Michigan State’s spring game this Saturday afternoon has few if any of the normal elements of intrigue for this time of year. There’s no major schematic shake-up to be unveiled. No quarterback battle – or really any well-defined competition among players jockeying for a starting job – to speak of. Coach Mark Dantonio knows what to expect from his team this weekend. He’s more interested to see what will be going on in the stands.

The time Dantonio has spent in front of a microphone during the past week has been mostly dedicated to drumming up interest in Saturday’s scrimmage in hopes of filling Spartan Stadium with at least 50,000 fans. There aren’t many statistics seemingly more arbitrary than the number of folks who come out to watch a team scrimmage itself more than four months before the season begins, but Dantonio’s focus on creating a lively atmosphere at 2 p.m. on Saturday says plenty about the current state of Michigan State football.

“I just think it’s the next step in our program,” he said. “You’re always trying to do a little bit better, whether it’s as a coach or critiquing things or a program. I think it’s a program goal. You’re seeing people around the country do this and you’re seeing people around our conference do this. I just think it sets things in motion for us.”

There is an element of keeping up with the Joneses in Michigan State’s push for 50,000. Neighboring Michigan and new coach Jim Harbaugh drew 60,000 in Ann Arbor three weeks ago. Penn State (68,000), Nebraska (76,881) and national champion Ohio State (99,391) make the Spartans’ goal almost seem modest. Passing 50,000 fans would put Michigan State seventh among FBS teams in spring attendance this year. To Dantonio and his players, that would be another milestone toward joining the exclusive traditional powers of the Big Ten.

“If Ohio State had 99,000 people at their spring game I don’t know how we can’t have 50 at ours,” quarterback Connor Cook said. “We won a Rose Bowl in 2014 and the Cotton Bowl this year. I think we’re the only team in college football right now that’s won back-to-back BCS games. I don’t know why we can’t have 50,000 people if it’s going to be 55 [degrees] and sunny. So, shame on Spartan Nation if they don’t show up.”

Despite all of the wins and major bowl trips and top-five finishes in recent years for Sparty, the school still has trouble generating the same type of buzz or venerated status as some of the blueblood football teams in its general area. Dantonio has used Michigan State’s status as a relative outsider for motivation frequently during the last few years, but the type of fan obsession that draws 100,000 people to a spring game is healthy if the Spartans want to sustain the level of success they’ve had recently.

Sustained success in college football correlates pretty directly with recruiting prowess. Michigan State has slowly evolved into a destination for blue-chip prospects during the last few cycles after building the program with overlooked and underrated prep players. The spring game is an important sales pitch for many recruits, and a good atmosphere in the spring can go a long way according to some of the current Spartan players.

“I think it definitely would have [made a good impression],” senior linebacker Ed Davis said. “I would’ve walked out like, ‘Damn, look at all these people I want to play here.’ I don’t want to go to a game where there’s not that many people there.”

While bringing in just half the amount of fans as Ohio State remains an uphill battle for Dantonio and company, their push for 50,000 spring spectators (now complete with its own hashtag) is probably a good sign for the immediate future of the program, at least the 2015 team.

There are a lot of coaches -- including those at schools that posted large spring attendance numbers -- who would love to have the time to think about how many people are in the stands this offseason. The actual product on the field seems to be running on autopilot in April. The Spartans return a third-year starter and potential first-round pick with Cook. In front of him, he has an experienced and talented offensive line, which squares off on a daily basis with what most people around the program believe could be the best defensive line Dantonio has had in East Lansing.

If finding a way to fill up the stands for a spring game is the biggest issue Dantonio has to tackle before the start of the season, the Spartans are in pretty good shape.