Michigan-Michigan State spat extends into new week
The pregame ANN ARBOR, MICH. — spat between Michigan and Michigan State is showing no signs of going away.
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said Monday the athletic directors for both schools should probably talk about what happened on Saturday before the game at Michigan State. The Spartans walked from one end zone to the other with their arms locked, as they do before each game, but it happened while some of the Wolverines were stretching near the middle of the field. Contact was made, words were exchanged and Michigan went on to beat Michigan State 21-7.
Harbaugh called it “bush league,” after the game and clearly wanted to talk more about it two days later. He said the Spartans were on the field for their traditional walk later than scheduled and were led by the strength staff onto the field with coach Mark Dantonio just behind the sideline-to-sideline string of players. “That had all the earmarkings and evidence of an orchestrated Stormtroopers march,” Harbaugh said. He later confirmed in a text message he was referring to troops in the “Star Wars” film series.
Dantonio called the incident “B.S.” after the game and addressed the situation again Sunday night. “The whole thing to me was sort of juvenile,” Dantonio said. “Things are going to happen in rivalry games, but I sort of stand by what I said.”
Michigan State said Monday the two schools were communicating about the school’s pregame ritual and said it has not been a problem in Dantonio’s 12 years.
Harbaugh also took exception with Dantonio’s rebukes.
“To call that unsportsmanlike or to call it bush league is putting it mildly,” Harbaugh said. “That could’ve been a real, unfortunate incident. As I said, it’s the opposite of B.S. Coach (Dantonio) said that was B.S. That’s not B.S. That’s fact. I think it’s something now the two athletic directors really need to get together and talk about.”
Harbaugh’s words, actions and tweets have provided a distraction at times for his team’s performance, which has not resulted in any sort of title during his first three years. This season, Michigan is the only Big Ten team without a conference loss.
The Wolverines (7—1, 5—0 Big Ten) have won seven straight since opening the season with a seven—point loss at Notre Dame. They have two weeks to prepare for their next game, a home matchup with No. 17 Penn State. After that, Michigan likely will be able to tune up against Rutgers and Indiana before closing the regular season at archrival Ohio State.