Posted by: Chris Vannini on October 2, 2012

For the first time since early in the 2010 season, Michigan State isn't ranked.

Mark Dantonio, like many coaches, constantly preaches to his team about never getting too high on themselves. So how should they react to being unranked?

"I guess in this time of coaching, as an assistant, head coach, defensive coordinator, I learned one thing: you're never quite as good as you think you are or people think you are, and you're never quite as bad as people think you are either," he said at his weekly press conference. "You're somewhere always floating in there one way or the other. Emotion carries you one way or the other. Your attitude is going to carry you as well. It's how we approach things that's going to matter.

"If we approach things with our head down and everything, things are probably going to stay the same. If we get up, if we rise up a little bit, we get a little bit irritated where we're at, we want to make a statement, then that will happen."

Dantonio said he expects his team to come to play at Indiana this Saturday, and that the Spartans aren't panicking at 3-2, even if people on the outside are.

"I would expect our football team will make a statement when we come to play," he said. "That's how we've done things here. I don't think we're in panic mode. I read an article before I came over here to see what I was getting into. We're not in panic mode."

You can watch his Tuesday press conference by clicking here. Below is part of his postgame presser after Saturday's loss to Ohio State.

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Posted by: Chris Vannini on October 2, 2012