In case you haven’t heard, Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio has decided to call it a career. He announced his retirement on his Twitter account Tuesday. The timing and fashion in which it was done came as a shock to many, but Dantonio was clear in his intention to spend more time with family and leave the stress and time commitments behind.
If anyone knows about those demands, it’s one of his fiercest former combatants, former Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer.
The Columbus Dispatch spoke to Meyer about the shocking news, and he had nothing but good things to say about Dantonio and the Michigan State program under his guidance.
Mark and I have been friends since his Cincinnati days,” Meyer told The Dispatch. “I think he’s one of the best tacticians in the game of football that I ever coached against.”
That’ some high praise from a future Hall of Famer that’s gone against some pretty remarkable coaches during his career in the SEC and Big Ten. When asked about the Michigan State program under Dantonio, he went on to say that it was a golden era.
“Arguably the greatest era of Michigan State football — the modern era — is Mark Dantonio’s,” Meyer said.
Meyer also touched on some of the heartbreaks administered by Dantonio during the time in which the Spartans and Buckeyes were arguably the two best programs in the Big Ten going toe-to-toe.
Urban Meyer shocked by Mark Dantonio's retirement as Michigan State coach https://t.co/tD9OQLSIrq
— BuckeyeXtra.com (@BuckeyeXtra) February 4, 2020
The former OSU coach said the 2013 loss to Dantonio’s Spartans in the Big Ten Championship game was a gut punch. It ruined a shot at a national championship for Ohio State. But the 2015 one that was dealt to OSU by the Spartans in the ‘Shoe still haunts him “to this day.” That Buckeye team will go down as one of Ohio State’s most talented teams in the history of the program, but that single loss kept it out of the conversation for a spot in the College Football Playoff.
Sometimes the best combatants end up having the most respect for each other, and that’s clearly the case for Meyer as he reminisced about those battles against Dantonio and Michigan State.
“I’ve always had respect for the Michigan State community and football program,” Meyer said. “I love Michigan State. Since my Notre Dame days (in the 1990s), I’ve thought Michigan State is a great place. They’ll find a great coach.”
Ohio State seems to have found a great one in Ryan Day, now it’s Michigan State’s turn. Could that guy also have Buckeye ties?