After hearing the issue of Chris L Rucker discussed ad nauseum the past few days, I've decided I must speak my piece on this. I cannot deal with the knee-jerk any more. Mitch Albom penned a column that I won't link because I refuse to even modestly contribute to it's traffic.

Drunk Driving is not something to be taken lightly. Most people know someone who has been hurt or killed by a drunk driver. Drunk driving has evolved from something that was treated as a joke 25 years ago to something that is both treated very seriously and is a moneymaker for police departments in 2010. But corner someone over the age of 50 and ask them their favorite story about getting out of a ticket. I'll bet you one dollar they had something to drink that night. There's a hypocrisy here by all the people who have had a little too much to drink, driven anyway and didn't get caught and arrested.

Further complicating the issue is that this is not Chris L Rucker's first time in front of a judge this year. A specific condition of his probation was to stay away from the boozeahol and avoid negative contact with an officer of the law for the next two years. He failed. He's committed a mistake, served time in jail and has completed his punishment in the eyes of the law. He has not however, completed his punishment from the fanbase and depending on what happens Saturday, he might never finish that sentence.

The stakes for the decision to play Chris L Rucker Saturday could not be higher. Dantonio stated after the Rather Hall incident that there is a zero tolerance policy for the players involved. Dantonio probably did not realize that he would be going to Iowa 10 short months later to hurdle the last major opponent between him and an undefeated season and potentially a national title game. It's an easy thing to say when your players screwed up and there's no game next Saturday, and the game on Saturday is not the biggest of your career. This Saturday is the biggest game of Mark Dantonio's career.

Conversely, this is the first repeat offender since Glenn Winston. How he handles this situation matters. What Mark Dantonio cannot do is allow the perception that second offenses are okay. He would certainly have the moral high ground should he get up in front of a room of reporters and say: "Hear ye, hear ye. Chris L Rucker has committed a second offense and as a result will be bludgeoned to death by an angry pack of neglected five year old children." However, would Dantonio have helped Rucker, the program or himself? It's hard to say.

Dantonio to date, has not let Mr. Rucker play since he backed into another car at 7-11. Not in a game, not in practice. This week Mark Dantonio plays the biggest game of his career and it is my belief that he has elected not to inform the media of Rucker's suspension from this game to prevent Iowa from gaining an offensive advantage.

As a fan enjoying the best MSU season of my lifetime, I'd like to see us sit Rucker, go out and destroy Ricky Stanzi and make Adrian Clayborn sad in his heart. If Rucker plays and we win, I'll be a little sad that we can't win and have our integrity too. If Rucker plays and we lose, then well we lost both battles.

Should Rucker sit the rest of the season? I don't know and I honestly don't care. The damage will be done after this weekend. Either we've maintained our integrity or we haven't. Either we're still undefeated or we aren't. We won't need Rucker for Minnesota, Purdue or PSU, by the bowl game his backup Dennard should be good enough to avoid being a complete liability. If we drop any more of our regular season games after Iowa it's not because of Chris L Rucker, it's because JoePa is retiring or we didn't show up to a home game against Purdue or Minny.

I know this. I'll be watching at 3:30 on Saturday to see how Dantonio chooses to use his second chance.

Ty: My wife spent her entire life never having seen the Spartans lose in person—until Northwestern took us out 37-17 in 2000. They’ve seemed to have our number ever since. Now we go to Chicagoland with a 7-0 record, and everyone rejoicing that State has finally overcome its Same Old Spartans trap-game mentality. This foretells certain doom—right?

Jim: Since MSU has compiled a 4-3 record against the Wildcats, and a 2-1 record in the Dantonio vs Fitzgerald era. Pat Fitzgerald is 1-3 vs the Spartans, which is only noteworthy because it includes the largest comeback in NCAA history in 2006.

Pat Fitzgerald is a good coach and by all accounts a better person. He has been classically laying up the Holtz-Speak all week long. In terms of a true trap game, Northwestern fits the bill of the team I am worried about this year. PSU at home even if they have lost every game this year is not really a trap game as the Spartans haven’t won there since the 60’s.

Ty: Exactly. Last year, the Spartans’ defense metamorphosized Mike “The Cockroach” Kafka into Kurt Warner: he went 34-of-47 for 291 yards and 2 scores against, essentially, this same secondary—only this time, we’ll likely be without Chris L. Rucker. Once-in-a-lifetime comebacks aside, getting caught up in a shootout on the road sounds like a recipe for disaster.

Jim: Well I’d hardly call last year’s score 24-14 a shootout. Although they did carry a 7-0 lead into the locker rooms. Dan Persa is another product of the Northwestern Infuriating Quarterback Machine and should be expected to perform as such. As a true freshman he has a 173.27 QB rating which is good for fourth in the NCAA. He is going to gash us for lots of yards, he’s going to run for a few third downs that will have the casual MSU fan questioning the coach’s knowledge of the game.

Since last year, the MSU pass defense has improved substantially. They are currently tied for 3rd in the NCAA in total interceptions with 12. I believe that the majority of this improvement can be directly correlated to the improvement of the linebacking corps in pass coverage in not allowing anyone with two working feet and at least to be open on a 5-7 yard hitch.

It looks like MSU will be without Chris L Rucker for a second straight week as he serves more suspension for a drunk driving charge. Darqueze Dennard filled in admirably in his absence this past week, but Northwestern will test him more thoroughly. Dennard worked really hard to keep his man to the outside in the Illinois game, if he can do that successfully against the Wildcats, don’t worry about Rucker too much.

Ty: Okay, so let’s say the Spartans manage to slow down, if not actually stop, the Wildcats’ passing offense. What about their pass defense? The Wildcats are 23rd in the nation in scoring defense, ranked 5th in the Big Ten—and 24th/4th in pass efficiency defense. If Northwestern can bottle up Cousins and company, and the first half looks much like the first half against Illinois, can the Spartans pull out a similar second half—in their first game outside the state of Michigan?

Jim: Bah. If MSU can slow down and especially if they stop the Wildcats passing offense, the ground game will handle the rest. This is definitely a game where the winner will be whoever establishes their own tempo early. If MSU is up 14-0 at the end of the first quarter, look for them to keep running and keep the NW offense off the field. If NW is up 14-0 at the end of the first quarter, look for MSU to take away the deep pass and keep NW limited to 3-7 yards at a pop.

If MSU is down more than 7 at the half things could be a bit dicey. So far though MSU has been a complete second half team this year, keep them close through the first half and there will be nothing to worry about.

The master of the game tempo wins this one.

Hello Readers,

I'm back at work after my wife had our second child, and with a new routine comes hopefully a bit more standardized time to do a write-up of the games.

For this week though it'll be quick thoughts.

1.) How has our secondary gone from being a weak spot on our team to a strong spot? We're currently 3rd in the NCAA in interceptions. Further, we put young Darqueeze out there and the drop off from Chris L Rucker to him is not as steep as expected.

2.) The improvement in play by Will Gholston has been fun to watch. I suspect that on opening day 2011 he will be our best pass rusher. He has all of the physical tools to dominate, just need to learn the playbook now. It's been a treat watching him come along.

3.) The Illini are currently 3-3. Their season ends with: Indy and Purdue at home, at Michigan, Minny at home, at Northwestern and at Fresno State. I think they could finish this season 5-1 and should finish this season 4-2.

4.) This team is legit. I didn't believe it until this weekend, but Illinois did exactly what I had been waiting for a team to do all year. They came in and shut down the run, then they started to run on us. The second half came around and we started playing some quick drops and getting lots of quick throws.

In short, they came in and took our lunch. Halftime came, there was some screaming, some yelling, some adjustments and we adapted our game plan to beat them a different way. I don't remember this being a characteristic of any MSU team as long as I've been watching them.

Enjoy the ride folks.

The Day of Judgment arrived on Saturday—and in the white-hot fires of holy war, a new Spartan team was forged.

After taking care of business against the lesser foes, winning miraculously against Notre Dame, and handling Wisconsin, the Spartans were burdened with the heavy weight of expectations.  At 5-0, they had reached a tipping point: beat Michigan, and they would ascend to the ranks of the legitimately undefeated.  Beat Michigan, and they could start down the gilded, downhill slope that is the Spartans’ back half of the schedule.  Beat Michigan, and they would write Chapter Six of what might be the most epic tale of Spartan football ever told.

The armor of expectations is a telling test of strength: if the body is too weak to wear it, it’s a burden, an anchor that clunks and slows and drags.  Many times I have seen the team win early, be girded with the breastplate and gauntlets, and collapse.  But Saturday, the Spartans wore the expectations like the armor they are.  The Spartans were protected by the knowledge they were good enough to win, and strengthened by the confidence that knowledge gave them.  They did not panic when the opponent made early advances, but held firm and took over the game.  They did not stumble and trip like a teenager—they strode calmly and confidently, like men, into Michigan Stadium.  They walked out having defeated “The Victors.”

Let me be clear about this: Michigan is a very good team.  Their offense is legitimately potent; they definitely had chances to score more points than they did.  Further, their defense bottled up the Spartans’ running game for far longer than I thought they would.  Before the season, I thought Michigan was a seven-win team; today I expect them to win eight, or possibly nine games.  They are a very good football team, and it is a fine feather in MSU’s helmet to have beaten them in Ann Arbor.

Second: Denard Robinson is a very good player.  I don’t believe that he’s a great quarterback, nor that he is the most outstanding player in the nation.  But he is very good—and despite myself, I’m geniunely rooting for the kid.  He seems to be humble, classy, a great teammate—and he is undeniably very talented.  If what you, Dear Reader, are trying to take away from this game is that “Denard sucks,” or “Denard choked,” you’re wrong.  Against Michigan State, Denard was exactly what he is and has been: extremely fast, extraordinarily difficult to contain, lethal on a zone read, always a danger to break one long, an inconsistent decision-maker and an inaccurate downfield thrower.

Against Indiana, that gets you 10 of 16 for 277, 3 TDs, no INTs, and 217 yards rushing.  Against Michigan State, that gets you 17 of 29 for 215, 1 TD and 3 INTs, and 86 yards rushing.

The missed wide-open touchdown pass to Stonum is exactly what I’m talking about.  Forget Sammy Baugh’s legendary “swinging tire” he threw through for practice, Robinson had a stationary side-of-a-barn he needed to throw that ball through to score a significant early touchdown, and he couldn’t do it.  Another example?  In the third quarter, the Wolverines were down by two scores, and had 2nd-and-9 from the Spartan 13-yard-line.  Denard rolled to his right, no rush, and saw his outside receiver squat in a hole in the zone, just past the sticks.  With a ten-yard pitch-and-catch, the Wolverines convert, and possibly score.  Instead, Denard fires it into the turf, several feet shy of his target—he one-hopped a critical ten-yard pass.  The next attempt was intercepted in the end zone; instead of bringing it to within one score, the game slipped away.

This is what drives me crazy about Denard, Culpepper, Vick, Tebow, or any of the quarterbacks who’ve worked fans and media up into a blithering lather with athletic highlights.  In order to beat good defenses, quarterbacks have to consistently make good reads, good decisions, and good throws at great speed.  Denard Robinson isn’t currently capable of that—and the jury’s still out on whether he ever will be.

However, he won’t need to beat good defenses very often!  There simply aren’t many of them around—and the schedule is gerry-rigged so that he’ll face as few of them as possible.  Ergo, even if Denard’s never any more than what he is, the Wolverines will win eight or so games every year he’s under center.  That was why I decried the hype surrounding Denard—not because I thought he was a bad player, but that I thought he was a good one.  Denard deserves to be celebrated as a good player—not propped up as a great one, then denigrated when he falls short!  His frame can’t bear the weight of championship expectations just yet. 

No, that weight—and that armor—rests on Sparty’s broad shoulders now.  The battle-hardened, flame-forged Spartans march on to meet their destiny, knowing their mettle is a match for anyone’s.

Hello everyone, my name is Jim and I am addicted to Spartan Sports.

It all started back in Fall of 1998 in my first semester at MSU. I had moved onto campus a few weeks earlier and was going through the slog of the freshmen required courses. I remember the day my addiction began, it was September 12th, 1998. We played the Fightin' Irish and it was the first weekend I was staying on campus.

Now the thing you should know about Bailey Hall in 1998 is that it was full of geeks. The hall had a science and engineering focus to it at the time, the collective knowledge of Star Wars Trivia far outweighed what existed in the fictional Star Wars Universe. I had hardly watched football at all prior to this, and so I turned on the game because I could hear the stadium off in the distance.

This was the day we beat Notre Dame, and we didn't just beat them, we crushed them. The halftime score was 42-3. But even more importantly yet, I started out watching the game in my room and gravitated down the hall to meet my fellow floormates for what eventually turned into a college career of good times with friends featuring oat sodas.

My enjoyment of MSU sports is tied deeply to many experiences that highlight my time in college and a few that are highlights in my life. In 1999, my friends and I camped outside of Spartan Stadium for the front few rows of the U of M game. In 2000, I was pulled over for 48 in a 25 and not issued a ticket because we had just won this game. In 2004, we pummeled Wisconsin in a game we had no business winning. In 2005, I propsed to my wife at the MSU-Hawaii rematch. In 2008, my two week old daughter was present for the stop against Shonn Greene and the Hawkeyes. In a week from tomorrow my second daughter will be present for what should be a snoozer against Illinois.

As Ty said, this is my first blog. Bear with me and I will try to make my contributions part of what you enjoy about Spartan Sports.