On Monday, Michigan State issued a defense in regards to the pregame incident that went down with Michigan on Saturday.
Via MLive:
“Regarding last Saturday’s pregame timeline, both teams were distributed pregame timing sheets and were in communication earlier in the week about Michigan State’s pregame tradition of walking the field upon arrival to Spartan Stadium,” the statement reads. “There has never been an on-field issue with this tradition in the 12 years under head coach Mark Dantonio.
“The timing of Saturday’s pregame tradition did not change from previous games, nor did the communication change between both schools. MSU was scheduled to leave the Kellogg Center for its walk to the stadium at 9:45 a.m. and left at 9:47 a.m. The team was scheduled to arrive at Spartan Stadium at approximately 10 a.m. and walked the field at approximately 10:02 a.m.
“As a courtesy, Michigan was granted field access before MSU’s arrival with the understanding from both sides that the U of M student-athletes would leave the field during this tradition. Michigan was on the field prior to 10 a.m. as previously agreed upon, but when multiple MSU staff members asked both U of M student-athletes and staff members to please move off the field for the pregame field walk, this did not occur.”
This defense came in response to Wolverines head coach Jim Harbaugh doubling down on his comments that what the Spartans did by walking through his team was “bush league.” Harbaugh also called out Spartans’ head coach Mark Dantonio and even quoted him.
Jim Harbaugh pulled out a piece of paper to quote Mark Dantonio today.
"I'll go one step further and use Coach Dantonio's words from a few years back. 'It's not a product of the team, but their program.'" pic.twitter.com/2px64V2dPV
— Brad Galli (@BradGalli) October 22, 2018
During his radio show on Monday night, Harbaugh was asked to respond to Michigan State’s defense statement and he said there “there is a conflict in the explanations, it should be investigated…look forward to the outcome of that.”
Harbaugh asked on radio show about MSU response today: "There is a conflict in the explanations, It should be investigated….look forward to the outcome of that."
— angelique (@chengelis) October 22, 2018
Nation, you may be sick of reading about this and you may absolutely love the back and forth but regardless, it does not seem to be ending anytime soon.
