For the 12th time, Spartan Stadium opened its doors to fans for a meet and greet with Michigan State’s football team. Fans got an opportunity to tour the facilities, enjoy food and, if they wanted to wait in the long lines, meet the players.

Coaches and players signed autographs and took pictures with thousands of fans for just over two and half hours.

At this point last year, fans were excited about seeing Michigan State become a defensive juggernaut, but not so sure of what to expect on offense.

It was not until the fourth game of the Spartans’ season when the Spartans knew who their man under center would be. Some fans preferred senior Andrew Maxwell, some thought redshirt freshman Tyler O’ Connor should be No. 1. There were even fans calling for true freshman Damion Terry to be the starter.

This year, Meet the Spartans seemed more like “Meet Connor Cook”.

Fans were excited to meet the players and staff of the defending Big Ten champions on Tuesday.  Riding high off the incredible season, the expectations are even higher for 2014.

Last week, at Michigan State’s media day, head coach Mark Dantonio spoke about meeting players’ and fans’ expectations. While he hopes to improve on last year’s Big Ten and Rose Bowl championships, Dantonio knows the important mindset for the Spartans is to take the season one game at a time.

“We don’t hit doubles and triples all the time. We hit a lot of singles.” Dantonio said at media day.

When asked about a National Championship, Dantonio replied: “We are going to dream big.”

Bradley Allen is a multimedia journalist for Impact Sports.

Photos: Bradley Allen/Impact Sports