The day after Michigan State lost its season finale at Penn State, Mark Dantonio drove to Cincinnati. During the nearly five-hour trip, he turned the radio off and sat in silence. A little while later, he drove another two hours to Columbus and did the same thing.
That time alone, free of distractions, gave Dantonio a chance to think. To reflect on all that went wrong with the Spartans' 3-9 season. And most importantly, how he could help his program avoid a repeat of that debacle.
"I've taken the approach of, 'Hey, I'm a new coach coming in here, I'm going to fix the things that other guy did last year,'" Dantonio said in a news conference Thursday.