Mark Dantonio knew that Michigan State was going to reach great heights when he took over the program in 2007. One of his mottos with the Spartans was "Reach Higher," after all.
 
That belief was instilled in him by the mentors such as Nick Saban and Hall of Fame coach Jim Tressel who he considers himself fortunate to have worked for throughout his 40-year coaching journey, and by understanding the blueprint and work ethic it would take to win at the highest level as a head coach himself.
 
Before landing the top job at Michigan State, Dantonio cut his teeth as a head coach at Cincinnati where he led the Bearcats to two bowl appearances in his three years while leading the program's transition from Conference USA to the Big East. He had established him as one of the nation's top up-and-coming coaches, which opened the door in East Lansing.
 
"By the time that I got to Michigan State, that was my fifth time involved in starting a new program," Dantonio said of his path. "So, I had a game plan, or something to rely on, that said, 'This is what I need to do. This is what needs to happen for this to work.' And I had some great mentors in the process who had shown me how to do that.
 
"So, I was very confident in coming to Michigan State. I knew that we had won before — not at as high of a level, but we'd won, we were certainly a player in the conference when I was with Nick — and then I thought it could be done because it'd been done in the past before. And if we'd done it in the past, we could return to that point at some point.
 
"So, I patterned ourselves after a lot of different teams. Really, we patterned ourselves after the University of Iowa, what Kirk Ferentz did. Because we had resources, but we didn't have the resources that Ohio State or Michigan or Penn State. We were going to have to do it a different way, which we did."
 
At MSU, Dantonio became the winningest coach in Spartans history (114-57) across his 13-year tenure. His teams won three Big Ten championships, won the Rose Bowl and Cotton Bowl, and made the College Football Playoff in the tournament's second year of existence (2015-16).
 
Dantonio's MSU teams finished in the AP Top-25 seven times. He retired after the 2019 season as just the fourth coach in Big Ten history to record at least four 11-win seasons. He was named Big Ten coach of the year in 2010 and 2013. He went 8-5 against rival Michigan.
 
"If you go and look at my introductory press conference, (the Rose Bowl) was the goal," Dantonio said. "It took seven years to get there. We almost got there in '11 after four, but it took seven years to get there. And beyond that was getting to the College Football Playoff, winning three Big Ten championships. Another divisional championship and then graduating (238) players, and then being part of their lives.
 
"But winning comes in all different forms. I said this when I was speaking at MSU's commencement: Seeing Arthur Ray [who played offensive guard in 2011] walk down the aisle after he had seven surgeries for cancer, walking in our team meeting when he hadn't been there for two years, spent another year-and-a-half just trying to walk, seeing him walk down the middle of that aisle in the team room to the podium. I had a lot of memories like that. So it's all-inclusive."
 
The 68-year-old Dantonio served as associate head coach for the Spartans in 2023 but has otherwise done his best to relax, enjoying time at his lake house, golfing and, of course, playing with his grandkids.
 
"There's my family. There's my players. There's my coaches. There's the administrators. There's the people who believed in the dream, in the goal," Dantonio said of whom he attributes this honor to. "And when I came to Michigan State I wanted to leave a legacy, and this is just another sort of stamp on the whole thing that we were successful.
 
"Our athletic director Alan Haller asked me, 'What do you want to do?' I said I want to have every single player back for an event, the September 28 (campus salute), and have every single player back that I coached and just have a little party. Because it's always been about them. You're successful if you bring a group of people together and they go forward."
 
MARK DANTONIO: UP CLOSE
 

• Overall record: 132-74-0 (64.1%), including 114-57 during his 13 years at Michigan State and a 18-17 mark during his three seasons at Cincinnati.
• Retired as the all-time winningest coach in Michigan State history, having led the Spartans to three Big Ten championships, a Rose Bowl win and a berth in the 2015 College Football Playoff.
• Won more Big Ten Championships (three in 2010, 2013 and 2015) and bowl games (six) than any other coach in Spartan history while also ranking first with 12 bowl appearances.
• One of just four Big Ten coaches to have at least five 11-win seasons.
• Led Michigan State to Top 25 finishes seven times, including No. 3 in 2013, No. 5 in 2014, and No. 6 in 2015.