On Tuesday morning, the Detroit Free Press published a story saying that Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio visited Walled Lake Western with the intention of flipping quarterback Sam Johnson from Boston College to the Spartans. The report went as far as saying Dantonio “made another pitch” to Western’s senior QB.
From Detroit Free Press:
How did Michigan State football coach Mark Dantonio spend his Tuesday morning?
Trying to convince Walled Lake Western quarterback Sam Johnson III to flip from Boston College and become a Spartan.
Dantonio was spotted at Western and with no quarterback in the 2019 class, he made another pitch at the senior quarterback, who spent the weekend at BC on an official visit.
Johnson has been committed to BC since May. When offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler, who helped recruit Johnson, left to become the head coach at Bowling Green last week, schools immediately started calling Johnson.
Sam Johnson II said his son was 100 percent committed to BC before the official visit. The family made the trip over the weekend with Johnson sporting an Eagles’ jersey on his Twitter account.
Well, when Dantonio (or whoever runs his Twitter account) caught wind of the report, he tweeted out the following message, which was deleted within minutes. (we captured a screenshot prior to it being deleted)
*NOTE: We are not exactly sure why Dantonio’s tweet was quickly deleted, though some have suggested it may have been a recruiting violation since the story mentioned a potential recruit.
Later in the night, Dantonio (or his Twitter rep) followed up with the tweet listed below.
Great day today visiting with our Detroit area 2019 COMMITTED Future Spartans!
— Mark Dantonio (@DantonioMark) December 5, 2018
Apparently, the Detroit Free Press found out about Dantonio’s deleted ‘Fake News’ tweet (most likely because we tagged them in our original story, and in response, they have completely changed their story.
Clarification: A previous version of this recruiting story mischaracterized Mark Dantonio's visit to Walled Lake Western on Tuesday.
Here is the updated story.https://t.co/2Nix69zjlH
— Freep Sports (@freepsports) December 5, 2018
Here is an excerpt from the “updated” story which was originally deemed “Fake News” by Dantonio.
Correction: A previous version of this story mischaracterized Mark Dantonio’s visit to Walled Lake Western on Tuesday.
Mark Dantonio was in the Metro Detroit area on Tuesday, checking in with his commits around the area.
He stopped in at Walled Lake Western to visit 2019 commit Spencer Brown. The 3-star offensive tackle has been committed to Dantonio and the Spartans since July of 2017.
Also at Walled Lake Western is Boston College commit Sam Johnson II, a 3-star quarterback in Michigan in the class of 2019. Johnson does not have a Michigan State offer.
Props to Dantonio calling out the Detroit Free Press on Twitter, even if it was quickly deleted.
