Free Press sports writer Chris Solari looks at the looming issues for the Spartans this season:
Was last year’s 3-9 season an aberration or a trend?
Recent history dictates that Mark Dantonio and his staff can rescue MSU from a down year, though none previous can match the 3-9 abyss from a year ago. Duffy Daugherty got past a few bad years to win shares of the 1965 and ’66 national titles, but he never recovered from a 3-7 season in 1967 after all that success. Dantonio’s Spartans are more talented than they were after the 2009 and 2012 down seasons, benefiting from a recruiting boost from their 2013-15 run of success.