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Michigan State's head football coach got a large pay raise on Tuesday.

Mark Dantonio will now make $3.64 million annually. It's a six-year deal, up from five. Dantonio is now the fourth highest paid coach in the Big Ten. Ohio State's Urban Meyer is first on the list.

Dantonio is coming off a great season winning the Big Ten title over "Thee" Ohio State, then beating Stanford in the Rose Bowl. MSU ended up No. 3 in the country in the final poll. Dantonio's staff, led on defense by Pat Narduzzi, also received raises across the board.

Narduzzi is now the Big Ten's highest paid assistant coach.

MSU football was at a very low point when Mark Dantonio took over from John L. Smith in 2007. He has elevated this football program to an all-time high. MSU football had been down for years before Dantonio's arrival form Cincy. He took an awful program to national prominence. He has recruited high-character players who fit his system, then developed their talent.

This guy is a lunch-bucket type that wants the best for his players and staff but you have to work for it. That's how this program has been built up, kind of like Tom Izzo's. (Dantonio and Izzo were voted by Athlon magazine as the two best coaches together at the same university in the country, by the way.)

Congrats to Mark Dantonio and his staff for a job well done and raises well deserved.

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