Dr. Green and White Sports Authority

I must admit that I was very concerned about Michigan State University's game on Saturday against the Penn State Nittany Lions. On Friday night, news was starting to leak out that multiple Spartans were slowed by a combination of illness and injuries. The Vegas Line drifted Penn State's way all week. By kick-off, the Lions were favored by almost a touchdown. Even though we are well short of mid-winter, things looked bleak. But, college football is a strange game and strange things were afoot across the nation this weekend. In the state of Michigan, snow was gently failing across the region. On the field, the snow was glistening. Spartan Stadium was a winter wonderland. As for the play of the Spartans, it was a beautiful sight.  As the Spartans have done all year, they kept fighting and kept chopping, and despite the injuries and illnesses, earned a hard-fought 30-27 victory. The players did not build a snow man in the meadow following the game, but Kenneth Walker did make a sno...

It is hard to believe that it is already the final week of the regular season. But, the calendar says that it is late November, Christmas music has made an appearance at the local grocery stores, and the standings tell us that the Michigan State Spartans have already played 11 of their 12 scheduled games. Many of us this week are working to plan to execute a Thanksgiving feast for friends and family. Meanwhile, Coach Mel Tucker and the Spartans are planning to face the final challenge of the 2021 football season in the form of the Penn State Nittany Lions this Saturday at Spartan Stadium. When it comes to both the Thanksgiving meal and to college football, planning is just the first, very important step. However, the difference between feast and famine, however, is the execution.  Penn State offers an interesting final exam for Michigan State this season. If the Spartans can execute and earn the win, they will enjoy the bounty of a guaranteed 10-win season and likely the accolades ...

My summary of Michigan State University's brutal 56-7 loss to Ohio State this weekend can basically by summed up as follows: It could have gone better. We all knew going into the game that it was going to be a challenge. The Spartans were going to need to be sharp, the Buckeyes were going to need to be a little sloppy, and MSU was likely going to need to get some good bounces. When exactly zero of those things happen, well, a 49-point blow out is what happens. It is what it is. Michigan State is having a dream season so far. Even the most optimistic fan would have been hard pressed to predict a 9-2 record with a win over Michigan by the time the Thanksgiving turkey was finished cooking. But, I think that it is clear that this Spartan team has been flying by the seats of their pants for some time now. Coach Mel Tucker has been squeezing every last ounce of potential out of this team every week. That effort has been good enough to beat almost every team on the schedule. That is alway...

Southeast Michigan saw the first snow fall of the year this week. This fact, coupled with the impending Thanksgiving Holiday, has gotten a lot of us in the holiday spirit. Each family tends to have their own Holiday traditions. Some families prefer ham while others prefer turkey. Some family like to watch sports over the Holidays, while other prefer attend a seasonal concert or ballet. Some even like both. For the Michigan State University football family, there are also several holiday traditions. Right around Halloween, us Spartans enjoy beating the Michigan Wolverines. This has resulted in the origin of yet another tradition: listening a list of excuses as to why something that happens 70 percent of the time is actually a fluke due to weather or some grand officiating conspiracy. It's a lot of fun for everyone. From roughly 2010 on, the Spartans had a tradition of beating the teams that they should beat on their schedule, playing meaningful games in November, challenging for Big...

It may not look like it or feel like it, but the fact the Michigan State Spartans beat the Maryland Terrapins last weekend is a pretty big deal. The Spartans are now 9-1, and all of their goals are still in front of them. It is mid-November, and the Green and White are in the hunt for a National Title. The odds of actually achieving that goal are still pretty small. In fact, my computer actually says that they are less than one percent. The Spartans would need to beat five very good teams in a row in order to raise the crystal football next January. But the fact that we can even write those words this late in the season is a testament to what Coach Mel Tucker has done in East Lansing. Even if the Spartans fail to win another game this season, winning nine games means that the Spartans are beating the teams that they should beat. That is the first step in building a championship-level program. We will find out over the next two weeks if the Spartans are already there. Even if they are n...

This past weekend, Day Light Savings came to an end for most of the country. It was that one magical weekend every fall when we all get one an extra hour on a Saturday. For Michigan State University football fans, it meant that we had one extra hour to stew about the Spartans first loss of the season at the hands of the Purdue Boilermakers. In the loss to Purdue, the Spartans failed to make in the plays during "winning time" that they had made in the first eight games of the season. Now, with the Maryland Terrapins coming to town, it is time for the Green and White to reset the clock and attempt to fall back to their winning ways. If the Spartans get shell-shocked by the visiting turtles on Saturday afternoon, Michigan State's dreams of a Big East title will all but finished. At that point, the rest of the regular season would essentially fall back to an exercise in maneuvering for the best possible bowl game. A win over Maryland would get the Spartans to 9-1 and well pos...