What’s next important for Spartans

LANSING, Mich. – The challenge for Michigan State’s football program after the retirement Tuesday of head coach Mark Dantonio is to reinvigorate the program with its next coaching hire and make the right coaching hire.

Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell makes a ton of sense as a candidate – a young, proven head coach who was beating Michigan State on the recruiting trail in Ohio.

Pittsburgh coach and former MSU defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi is worth a serious look, too. He would have a firsthand understanding of the first eight years of the Dantonio era. That’s valuable. Because, again, no one in the color television era has ever been able to do at MSU what Dantonio did – in terms of sustained winning, winning big and beating Michigan. That experience is valuable. If Narduzzi brings the best of Dantonio without some of his weaknesses, then you have an ideal successor.

Here’s what’s most important: The interviews. I’m sure new MSU president Samuel Stanley and athletics director Bill Beekman want to make a splash. But fit is everything. Trust what you hear in the interview, regardless of their pedigree and stature. Nick Saban’s interview 25 years ago has been described as the best some in the room ever saw. If another NFL defensive coordinator does the same, forget Fickell or Narduzzi or whomever.

Reach out to everyone who intrigues you. Make calls to the dream candidates who will certainly turn you down and those who you have no idea what they’re thinking. Maybe Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy is tired of waiting on the NFL. Or 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh, who’s from Dearborn. You have to act quickly. But it’s more important to make the best possible hire.