Personal expectations when an MSU football schedule is announced.

by MSULaxer27 on Aug 23, 2010 6:50 PM CDT

After a gopher fan responded on LVS's post ranking likelihood of wins over this years schedule that a Minnesota win over MSU would not be an upset I got to thinking. What do you expect when you see the teams listed on a given year's schedule? I understand of course that times change (for example Wisconsin in 1985 is a lot different than UW in 1998).

My personal expectations follow the jump. Please respond with yours.

I list them in the order of "difficulty". Out of conference and then conference.

I-AA: WIN. It makes me sad that I can no longer say that MSU "doesn't play I-AA schools".

Any MAC team (CMU's luck notwithstanding): WIN.

Non BCS team: WIN.

BCS team: Further analysis needed. This event happens very rarely now a days. Pitt, Cal, Rutgers and Mizzou in the last 10 years. With the exception of Cal in 2008, I expected a win in all the other games.

ND: WIN. I have not been impressed by any ND team of the past 15 years. I expect a win in this game always.

Indiana: WIN. Always. I know it happens, but quite frankly I expect to beat IU every time we play.

Minnesota: WIN. They and IU haven't won the Big Ten since 1967. (We're next at 1990). Always disappointed if we lose to the gophers.

Illinois: WIN. Some success over the years, but generally a bad team.

Northwestern: WIN. NU has had success against us and in the B10. Still this is a game that I "expect" us to win.

Purdue: Home: WIN. Road: LOSS. Much like NU these games generally have been tight, entertaining games.

Iowa: Every 2 of 5 meetings: WIN otherwise LOSS.

Wisconsin: Every 2 of 5 meetings: WIN otherwise LOSS. This and the Iowa matchup really depend on how highly they are ranked coming into the season. This year I "expect" us to take one or the other but not both.

PSU: Home: WIN. Road: LOSS.

UM: LOSS.

OSU: LOSS.

When I say I expect to win, I realize of course that we will not win every game that I expect to. Some years I might say,"well yeah NU will probably beat us this year." but generally I expect with our facilities and recruits that we get on a yearly basis that IU, Minn, UI and NU should never be favored in a game against us.

UM has been down the past two years. As things "normally" stand I usually don't expect a victory in that game.

Maybe I'm delusional, but what do you think? About expectations on the schedule, not whether or not I am delusional.

This is a FanPost, written by a member of the TOC community. It does not represent the official positions of The Only Colors, Inc.--largely because we have no official positions.

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Comments

Interesting Take

I’ve never really thought about it this way, but I have to say I’m more or less right there with you. I think this really goes to the question of how long you’ve been a Spartan fan and how you were conditioned in your early, formative years of Spartanhood. I would call the mid-80s to late-90s my formative years, so I would add the following:

ND: Loss, until recently. They beat us just about every year of my childhood. It was ridiculous. Now I expect to Win every year. But it takes a while to make that shift.

Wisconsin: They were terrible while I was growing up and I still can’t help but expect a Win when I see them on the schedule, even though they’ve turned into a very good program.

UM: used to be Win – once every 3/4 years – at home. Slowly shifting, now they’re in kind of the same position that ND was in the early 2000s. Need a couple more Ws.

Iowa: expect Win more than Loss, but this one’s been tough over the years.

by Ducking Delvon on Aug 24, 2010 10:51 AM CDT reply actions

i didn't grow up a state fan.

my whole family went to OSU, so i didn’t start following state football until my senior year in 1999. that was a pretty good season to start. but it leaves me lost for some of the perspective that more experienced spartan fans might have (e.g. being offended by a loss northwestern).

assumed wins: I-AA, non-BCS, the bottom one or two teams in BCS conferences (e.g. syracuse, iowa state, washington state), notre dame, northwestern, indiana, illinois

assumed losses: top programs (OSU, USC, florida, texas)

debatable: purdue, iowa, UM, penn state, minnesota, wisconsin

some extra explanation is needed. to me an assumed win means that we will have underperformed if we lose. we underperformed last year against CMU. i assume we will beat teams of that caliber year in and year out with very few modifiers. and until brian kelly changes my mind, i assume we will beat ND home or away. many of our johnL era losses fell in this category (most notably illinois at home in 2006).

i actually don’t put as much weight on home/away as many people, and that is why my debatable list is so large. until UM turns things around, i will not assume a loss in ann arbor. but i can’t assume wins in that rivalry, either. UW and iowa are on the debatable list because their strength relative to ours seems to change yearly. even though they are both up on us currently, our talent is improving. this year i expect losses to both, but i would not be shocked if we beat one or both. year to year, our success against teams in this group depends upon our relative strength.

though i don’t think we should have a very large list of assumed wins, there are very few teams that i think we will more than likely lose against year in and year out. and i think these lists will change considerably in the next three years, as we find out whether coach dantonio is a solid, reliable coach or one who can put this program into a higher level of performance.

by robb. on Aug 30, 2010 9:59 AM CDT reply actions

expectations

Your expectations are exactly what Dantonio has been battling to change and what frustrates me with some MSU “fans”. You should expect MSU to win EVERY game we play. Obviously that doesn’t happen but you can’t go into a game expecting a loss. There isn’t a team we play this year or ANY year that we can’t beat. Do you think the fans at Alabama or Texas EXPECT a few losses against certain teams every year? The pieces are in place so have some pride and optimism for your team.

by Spartan Scott on Aug 30, 2010 7:14 PM CDT reply actions

I think you misunderstand.

I don’t think it is realistic at this stage to “expect” a win in every game. I think we should be competitive in every game. I also think that we are moving in the direction with coaching and talent that we could expect a win every game.

Realistically, there are still teams with talent advantages over us. Alabama and Texas have also played in BCS bowls and for National Championships more recently than 1988 and 1966. When we get to the level that we are picked in the preseason AP/C Top 5 on a regular basis, then I will have an “expectation” that we win every game.

by MSULaxer27 on Aug 31, 2010 3:24 PM CDT up reply actions

assumptions.

assumptions are different than expectations. i expect them to be able to beat any team on the schedule, even with the johnL roster of diminished talent. just like the team would have to underperform in order to lose assumed wins, they would have to overperform to win assumed losses. but such scenarios do exist (see msu at osu, 1998).

i am among the most optimistic of fans that i know, but that doesn’t help when we’re getting blown out at home by PSU. i don’t think this is a bad thing, to be realistic. the talent is improving, but we still have more to accomplish.

by robb. on Aug 31, 2010 8:20 AM CDT reply actions