The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/100796
������ michigan football Jerry Hanlon Weighs In ��� On MSU Extra-Curriculars While Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio termed this year's U-M versus MSU matchup a "clean" game, many observers thought the Spartans were guilty of dirty play with their hits on quarterback Denard Robinson and other Wolverines. M ichigan State coaches appeared to take a ���Who, us?��� attitude toward charges of less-than-admirable tactics in the Spartans��� 28-14 win over the Wolverines on Oct. 15. Despite 13 MSU penalties ��� including four personal fouls and a pair of roughing the passer flags ��� head coach Mark Dantonio referred to the contest as a ���clean��� game. Defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi made postgame comments for which MSU athletics director Mark Hollis later publicly admonished him. Narduzzi noted: ���That���s what we try to do, 60 minutes of unnecessary roughness. We���re just glad it didn���t get called on every snap.��� Narduzzi later claimed his words were taken out of context, that MSU doesn���t teach dirty play, etc. He did not address MSU defender William 44��� the wolverine��� ������ November 2011 photo by per kjeldsen Gholston taking a swing at U-M offensive tackle Taylor Lewan (for which the Big Ten later suspended Gholston for the Wisconsin game), arm-barring Lewan on the contest���s first series, or wrenching Denard Robinson���s helmet around on a vicious facemask in a pile Gholston had jumped on late. Michigan���s present staff and players didn���t make a peep about the Spartans playing well beyond the whistle, even while national commentators heaped opprobrium on MSU for the tactics. Former U-M coach Jerry Hanlon, meanwhile, found himself taken aback by the response of the Spartans��� braintrust. Hanlon, an inveterate defender of coaches, and longtime friend of many who have worked in East Lansing, found himself disappointed by the reaction of the MSU coaches. ���What gets me a little bit perturbed is the coaches standing by that type of play, saying it���s normal ��� it���s not normal football play,��� Hanlon insisted. ���That���s not what college football is supposed to be. To deliberately try to hurt another player is not what college football should be. ���If you hit him with a good, hard, clean hit, and something happens, that���s part of the game. But to deliberately try to hurt another football player, and even ��� somebody said ��� put it out on Twitter that they���re going to do the same thing to the next quarterback they play, now that���s wrong. ���The coaches have to control that situation. I have a great deal of respect for Pat Narduzzi and I have a great deal of respect for Mark Dantonio, but they���ve got to come out and say, ���Hey, we saw some of this stuff. We���re going to take care of it. We���re going to take care of it within our own program and see that it doesn���t happen again.��� ���And not sit back and say, ���That���s the type of football we want to play.��� If it is, then you���re wrong. I don���t care ��� that is wrong. That is not college football.��� Hanlon noted that he respects plenty of Spartans, both players and coaches. At the same time, he expects a certain level of control at the top, just like he would at Michigan. ���I���ll say it here, and I���ll say it to them,��� Hanlon noted. ���To me, you don���t defend that type of play, not in any athletic event. I���m a little bit disappointed in how they���ve reacted to this situation, but I sure don���t paint Michigan State���s team with this broad brush. ���You look at Kirk Cousins. He���s a gentleman. He���s a good young man. There are kids on that team who I respect a great deal. And there are a couple on there who, in this particular game ��� I don���t know if they did it before, but in this particular game were bad apples. ���Well, let���s point those bad apples out and do something about getting it cleared up.��� Michigan In The Midst Of Unusual Schedule Beginning with Michigan���s Oct. 8 victory over Northwestern in Evanston, the Wolverines embarked on a most unusual stretch, playing just a single home game sandwiched between four road games. The last time