The theme is still the injuries, though, while the list keeps growing the players and Coach Wannstedt don’t seem to want to use it as an excuse.

“The players stepping in have to pick up the slack and pull their weight,” senior offensive lineman Mike McGlynn said. “This presents an opportunity for other people to get playing time. That’s why they came here: to make plays. We’ll see how they play. I believe they’ll do a good job.”

Free safety Eric Thatcher knows what the injured players are going through. The starter missed the second half of last season with a broken ankle.

“It’s tough to lose all these guys this fast,” Thatcher said. “We just have to let it go. The guys out there now are the only ones who can help us out. We have to show we’re a strong character team. We have to show we have backups who are ready to play.”

…

Wannstedt has faith in Duhart and Williams.

“They’ve both played in both games,” Wannstedt said. “It’s not like it will be the first time they’re playing. They’re both very talented.”

I may be reading (hoping?) too much into this, but this strikes me as a message of accountability to DC Paul Rhoads about what Wannstedt expects from the defense on Saturday.

“We have to tackle well this week,” Wannstedt said. “Our tackling will be challenged this week. Both of these guys have the ability to run through arm tackles. They’ve both got very good quickness. They both can catch the ball well. The thing that jumped out at me was the toughness and the ability to break tackles after being hit.”

The tackling goes to the coaching and poor tackling has been one of the hallmarks of a Paul Rhoads defense.

Up in East Lansing, the Spartans are hoping that with new coach, a new identity is forming.

Since Nick Saban bolted at the end of the 1999 season, the Spartans have been known for a fragile psyche and an inability to stare down adversity. They were cruising along last season with a 3-0 record and on the verge of upsetting 12th-ranked Notre Dame when they unraveled in front of a national television audience.

“I don’t feel like we’ve proved anything yet,” said quarterback Brian Hoyer, whose team plays Pittsburgh at home Saturday. “There’s a long way to go. We’ve been 3-0 and then the bottom falls out, so we’ve got to take the initiative and make sure people are playing hungry and playing with that chip on their shoulder.”

I’m guessing most Spartan fans are hesitating just a bit before they absolutely declare the team mentality has shifted and gotten tougher.

Worth noting, one of the immediate impacts under Dantonio is that so far, the Spartans only have 7 penalties for 61 yards. The usually sloppiest team in the Big 11 is the least penalized in the conference. That’s something different.

Then there’s still the usual coach/team hypocrisy. Mark Dantonio is pissed that a former Cinci player wasn’t released from his scholarship to follow him to MSU.

New Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly did not release [Trevor] Anderson from his scholarship with the Bearcats, and Anderson has to pay his own way at MSU for a year. Anderson, a defensive end from Detroit Crockett, enrolled at MSU late last month and is practicing with the team.

Anderson must sit out the 2007-08 season under NCAA transfer rules. He was a two-year starter for Dantonio at Cincinnati.

“I think you probably need to ask him, but I was very disappointed in how that all transpired,” Dantonio said. “I think you try and do what you can for young people and you try and help them through their lives, and I don’t think that was done there.”

Yeah, this never happens. Not many schools I can think of would happily release a kid from scholarship to follow his coach to a new school. There has been no news suggesting he left Cinci for reasons involving hardship, family or such. This seems, simply, about a kid wanting to follow his coach.
Dantonio would have been better served not saying much in this case. He now sets himself up for having his words tossed back at him when he doesn’t release a kid from scholarship who wants to transfer. But, of course, that will be different.
Final notes, the Michigan State “honorary captain” for the game will be former MSU HC George Perles (1983-94). Perles was also a defensive coordinator for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 70s. And MSU has declared the game a “white-out.” Have to make the most of that one home ESPN appearance.

Jeff Long is gone as expected at this point. Hell of a bump in salary. He was making around $200 K at Pitt, and Arkansas came in with $450,000. That sort of cash will go a long way at Wal-Mart.

No way Pitt was going to match that — especially when Pitt’s extension negotiations stalled out earlier this spring/summer. That kind of bump in salary  comes at a cost. Dealing with the Houston Nutt/Las Cronicas Locas De Boss Hawg stuff. Not to mention a fanbase with contingent unable to distinguish reality from satire. Wow.

I have no idea who will be the next AD. I can tell you it won’t be any former player now doing commentary for the WWL. As I tried to point out earlier, the nature of the AD job is so different from even 15 years ago. Gladhanding and raising money for the Athletic Department is vital, but it is only a component of what the job demands these days. I only want Pitt to find and hire the best person for the job.
In the interim, Donna Sanft, the Senior Associate Athletic Director for Administration, Compliance and Student Life can add “interim AD” to her resume.

Chancellor Nordenberg has already formed an athletic director search committee to be chaired by Jerry Cochran, Pitt’s executive vice chancellor and general counsel. The committee will include Susan Albrecht, Pitt NCAA faculty athletic representative; Tom Bigley, a member of the Board of Trustees and former chair of the athletics committee; Marcus Bowman, director of athletic business operations and former walk-on basketball player under Coach Dixon; Kirk Bruce, assistant athletic director for Olympic sports and former Pitt basketball player in the early 70s and Pitt women’s basketball coach in the 80s and 90s.; John Conomikes, a member of the Board of Trustees and chair of the athletics committee; and Carol Sprague, senior associate athletic director.

They have, apparently, started work immediately. Whether Chancellor Nordenberg will do anything with their recommendations is a different issue (see, 2003). I do expect the job to draw a fair amount of interest. There are still only 65 BCS schools (and only 64 of them have athletic director positions).

A quick look at stories and links relating to the Michigan State game this Saturday.
Michigan State was installed as an early 8.5 to 9 point favorite. Can’t say I’m surprised, and I expect the number to rise as people look closer at the injuries for Pitt and the questions about the O-line. Add in MSU’s domination of UAB followed by UAB giving FSU a hard time the following week, along with a respectable Bowling Green team being taken down by MSU; versus Pitt’s soft and chewy opening games.

Even the Pitt defense had to acknowledge that they haven’t exactly been challenged to this point.

Pitt middle linebacker Scott McKillop agrees that it is impossible to tell just how good the Panthers are on defense until they play Michigan State. He said the Spartans embarrassed the Panthers’ defense last year and could do it again Saturday if Pitt doesn’t make tackles.

“There is no question we are aware of the fact that we’re stepping way up in class [Saturday] from the level of competition we’ve faced so far,” McKillop said after the Panthers’ 34-10 win against Grambling Saturday. “But at the same time, it was important that we took care of business in these first two games and that’s what we did. We know Michigan State is our third game, but we didn’t want to get caught looking ahead and I think we’ve played very well.

“Now, we can focus on Michigan State and we can use that as a gauge to see how far we’ve come and how much we’ve actually improved in stopping the run because, ultimately, our ability to stop the run will dictate how successful we can be. And I’m sure the coaches are going to remind us a lot about last year [against Michigan State] because that was a game where I felt like we got a lead and then shut it down and they made a lot of plays.”

We’ll all get an idea. Michigan state returns 4 of the 5 starters from last year’s O-line. There’s a big difference in the style this year for Michigan State. If anything, it might be a reason for some hope. Mark Dantonio is now in charge and he’s got the Spartan followers believing.

Oh, sure, there was a flashy offense in Spartan Stadium. But it belonged to Bowling Green. The Falcons spread the field, passed twice as much as they ran … and Michigan State was fine with it. Dantonio figured that as long as the Spartans kept Bowling Green’s receivers in front of them that eventually Michigan State would make a big play to end a drive.

“You’ve seen it here for the past number of years,” Dantonio said of Bowling Green’s spread. “You can convert, convert and convert. But at some point if you take a sack, or if you have to run the ball and you can’t run it, then it becomes long-yardage situations. So it wears on you over the course of the game.”

I’m not ripping the spread or pass-first offenses. The point is that, no matter the style, a team has to play with intelligence and discipline.

The spread is dead. That’s some good news. The offense is straight ahead, run first, traditional style. It means, it is at a level DC Paul Rhoads might comprehend (I know, gratuitous cheap shot). Pitt will still have to show that it can stop a real running game, but the good news is that the runner won’t be the QB.
I’m also hoping the Spartans like this writer, might be peeking ahead on the schedule.

But had Dantonio been around 10 years ago when opponents were penciled in — or even within the past year when a second-week replacement for Western Michigan had to be found — he couldn’t have set things up much better for his first season.

…

Next up is Pittsburgh (2-0) at noon Saturday in Spartan Stadium (ESPN). The Panthers, of the Big East, will be MSU’s first opponent from a BCS conference.

The following week the Spartans will make their first road trip to play traditional rival Notre Dame before opening conference play at Wisconsin, which has been picked to contend for the league championship.

I just wish the ND-Michigan game was on at the same time, rather than at 3:30. That would be a good distraction for Spartan fans and hopefully the players. Not surprisingly, Spartan fans have been really enjoying the Michigan woes.
With Dennis heading to the game to be an eye-witness, he would be advised to make sure he claims his seat early (read the article and the comments underneath).