Narduzzi Can Stay, But It'll Cost You a Baker

It was announced a few minutes ago that Pat Narduzzi has agreed to stay at MSU. This is good squishee for all of us. He got his players, he has his scheme, things are looking good for him. Good enough that he should stay and take the right Head Coaching job when he is ready to move on. I realize that in the end all MSU has done is retain a current coach while giving him a raise that'll pay for a few piano lessons for the kids, but this is probably the biggest win of the upcoming offseason.

Mark Hollis tweeted moments ago: "Great to have Coach Narduzzi at MSU. He is ready to be a head coach at a big time program. That will be his next move. He is all Spartan." Translation: He got paid and will only leave for the right HC gig. Glad you're back Pat, figure out how you plan to replace Jerel Worthy. Welcome home.

Edwin Baker


In terms of karma, there was a small correction in The Force immediately preceding the Duzzer press release. Edwin Baker announced he will forgo his senior season and pursue the NFL. This decision has been hinted at for a couple of days on message boards and twitter, but only tonight became official. I know what you're thinking, and I'm thinking it too.  This is like the Island on Lost or something, if one can stay, one must go. Survivor maybe? I don't know I'm getting my TV all mixed up.

Baker was replaced by Bell as the starter mid-season. The twittaz indicate Dantonio encouraged Baker to stay. Rexrode wrote that Baker did not consult with the NFL's Advisory Committee. In short, Baker was not coming back to MSU, whether it was because of diminished carries, the emergence of Bell, or something else. Baker's timer had gone off.

Vague Prediction-Like Substance

I said a few times this year I thought Baker was more physically gifted than Bell, that's still true. What Baker lacked and Bell had was vision. In the pros, I think it's more likely that when Baker runs to where the hole should be, that it will open up for him. However, I still think it's VERY unlikely he gets drafted and so he'd have a lot of work to do to get to the field in the first place. I hope I'm wrong and we're all laughing about how Baker broke Barry Sanders records in 2025.

Anyway, I'm really hoping for a very boring MSU football weekend. MSU has had a lot of ups and downs this week.

MSU: The Week In Review

So um, kind of a lot happened this week in MSU football. In case you have forgotten, MSU won it's first bowl game under Mark Dantonio. It helps when MSU isn't playing the top QB in the NFL draft, with a lost WR corps or four first round defensive draft picks from Alabama. Still, the Spartans needed a monster defensive game, some excellent special teams play and even a bit of luck to cut the cake against Georgia. Georgia is a very good and very young team, and I'd like to avoid playing the 2012 and maybe even the 2013 version of this team.

I said in the postgame write-up and will reiterate here, this game was MSU's season in a nutshell. You had the "road game blues" where the offense couldn't do anything, you had the "Spartan Domination" on offense in the 3rd and 4th quarter, where MSU scored 27 points in the second half to turn the corner. Special teams played well when it counted and the defense, oh, the defense. Thank you. This season wouldn't have been possible without our amazing defense.

I'll be rewatching this game over the weekend and with the help of Ty doing a bit of film review. That should be fun for next week.

Badgerfreude and a tiny bit about Basketball

MSU notched it's first victory at the Kohl's Center since 2001 on Tuesday night. The Badgers had their clocks out of sync and the scoreboard clock expired before the stadium clock. The refs reviewed and decided the Wisconsin player had not gotten the shot off in time. Bo Ryan summoned his rage. He called the refs falcons. He ranted "Falcon, you falconing Mister Falcons!"

Bielema can't tell time. I've decided this is the only way the clock management of a Big Ten Head Coach could be so poor. He called a timeout on 1st and 10 in the third quarter. A timeout that would have been useful with :02 seconds to go in the Rose Bowl when you'll have a shot at the end zone from the 28. Honest to goodness, he really needs to work on this in the offseason.

Perhaps, and this is just me spitballing, they wrote a clause into his Rose Bowl bonus where the bonus is only activated if he runs the shot clock at the following night's men's hoops game. You know, for funsies. All of this clock mismanagement couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of guys.

DeAnthony Arnett

DeAnthony Arnett received his release from Tennessee and will transfer to Michigan State University. Between Arnett and 2012 WR commit Aaron Burbridge, this marks the second year in a row MSU will have the top WR commit in the midwest committed to play for the green and white. I'm currently projecting Arnett as a slot receiver and the heir apparent to Keshawn Martin at the position. Whether he will run all of the fancified trick plays is a different discussion altogether. This is a huge pickup for the Spartans and can only help Maxwell's transition into Cousins job next year.

Jerel Worthy

Worthy announced his plans to forgo his senior season and declare for the NFL draft. Worthy is a projected first rounder and it would be a gamble for him to pass up that kind of money. There are a host of potential DTs ready to step into his place, but his impact will be sorely missed next year. Players leaving early for the NFL is a great thing for Michigan State. Be happy for him. His mom Stephanie made it quite clear Jerel will finish his degree or else... A great situation all around.

Pat Narduzzi

Pat Narduzzi has interviewed for the DC position at Texas A&M and will be offered the job at a rate of pay between 600 - 750k. As I said yesterday, this is not a positive thing for MSU. Coaches leaving for Head Coaching jobs is a great thing, coaches leaving for lateral promotions is not. The fan reactions have ranged from fury to apathy to congratulations. No decision has yet been reached on the part of Narduzzi nor has an apparent public counter-offer been made by Michigan State.

I suspect this will be over by the end of the weekend, maybe even Friday. If MSU loses Narduzzi, expect some upset fans. I just hope these same fans don't complain when ticket prices go up to support the coaching staff in the future. If MSU keeps Narduzzi, it'll probably only be for a couple years until he finds a quality head coaching gig.

Bonus Conspiracy Theory

Narduzzi was "scheduled" to receive a raise to 305k per Hondo in February. Narduzzi withdrew his name from consideration for the Akron gig. Treadwell is making 450 or so at Miami-OH, so one would expect that Akron would be shopping in that price range too. To me this all adds up to the reported 305k actually being higher than that. 2/3rds of a potential salary doesn't seem low enough to cause Narduzzi to say no.

In Review

That Outback Bowl feels like it was a LONG time ago now. MSU had some of it's biggest successes of the Dantonio era and was immediately forced to begin defending it's newfound success. The choices made regarding Narduzzi will help demonstrate how committed MSU is to paying the money necessary to retain an excellent coaching staff. It's a game of inches as Dantonio always says, and MSU needs to win the next couple days to help secure more of these first world problems for 2012.

Growing Pains: A New Problem For MSU Football

They're a serious problem sometimes.

Jerel Worthy

Worthy has a presser scheduled for 2pm today and is expected to declare for the NFL draft. This is not unexpected as he's been on mock draft watch lists since 2009 and hasn't moved much from the first round since. While it never feels like a great thing for a player of Worthy's caliber to leave early, it IS a great thing if he goes in the first round. When recruiting kids the three best things you can do for them are: make sure they graduate, win a championship and put them in the league. If Worthy has a shot to get drafted for big bucks in the first or even the high second, he should go.

Thank you Jerel Worthy, you are one twitchy young man.

Pat Narduzzi

Narduzzi is rumored to be interviewing in Texas A&M as we speak. This in my opinion is not a great thing. It's rumored his current salary is 230k to be raised to 305 in Feb and that his offer at A&M would be anywhere from 500 to 750. I am absolutely for our coaches taking HC gigs elsewhere. Again, if you are growing the program and the tree that's solid. What I am not for is Narduzzi taking a lateral promotion for double the money.

Is there a chance he stays at MSU? Absolutely. In my opinion though, it's for the solid season in 2012 to provide him an HC gig OR because he's happy in the Midwest and wants to stay. MSU needs to make him feel special right now, whether it's with money, better recruiting tools, etc. MSU needs to make a big show of how much they want him here.

If A&M can roll out 600k for Duzzer, they can roll out 800k. MSU cannot beat them in a bidding war. They can at best hope to keep pace. Another thing to consider here is that maybe Narduzzi doesn't want to be a head coach. I've managed people before. It's difficult, tedious and thankless work and maybe he's not interested. So doubling up salary to do what you love would sound very appealing.

Growing Pains and the Financial Cost of Success

These are new pains for us at MSU and as fans, alumni and a school we need to ask ourselves a few questions. Are we willing to accept having the cost of a top notch football program? Many top assistants are fetching north of 500k in college football. To match the high end of Narduzzi's rumored offer, MSU fans would need to pay a dollar more per ticket per game. To bring the entire assistant staff's salary into line with SEC ranges a 3-5 dollar per ticket per game change wouldn't be off the board.

Next year, MSU plays Boise State, EMU, ND, OSU, Neb, Iowa and Northwestern at home and you can bet that after holding ticket prices steady for the 2011 season there will be a substantial hike next year.  Would you be willing to fork over the additional 3-5 dollar per ticket money when it could be on top of a 5-15 dollar per ticket hike already?

College football isn't a game now, it's an arms race. Michigan State has the alumni base and support structure to participate, but it's going to mean changing the way fans think of buying tickets. To participate with the big hitters of college football, it's going to mean opening your wallets as fans. So what's it gonna be MSU fans?