Review of Rose Bowl: Elation Forever!

Folks, why are we so blessed? I saw this coming a few years ago, and that's why I started blogging about Spartan football. And I felt that 2013 would be the year the Spartans could even compete for the national championship. Only a few bad calls in the Notre Dame game kept that prediction from coming true.

The bottom line is that I could see that Dantonio was building a special program, not something based on luck, but on substance. This is a program that does not depend on one or a few special players, and a lot of lucky breaks. This is a program with incredible depth and with excellent coaches. Indeed, next year, this team will be set to make another run. Folks, we have our Joe Paterno (but hopefully without the program-killing scandal).

Thoughts on the game:

Defense

They showed the nation their eliteness. They kept a high-scoring Stanford offense to 13 points (Stanford's D scored 7). They were burned a few times a deep passes and they tackled poorly in the first quarter. But they figured things out and completely shut down Stanford's offense after the first quarter. Elsworth and Harris obviously stepped up, and I fully expected that would be the case.

Offense

They actually dominated a tough Stanford D. If not for a few bad breaks, MSU could have put up over 30 points on an elite defense. Can you believe that? Dantonio has built a team with an elite D and a nearing eliteness O.

Cook paired greatness with 3 really bad plays. At least he recovered from the poor plays and really contributed to the victory. Man, if his judgment improves a little more, he really could contend for the Heisman next year.

Langford looked great in the second half, except for the fumble. The o-line was outstanding most of the game, against an good front-7. The receivers were excellent -- I can't believe how much progress they've made.

Special Teams

Sadler struggled with some punts, but otherwise, the special teams avoided critical mistakes and contributed significantly to the field position battle.

Coaches

Narduzzi was too much for Stanford, and really, so were Warner and Bollman. If not for some MSU mistakes, this game would have been more of a blowout. Oh, if we could only keep this staff together forever...

Upshot

What an astonishing achievement. It is not luck or an easy schedule that brought MSU its first Rose Bowl victory in 26 years. This team had to defeat two really tough teams -- Ohio State and Stanford -- and that accomplishment could only be achieved through a methodical building process. MSU's future looks so unbelievably bright.

The crazy thing is that I really think this team could be better next year. The entire offense should come back, except 3 senior o-linemen, who I think can be replaced with the talent MSU has brought in and is bringing in -- more on that later. They lose a lot on defense, but they also have phenomenal talent coming back on that side of the ball. Folks, a national championship is very possible -- more on that later.