As just about everyone knows, Michigan State football coach Mark Dantonio suffered a heart attack early Sunday morning after the Spartans’ unbelievable overtime win over Notre Dame.

Dantonio, 54, has since had an angioplasty and been released from the hospital. When he will return to the sidelines is yet to be determined.

Heart ailments are no joke. It’s good Coach D’s wife was able to get him to the hospital shortly after he began to take ill, or the talk around East Lansing may have been on something other than Coach’s, um, guts in calling for a fake field goal down three in extra play to Notre Dame.

Someone did decide to make light of a very serious situation, though, and it was totally uncalled for.

Matt Patrick, a morning radio host for South Bend, Ind., news/talk station 95.3 MNC, Tuesday morning got in front of a camera for a short video podcast and said God caused Dantonio to have a heart attack because MSU cheated the Irish. His reasoning was that the play clock had expired before the snap on the game’s final play.

“The moral of the story is you mess around with the Fighting Irish, you cheat on the last play of the game, overtime, and beat the Irish, God is going to get you,” Patrick said.

A little research found Patrick, a 30-year radio veteran, Tuesday was hosting just his seventh show with the station, which leads me to believe his comments served as nothing more than a way to gain listeners and draw traffic to the station website.

More research found Patrick is an avid Notre Dame supporter, which would normally raise an eyebrow, but most radio host have strong ties to teams in their area and make their feelings known.

He has since issued an apology in video form on the station’s website after reports of several Spartan fans calling the general manager of the station voicing their displeasure with Patrick’s distasteful, classless, idiotic remarks — and after pressure from said GM, I presume.

The comments shouldn’t have ever been made.

I joke all the time about games giving me heart attacks. As an MSU fan and alum and well-known sports psycho, I make that joke frequently. I decided to come up with some new material after Dantonio’s episode because heart ailments among college football coaches is becoming an alarming trend.

Florida coach Urban Meyer retired then unretired after suffering a heart attack last winter. Northwestern head coach Randy Walker, 52, died following a heart attack in July 2006.

The job is a stressful one. Running practice and watching film 20 hours a day; not being able to spend ample time with your family and friends; and worrying about 100-plus kids and hoping they don’t decide to do anything stupid.

When episodes such as Dantonio’s take place, they’re no laughing matter.

Maybe the guy was just mad his team lost. I’d be upset, too, if I supported a team that replaced one coach, Charlie Weis, with a (slightly) slimmer version — Brian Kelly, who coaches the same style Weis did. Neither is known for their defense, which has failed the Irish in each of the last two weeks. There are already rumblings Notre Dame fans are souring on Kelly.

Maybe Patrick wanted to deflect from the fact Notre Dame is the most overrated program in college football the last 25 years.
The last time Notre Dame football did anything significant, cell phones looked like laptops and MTV still featured music videos.

What big-time recruit wants to play there these days? No 17-year-old kid cares about the history of Notre Dame. No 17-year-old kid cares enough to learn the history of the Irish, either.

Maybe God hates Notre Dame. How many times in recent years has the team played well enough to get fans’ hopes up and made it to a BCS game only to get destroyed by a better team?

Patrick was talking about karma when he made his comments. If there were any real karma, he’d be searching the classifieds right now.

My boys and I every summer have a night where we decide to set the win totals of our favorite teams.

The best part about the whole process is it usually takes place about the time a White Castle tastes like a filet, which makes for some interesting predictions and discussion.

Last year, everybody was saying Michigan State, our alma mater, would win nine or 10 games. Everybody called me crazy for saying we'd top out at seven wins. State finished 6-7.

This year, I've hopped over to the other side of the fence. And this year, people are saying I'm as crazy as Kourtney Kardashian's baby daddy.

That's because I think MSU is going to be playing in Pasadena on New Year's Day 2011. Yes, I have my reasons. and, no, I haven't been hanging out with Paris Hilton.

Please, if you're gonna laugh, wait until the end.

Schedule plays into MSU’s hands
As a Spartan alum, I know MSU football handles prosperity as well as Lindsay Lohan, but the Spartans would have to quit at various points in the season to not win at least nine games. That or run awry of some frat boys.

Of the 12 games on MSU’s slate, seven are at Spartan Stadium against perennial powers such as Western Michigan (Sept. 4), Northern Colorado (Sept. 25) and Minnesota — a team many have picked to finish dead last in the Big Ten this season (Nov. 6).

The rest of the “home” slate includes Florida Atlantic Sept. 11 (I don’t care if the game is at Ford Field and is supposed to be a home game for FAU. It’s a home game for MSU, even if the Owls will recoup the gate), Notre Dame (Sept. 19), Wisconsin (Oct. 2), Illinois for Homecoming (Oct. 16), and Purdue (Nov. 20).

The only real toughie in the Spartans first eight games should come when the Badgers, ranked No. 12 in both the Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today coaches polls, travel to East Lansing. It’ll be Wisconsin’s first test after games at UNLV, and home against San Jose State, Arizona State and Austin Peay. Seriously. Who makes these non-conference schedules? Duncan Hines?

While the Badgers will be a top-20 team all season, the first game in a hostile environment could have Wisconsin rattled, enabling MSU to eek out a win.

On top of that, the Spartans don’t even leave the state of Michigan until Oct. 23 when they travel to Northwestern, where MSU has won two straight and lead the all-time series, 34-16.

The remainder of the Spartans’ road slate consists of on Oct. 9 going to Ann Arbor to face a Michigan team that may have quit on John L. Rodriguez by then, No. 9/10 Iowa on Devil’s Night and at a play MSU never wins — Nov. 27 in Happy Valley against No. 19/14 Penn State.

Rivalry games against Notre Dame and at The Out House will naturally provide tests for the Spartans, but Notre Dame implementing a new scheme that includes a no-huddle offense and the loss of several players slated to make an impact this season for Michigan in its secondary should prove too much for those squads to overcome. Both games will be shootouts, but I think the overall experience of MSU’s personnel will be the difference.

With a schedule as strong as Michelle Pfeiffer’s eggs in “Scarface,” MSU has a realistic shot at starting 8-0 going into November. Cold-weather home wins against the Gophers and Boilermakers should be a given at that point in the season — if the Spartans are for real. So going 1-2 against Wisconsin, the Hawkeyes and Nittany Lions would put MSU at 10-2, 6-2 in the Big Ten. It's not out of the realm of possibility that MSU could win two of those three games, since Wisconsin is at home and I don't think Penn State will be any good this season. And I say that knowing we win in Happy Valley as often as Charles Barkley refuses a second Krispy Kreme.

That 10-2 finish would give the Spartans their best record since they finished 10-2 following the 1999 season. It could also likely put them in some sort of tie with Iowa and/or Wisconsin for second place in the conference.

Winning that tiebreaker would be crucial for any of those three teams because that second-place finish would send them to Pasadena and the 2011 Rose Bowl (I’ll get to who’ll win the Big Ten later).

I think MSU has the best shot to win that tiebreaker for one huge reason other than its creampuff schedule.

Part II coming tomorrow

For the first time in team history, the University Michigan will host a night football game at Michigan Stadium when the Wolverines welcome hated rival Notre Dame on Sept. 10, 2011.

New Michigan athletics director David Brandon made the historic scheduling announcement Thursday afternoon in Ann Arbor, according to the Associated Press.

The 2011 game will kick off at 8 p.m. ET and be televised by ESPN or ESPN2.

That looks like a good idea, as I've wondered why UM didn't host night games in the past. I don't know how well attended the game will be, though. Most Michigan football fans are in bed by 6:30 every night. I'm not sure all those old folks will make it through a game that might go until 11:30 at night. It should be fun, either way.

When Matt Millen served as president and general manager of the Detroit Lions, he was as good at that job as Joe Jackson would be at raising Michael's kids.

Lions' fans wanted him out. And after eight long, excruciatingly painful years, he was gone - three games into what would turn out to be the worst season turned in by anyone since the people who wrote the last season of "Martin."

Millen went back to what he was actually good at: analyzing the game of football. ESPN hired him, and Millen, starting this season, will provide color commentary for a number of college football games...including tomorrow's huge showdown between Michigan and Notre Dame in Ann Arbor at the Out Hou...I mean, Big House.

The announcement that Millen would be a part of the broadcast team for that game was made months ago and since then, I've heard several people bellow, "how could ESPN let that (expletive) back in this state?"

I don't see what the big deal is.

If you suck at one job, does that mean you shouldn't be able to find a position you could thrive in?

I have no problem with the guy being game fully employed. If you recall, Millen was pretty decent when it came to analyzing plays for FOX prior to taking the GM job with the Lions and stealing money for 5 years (I won't say he stole for the entire 8 years because somebody had to hire him). As long as he doesn't say anything about the pro prospects of Tate Forcier or Golden Tate, viewers should be OK.

Plus, it's not the color guy who makes the game-watching experience. It's the guy on play-by-play. I'm pretty sure not a lot of people remember Al Michaels' color guy during the "Miracle On Ice." And the only reason I remember Marv Albert's color guy (Mike Fratello) from the "Oh, a spectacular move....By Michael Jordan" call is because I'm a geek.

Millen should be an afterthought in these parts by now. He should also be an afterthought for UM fans halfway through the first quarter by tomorrow.