Spartans coach recovering from postgame heart attack

Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio had a mild heart attack and was hospitalized yesterday morning, shortly after calling an audacious fake field goal to beat Notre Dame in overtime.

The 54-year-old Dantonio had surgery to put a stent in a blocked blood vessel leading to the heart. He is expected to remain in the hospital a few more days, and offensive coordinator Don Treadwell will lead the team during Dantonio's indefinite absence. Dantonio won't be on the sideline when the Spartans play Northern Colorado on Saturday.

"This morning, in the very early hours, not long after the football game, coach Dantonio began experiencing some symptoms," said Dr. Chris D'Haem, who performed the relatively common procedure to restore blood flow. "Fortunately, his heart damage is very minimal. He's going to do very well and we're very optimistic he'll have a full recovery."

The Spartans defeated Notre Dame, 34-31, in a home game that ended just before midnight Saturday night. After Michigan State lined up for a 46-yard field goal that could have forced a second overtime, holder Aaron Bates threw a pass to Charlie Gantt for a winning touchdown.

D'Haem said Dantonio began experiencing symptoms of a heart problem around 12:30 a.m., including a squeezing sensation in his chest.

"Fortunately, he got in in a very timely fashion," D'Haem said.

The victory was among the signature moments of the young college football season, and it put Michigan State in this week's Associated Press poll at No. 25.

The AP's top five of Alabama, Ohio State, Boise State, TCU and Oregon was unchanged from last week. Penn State dropped one spot in the AP poll, from 22nd to 23rd, but remained No. 20 in the USA Today poll.

In other college football news:

* Houston lost starting quarterback Case Keenum with a torn ACL in its loss to UCLA, and then lost his backup, Cotton Turner, with a broken clavicle. Both are out for the season. Keenum, a senior who is the fifth-leading passer in NCAA history, was injured trying to make a tackle after an interception. Keenum passed for 636 yards and five touchdowns in three games and had a good chance to break two major passing records if he could repeat last season's numbers of 5,671 yards and 44 touchdown passes. He was 3,486 yards behind Timmy Chang's mark of 17,072, set from 2000-04 with Hawaii, and needed 28 more TD passes to break the record of 134 set by Texas Tech's Graham Harrell from 2005-08.

* Auburn right tackle A.J. Greene is likely out for the season with a left ankle injury.

* Serbia will host France in an all-European Davis Cup final in December after the Serbs rallied to beat the Czech Republic, 3-2.

In other Davis Cup action, Mardy Fish defeated Santiago Giraldo in five sets to give the United States an insurmountable 3-1 lead over host Colombia in the Davis Cup. Winning the playoff match means the United States will remain in the World Group, the top tier of the Davis Cup.

* Austria's Tamira Paszek won the Bell Challenge for her second WTA Tour title, beating American Bethanie Mattek-Sands, 7-6 (6), 2-6, 7-5, in Quebec City.

* Pole-sitter Helio Castroneves won the Indy Japan 300 in Motegi and Dario Franchitti finished second to set up a two-man race for the IndyCar title going into the final event of the season, the Oct. 2 race at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Franchitti, the defending series champion, closed within 12 points of overall leader Will Power, who placed third.

* Vincenzo Nibali won the Spanish Vuelta after American Tyler Farrar sprinted to victory in the final stage. Nibali won the overall race in 87 hours, 18 minutes, 31 seconds, while Ezequiel Mosquera finished 41 seconds back in second.