By Philip Zaroo
As opposed to last year's opener against University of Alabama-Birmingham – a 55-18 Michigan State victory – the Spartans begin this season with a tough road game against California. While it won't be easy, the advantage, says coach Mark Dantonio, is the players and coaches can find out right away if they can rise to the challenge. “Last year, we tiered-up as we went into our non-conference games," Dantonio said during his weekly Big Ten teleconference, "and sort of got a more difficult game every week, and built confidence there, and ended up 4-0. I think this is a different situation.
"We're going to find out more about ourselves, right off the bat, in terms of playing away from home, in terms of playing a Pac-10 team that's a very good football team. So we'll find a little bit more about ourselves in adverse situations, which can be used as a learning experience. And with our football team being as young as it is, the opportunity to play in a nationally shown game is going to be an experience that'll be very valuable for our young players."
Listen to the whole teleconference to hear Dantonio talk about his expectations for starting quarterback Brian Hoyer:
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