Enlightened Spartan Preview 2017-18

It's the End of the World as we
Know it, and I feel fine!

The ES is in his 18th year publishing Spartan predictions on-line! We are talking the LONGEST COLLEGE FOOTBALL BLOG in history.

The ES is partial on the Big Green this year. Check out this picture from Dantonio’s first radio show at Reno’s. Well, things are just looking up peachy at MSU. What a great year!!!! The ES invites anyone with a beating heart to look at the lovely facilities built for the Athletics Department on South Harrison.

You can’t miss it - Mark Hollis with his binoculars should keep a tight eye on the actions of our coaches, and in most proximity, Mark Dantonio. He should get his henchmen in order, and create a KGB-culture spy ring to figure out what athletes are disrespecting women on our campus - and to punish them! “Education”? Meh. When Coach D mentions “we got education” it is demeaning and empty with respect to what actually needs to be done proactive towards student development. Gimme a break.

Mark Hollis: Welcome to 1855 Spartan Plaza!!!!!
(look across west side of Breslin)

Where the hell did you go???? 

OK, now that the ES got that off his chest - how will this stained-football program fare in 2017-18? I welcome my prognosticators who are more well endowed in football lore than the ES. My queries: 1) Final record W-L; 
2) Big Ten record W-L; 
3) Bowl game??? 
4) Best Win; 
5) Worst Loss; 
6) General commentary on MSU debauchery...
Responses:

• SMIG 1) Final record 8-4; 2) Big Ten record 6-3; 3) Bowl game - Yes 4) Wisky 5) Ohio State 6) Looking forward to watching some football on Saturday. 
• KEITH 1) Ditto w ChicagoBro: 7-5. 6) team will gel but administrative heads will roll...maybe some coaches too. 
• CHICAGO BRO 1) Final record 7-5 2) Big Ten record 4-5 3) Bowl game - Yes 4) Best Win - vs Iowa 5) Worst Loss - at Minnesota 6) General commentary on MSU debauchery... off field troubles are past 
• BIG BOB 1) 6-6. 2) 4-5. 3) MSU will turn down the offer to play in the inaugural Barnyard Bowl played on the High School field in beautiful Elmore, OH. 4) Bowling Green. 5) Western Michigan. 6) Students boycott all games and only talk about upcoming hoops season. 
• JACK 1) 6-7; 2) 3-6; 3) loss @ Ford Field; 4) charges dismissed; 5) Rutgers (because I will be there, and last time I was there Dowdell was QB); 6) can it get worse that last year and the off season? 
• PAUL BEER IN AUSTRALIA 1) 12-0.
• KELLY BUTT 1) 7-6 (best case) How many fake punts ??? 25 Chances of First play...hand off to the the right..?? 100% 
• SLOTH 2) 3-6 3) Lmfao 4) The end of the season comes without any more violent crimes being committed 5) Michigan 6) This season feels like what 2003 would have felt like had BW been allowed to come back. We are the biggest joke at the college level right now, and it is only going to get worse. Coach D will be gone by January 1. 
•  RGM3 7-5. Upset v Penn St or Ohio St. MSU will have a winning record in the Big Ten. Loss to Notre Dame. Biggest win is Penn St at home. BWW Bowl against Texas Tech with a victory. MSU will finish in the Top20 in 2018-19.

Da ES:

• Is this John L Smith all over again?  Or, as the Sloth, pointed out; "what does it take to get a guy fired around here?"  OK, here's my take.   HARUMPH.  I've heard Indians, Pakistanis, Chinese, Japanese, Brazilians, Peruvians, Russians, Egyptians.  They all say the same thing. 6-6 record.  Then again, the Indians and Pakis thought I asked about cricket, and responded 264-6 wickets.  Whatever that means. 
• 1) Final record W-L: 6-6.

• 2) Big Ten record W-L: 3-6
• 3) Bowl game: BWW - I want Asian Zing. 

• 4) Best Win: Notre Dame. 

• 5) Worst Loss: Maryland (again).

• 6) General commentary on MSU debauchery... Coach D wins his job for another year. Barely. Stop the rape!!!!

Tomorrow morning for the first game prediction of the year!

Thank you Jenison Field House! An end to Teeman?

Wow, it was just great watching the Spartans play at Jenison against Tuskegee tonight.

The ES saw plenty of games at Jenison back in the day - I had a student season ticket pass my entire tenure, including my first three years when MSU played at Jenison, it was punched with a hole-puncher coming into each game (look at right: I just went into my basement and dug through my ticket collection to find my pass at right). 

Back from 1986-1989, I remember sitting on the front row at Jenison, right on the midcourt stripes -- cursing out the referees and listening to Jud doing the same. But, tonight, as the announcers on ESPNU noted, Jenison was LOUDER THAN HELL back in the day... and I remember yelling my head off every single game while I was there.  Congrats to Mark Hollis for pulling off an important historical understanding of the need for inclusion and integration through the important 1963 NCAA tourney game at Jenison -- so many of us Spartan fans previously never knew anything about this event. 

TONIGHT: TUSKEGEE & TERRIBLE RADIO
As far as tonight, of course, MSU beat Division II Tuskegee, 92-60, and it was nice to see a dominant game out of Adriene Payne and a nice game by Matt "Elvis" Costello. I am now listening to the radio post-game with Will Teeman and Matt Stegienga. Again, Teeman is absolutely the WORST college basketball radio announcer in the nation. He is late on all the calls, and makes the cheesiest and most-clueless comments in post game: he is completely out of touch with his audience. Oh well, it's who we've got.