Michigan State football isn't giving up on 2016, and neither should you

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

foxsports

Michigan State football isn’t giving up on the 2016 season and neither should Spartan fans.

There have been some rumblings around the Michigan State football fan base about how the team should just took toward the future and focus on the 2017 season. The Spartans are just 2-2 overall and 0-2 in the Big Ten, so what’s the point of trying from this point forward, right?

Wrong.

Drew Sharp of the Detroit Free Press, had an absolutely awful take on the subject, stating that Mark Dantonio should just admit that the 2016 season is lost and look toward 2017.

Michigan State’s season has evolved into a crumbling mess. Instead of picking up the pieces and assembling something remotely salvageable from the 2016 season, Mark Dantonio must start fresh with an eye toward 2017.

So, with eight games left in the season and a New Year’s Six bowl left to play for, the Spartans are just supposed to pack up the tent and go home? Michigan State should just aim for six wins and nothing more, head into next season as a middle-of-the-pack Big Ten team and hope for better?

This ‘just focus on next year’ take is getting used more and more by the day. Fans are forgetting the past when Michigan State had six losses before November and had to fight for its postseason life in the final month.

People seem to forget where this program resurrected from. No, this isn’t Alabama nor is it Ohio State, the Spartans aren’t going to win 11 or 12 games every single year. Fans have become spoiled because of the success over the past five or six years, but fail to realize that down years happen.

Starting the season 2-0 with a win over then-No. 18 Notre Dame on the road, everyone dubbed Michigan State a ‘playoff contender’ and now, just two short weeks later, the Spartans should mail it in for 2016 because there’s ‘nothing to play for’? Please.

Giving up when there’s still a chance to teach kids that perseverance can lead to rewards, a chance to make a big-time bowl even if it’s not the playoff and a chance to beat two of MSU’s biggest rivals, and top-five teams, at home.

No, 2016 is not a dead season, and no one should treat it as such. If every team gave up after two losses, college football wouldn’t be fun anymore and Michigan State’s football program wouldn’t exist.

Please, remember where this program came from.