Dantonio retires
Michigan State football Coach Mark Dantonio (above) announced his retirement Tuesday, ending a 13-year run in which his teams won three Big Ten titles and he became the school’s winningest coach.
EAST LANSING, Mich.— Michigan State football Coach
Mark Dantonio announced his retirement Tuesday, ending a 13-year run in which his teams won three Big Ten titles and he became the school’s winningest coach.
Dantonio, 63, called his decision a difficult one while noting the nonstop demands of the job.
“I just found myself never having the opportunity to come up for air, and that can wear on you,” he said Tuesday night at a news conference.
Dantonio went 114-57 as Michigan State’s coach and won Big Ten titles in 2010, 2013 and 2015. The last of those three seasons included a trip to the College Football Playoff, but the Spartans declined after that. They went 7-6 this past season. Defensive coordinator Mike
Tressel will be the acting head coach while Michigan State seeks a replacement for Dantonio, who said qualified candidates would be willing to crawl to campus for the job.
Michigan State Athletic Director Bill Beekman said he will seek Dantonio’s input on the search for his successor. Dantonio plans to have a role within the athletic department.
The Spartans have fallen from the Big Ten’s elite in recent years, but only after Dantonio brought Michigan State to the top echelon of the league — and the nation — during a terrific stretch from 2010-15. He won at least 11 games five times in that six-year span — the first time a Big Ten coach had done that.
The Spartans went just 27-24 in the four seasons since their playoff appearance, and Dantonio’s future was the topic of speculation in 2019. He seemed to put some of that to rest in November, when he said he planned to be back next season. Then came Tuesday’s news.