU travels to Boca Raton in 2010 for the opening of the Owls’ new 30,000 seat stadium, which is expected to break ground in the Spring of 2009. For those who don’t know, Boca Raton is a city of approximately 90,000 located about 50 miles north of Miami on Florida’s Atlantic coast. It appears to be a very charming city, at least on wikipedia and google images; perhaps a nice spot to vacation in September of 2010. A little sidenote: that’s also the year that we start our home-and-home series with West Virginia, which should be fun.

The Owls return again to East Lansing in 2011 to finish the series. I’m hoping the Floridians enjoy early Autumn in Mid-Michigan as much as we are sure to enjoy their beaches and warm weather. I’ve only been to the Gulf coast, so maybe I’ll make it down there to check out the East side. So, how about their football team? Will their 2008 team improve upon a promising 2007 campaign? Click through to find out…

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Ask any Spartan what immediately comes to mind when you say “Eastern Michigan” and their answer will undoubtedly be “W”. That’s because the Spartans have never lost to the Eagles… or Hurons. In fact the last couple contests have been downright blowouts: 56 – 7 in 2002 and 52 – 20 in 2006. Both of those years ended badly, to understate things a bit. Actually, our head coach was fired at the conclusion of both those seasons: Bobby Williams in ‘02 and John Loser Smith in ‘06. So should the Spartan faithful be hoping for a more competitive contest to avoid this apparent curse? Should we be fearing for the job security of coach Dantonio if we blowout the Eagles? Probably not.

Eastern has been a mediocre MAC (Mid-American Conference) team and hasn’t had a winning season in 13 years (that’s 1995). 5th year head coach Jeff Genyk has been laying a quality foundation, however, and will try to change that in 2008. The Eagles will certainly have experience, returning 8 starters on offense and 7 on defense. This has been the first time in a while that Eastern has been talking about a possible MAC championship, and that experience will have to come through in order for that to happen. Taking all this into account, the outcome of the contest on September 6 still won’t be in EMU’s favor. They will be overmatched at nearly every position.

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While there are some similarities between the 2007 California Golden Bears squad and Spartan squads of the pre-Dantonio era, there are large differences in where these two teams stand as programs. Sure, the Bears had a hot start to the 2007 season and then collapsed, finishing the regular season with a 1-6 slide. Makes you want to shout Same Old Spart – wait – Same Old Bears? SOB? Just like Bobby, just like John L, but it’s not the same old Bears. It was an anomaly, at least in the Tedford era. I wish losing seasons at MSU were just an anomaly.

You know the 2009 Spartan recruiting class that we’re so excited about? California is one of the few teams that gets that type of class every year. They are located in a hotbed of football recruits and have a winning tradition. So what are we up against come August 30th? Raw talent, and lots of it. Even though Cal lost some playmakers to graduation and the NFL, they are a team that reloads, not rebuilds.

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