EAST LANSING, Mich. _ I was watching a national college football preview show, which was focusing on the Big Ten.
They started off talking about the controversy at Ohio State, which made sense. It's still a hot topic.
Then, they talked about Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh, who might finally have his quarterback, even if he still hasn't developed one.
They talked about the potential of Penn State and Wisconsin and brought up how Iowa always seems to upset a ranked team in Kinnick Stadium.
Finally, near the end of the segment, they briefly mentioned Michigan State, almost as an afterthought. And some on the panel agreed that the Spartans could have a fantastic year.
Maybe, even a Big Ten Championship year.
But that's where the Spartans are right now.
A potential conference champion flying under the radar because the Big Ten is loaded with so many talented teams.
"We play an incredible schedule, play against the best maybe in America," said MSU coach Mark Dantonio, whose team opens play on Friday night against Utah State.
The Spartans are ranked No.12 in the preseason Amway Coaches Poll, so you can't play the disrespect card.
This is not another one of those yearly, preseason, chip-on-the-shoulder columns.
Those days seem long gone.
MSU has high expectations, even if they don't have a lot of hype.
The Spartans return just about everybody from a 10-3 season. They have an experienced quarterback, an experienced offensive line, an experienced running back, talented wide receivers, play makers on both sides of the ball, and a defense that returns just about everybody from a squad that ranked No.2 against the run. Oh, and they have the second-winningest coach in MSU history, who has won multiple Big Ten championships (2010, 2013, 2015).
On paper, that sounds like a team that can challenge for the Big Ten.
"On paper _ on paper," MSU co-offensive coordinator Dave Warner said. "We have high expectations for this offense. Until that happens, it doesn't mean anything."
That's the interesting thing about returning so many players. They come with a history, with their own pluses and minuses.
Here's the good news for Spartan fans: MSU returns an experienced line and an experienced running back in LJ Scott.
Now, here's the twist: Last year, using most of the same players, MSU ranked No.62 in the country in rushing, averaging 167.8 yards per game.
So it's pretty simple: Even though the Spartans have experience, they have to get better at running the ball to make a run for the conference title.
And it stands to reason, they will be better.
How much is the question.
"We didn't run up and down the field against anybody last year," Warner said. "We finished strong, the last couple of games. But if you look at our work as a whole, we weren't anywhere close to where we needed to be. I think our offense understands that. Even though we have a ton of guys coming back, we have a lot of room to get better.
"Because we have to. We have the ability to be much more explosive, but it doesn't mean anything until we get to that point."
Here's another issue: the Spartans scored just 319 points, or 24.5 points per game, which ranked 96th out of 130 teams.
"We have to make things happen," Warner said. "We didn't score enough points last year. It was us as an offense. We have to find ways to do it. We have the ability to do it, but we have to find ways."
It starts with the running game, but it's also on quarterback Brian Lewerke.
More than anything, he needs to be more consistent.
But going into his second season, Lewerke figures to be more comfortable and confident in his reads and checks. He has become more of a leader.
"It's just a little more consistency in our passing game," Warner said. "We had some good games. We had some 400-yard games and we had a couple of games, where we threw, I don't know, 50 or 60 yards."
The Spartans are set up with an advantageous schedule, playing Michigan and Ohio State at home.
They don't play Wisconsin.
And they have something else.
Something intangible that Dantonio can sense.
"I just have a good feeling," Dantonio said. "They care about each other. I think they're unselfish ... . When you want to build a great football team, you usually start with something like that."
The Spartans seem to have it all. A fantastic coach. The experience. The play makers.
The intangibles. And room to grow.
They have everything but the hype.
But this time of year, that doesn't matter one bit.
