Michigan State football coach Mark Dantonio announced his surprise retirement Tuesday on Twitter, and the Spartans are better off for it. Despite becoming the team’s winningest coach while leading it to historic achievements, Dantonio is leaving the program in worse shape — at least, off the field and barely better on it — than when he arrived back in 2006, and he needed to go.
There’s no denying his on-field achievements are impressive: He resurrected the program out of the dark days of John L. Smith, seemingly doing more with less and overachieving. He has 114 wins with the Spartans, three of his teams finished the season ranked in the top-10, and he led the team to thrilling bowl game victories over Georgia, Baylor and Stanford in the 2014 Rose Bowl.
Under Dantonio, Michigan State became one of two Big Ten teams to make the College Football Playoff (though most fans would probably rather forget the result). He won three conference titles and beat Michigan, Penn State and Ohio State plenty of times, sometimes winning in stunning fashion. Trick plays became a trademark of Michigan State football, thanks to plays like the “Little Giants” fake field goal against Notre Dame or the “Mousetrap” fake punt against Northwestern. The 2015 season was filled with wild endings.
But those are all distant memories compared with Michigan State football’s current status.
To all Spartans: Thank you for everything. You have truly helped my dreams come true. pic.twitter.com/uKkubvp1cW
— Mark Dantonio (@DantonioMark) February 4, 2020
Not only does Dantonio’s departure come as the program is falling back into the dismal pit he once carried it out of — Michigan State has had back-to-back 7-6 seasons — but he also either helped create a toxic environment marred by controversy or idly watched it unfold during his 13-year tenure. Not to mention that his exit strategy is questionable at best and pathetic at worst.
It doesn’t matter much that Dantonio, 63, retired the day before National Signing Day. The once-highly anticipated event means significantly less with December’s Early Signing Period, and the Spartans’ 2020 recruiting class isn’t even in the top 40. (Who would want to commit to Michigan State right now anyway?)
Far more importantly, Dantonio leaves Michigan State as he’s embroiled in a wrongful termination lawsuit. He announced his retirement less than 24 hours after he was accused of multiple NCAA violations in court documents. Oh, and he also may have committed perjury.
In a press conference Tuesday evening, Dantonio said the lawsuit had “zero” to do with his departure, but the timing is awfully suspect.
He — along with former university president Lou Anna Simon and former athletics director Mark Hollis — is the target of a federal wrongful termination lawsuit brought by former director of college advancement and performance Curtis Blackwell in November 2018. (Blackwell is also suing two Michigan State Police detectives, claiming his was wrongfully arrested for allegedly interfering with their investigation. No charges were filed.)
The suit argues Blackwell, whose contract expired in 2017, was scapegoated when four members of Dantonio’s 2016 recruiting class were kicked off the team after sexual assault charges were filed. But according to Blackwell, he actually tried to dissuade the head coach from recruiting one troubled athlete and was brushed aside:”Dantonio was warned by staffers including Blackwell that 2016 recruit Auston Robertson was a liability because of his past criminal record, but the head coach ignored those pleas”, the Detroit Free Press reported based on a deposition Blackwell gave in September. That criminal record included a 2016 misdemeanor battery charge and several allegations of sexual misconduct, records obtained by The Detroit News show.
Robertson made it to campus, anyway, and was accused of rape and charged with criminal sexual conduct in 2017. He was eventually kicked off the team and subsequently pleaded guilty to lesser charges, though he’s still serving to 43 months to 10 years in prison.
Michigan State already has a reprehensibly long history of ignoring sexual assault allegations — specifically those against disgraced physician Larry Nassar — and it sure looks like Dantonio carried on the administration’s tradition. He either didn’t do the bare minimum to vet the players he recruited into his program or he knowingly brought a four-star predator to campus who is now behind bars for sexually assaulting someone and will be a registered sex offender when he gets out.
But instead of resigning amid any of this off-field controversy, or after a 2018 ESPN report found at least 16 Michigan State players were accused of sexual assault or violence against women on his watch, or after several indefensible (but less important) coaching decisions — like being loyal to a fault, rearranging his staff and expecting something other than the same mediocre results — Dantonio assured everyone he’d still be coaching the Spartans in 2020.
A trustworthy athletic director would have canned Dantonio — or at least demanded his resignation — a while ago. A respectable coach — or human being, really — would have attempted to do right by the university he claims to love so much, accepted some responsibility and walked away. But Dantonio vehemently denied any wrongdoing and continued touting the program’s “high standards,” even as issues related to sexual assault being ignored or covered up continued arising.
He stayed in his job just long enough for a $4.3 million bonus to kick in back in January “in recognition of his long-service to the University.” And then he took the money and ran, announcing his resignation just as the public was becoming aware of new allegations of NCAA violations and possibly a federal crime.
Asked at his press conference if he’d do anything differently, Dantonio said: “No, I don’t think I would.” Yeah, and that’s the problem.
So sure, if you look at only stats and season records, it’s reasonable to think Michigan State is better off after 13 seasons under Dantonio. But he’s also tangled in only the latest example of the school putting sports above the health and safety of its students; compared with that, winning big games means nothing. All of that is part of his legacy.
If athletic director Bill Beekman had anything resembling a backbone, he’d veto Dantonio sticking around the department in a “special projects” role that involves working closely with players. The idea of the now-former head coach teaching a leadership class is laughable.
Dantonio — like so many administrators who resigned in disgrace in recent years — shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the athletics department. Directly or indirectly, he contributed to a toxic culture in East Lansing, and Michigan State is better off without him in every facet.
Everyone deserves better than the coach Dantonio became.
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