Grantland on Spartan Defense - Appreciating the Stingy Spartans in the Offensive Age

Mark Dantonio and Pat Narduzzi have shared a sideline for more than a decade, first at Cincinnati and now at Michigan State, and in the process they’ve forged one of college football’s great coaching pairings. In recent years the head coach and his defensive coordinator won the Big Ten title, returned the Spartans to the promised land of Pasadena, and accomplished something even more exceedingly rare: In the age of the wide-open offense, they’ve built a shutdown college defense.

Along with defending champion Florida State, Michigan State is the only team to rank in the top five in defensive yards per play in each of the last three seasons, and the Spartans finished no. 1 last year while posting a 13-1 record. Even more remarkably, Dantonio and Narduzzi have built one of the best defenses in the sport without the benefit of the kind of blue-chip, future NFL talent that’s commonplace at schools like FSU, LSU, and Alabama.

RubberbandMan wrote: