EAST LANSING - A lot of gullible people are going to believe Jim Harbaugh’s version of the incident that happened prior to the Michigan-Michigan State game on Saturday, the images of which will probably be remembered longer than the final score of this game.
Why it happened, and who was in the wrong is debatable, with the truth probably resting somewhere in the middle.
What we do know is that by noon on Saturday, video had gone viral on the internet of Michigan linebacker of Devin Bush kicking and digging at the Spartan helmet logo at midfield like a crazed chicken. The video was aired on pre-game shows, nationwide.
By nightfall, video of the incident had gathered more than half a million page views on SI.com. It was the lead highlight story on ABC immediately after Purdue’s upset of Ohio State.
Bush looked deranged. His actions made Michigan football look bad, made this rivalry look bad.
During Harbaugh’s comments after Michigan’s 21-7 victory over Michigan State, he said: “Our team never blinked the entire time. From the pre-game shenanigans, there was no backing down today by our guys, from then on.”
He brought up the shenanigans. His word.
He was asked this follow-up:
Q: You mentioned the pre-game shenanigans, what was your thought on that, how it started, how it ended and how it affected your team?
Harbaugh: “Well, I just heard about it, I didn’t see it.”
Stop right there. In a moment Harbaugh is going to conclude that Michigan State’s actions were “total bush league.”
But he didn’t see it.
“I didn’t see it,” he said, “but (Michigan spokesman) Dave (Ablauf) was out there. He saw it and apparently they clotheslined two of our guys, came out in their helmets.”
Stop right there.
He said “came out in the helmets” with a tone that made it sound like Michigan State’s players were in battle gear, prepared for a confrontation. That’s the way the gullibles will spin it at the water coolers on Monday. That’s the fairy tale they want to believe.
The truth is Michigan State players form a line and walk the length of the field with linked arms before every home game. It’s a ritual after they make their traditional walk from the Kellogg Center hotel to the stadium. If you’re reading this, you’re well aware of the tradition. And we might guess that Michigan is aware of it too.
This time, the players wore their helmets, from the Kellogg Center all the way to the stadium. They do that once in a great while, usually for a big game or a rivalry game.
When Michigan State’s players arrived, several Michigan players were on the field, doing pre-game warm-ups. Devin Bush was among them, along with linebacker Khaleke Hudson and Detroiters Lawrence Marshall and Lavert Hill.
According to the Detroit Free Press, Ablauf said Michigan thought prior to the game that Michigan State was going to make the pre-game walk at 9:50 a.m., and believed the Michigan players were free to take the field at 10 a.m. for warm-ups.
I’ve seen the publicly-posted itinerary of MSU’s pre-game plans. The Spartans left the Kellogg Center at 9:45 a.m. They arrived at the stadium at 10 a.m. These things are run with Swiss efficiency. They planned to walk the field at 10:01.
Some Michigan players were on the field by 9:55 a.m.
Either Michigan State communicated incorrectly, or Michigan misunderstood MSU’s communication.
Chris Solari, a veteran reporter for the Free Press, noticed the Michigan players on the field at 10 a.m. He asked an Michigan State official if the Spartans had conducted their walk of the field. The Michigan State official said the Spartans hadn’t yet made the walk.
“They haven’t walked the field yet?” Solari said. He knew a problem was brewing. Smartly, he reached for his phone and prepared to shoot the video that was soon to become viral.
So if Solari had the good sense that something confrontational could happen to upset MSU’s ritual field walk, is it possible that at least some of the Michigan players and/or officials might have had a clue, too?
Solari’s Freep.com video shows Bush and Marshall waiting at the 34-yard line, facing the oncoming line of Michigan State players, 25 yards away.
Brian Lewerke’s account of what happened:
“We were doing our normal pre-game walk,” Lewerke said. “I guess it might have been a little late.
“We always link arms and walk down the field. To my knowledge, Coach Mannie (MSU’s strength coach) had gone and informed the Michigan players that we were about to do that and just asked them to step to the side, and they didn’t, so we just kept walking.”
Michigan players claim no one asked them to step aside.
Said linebacker and tri-captain Joe Bachie: “We walk the field every game and that’s the first time that’s happened.”
Ablauf told reporters prior to the game that Michigan State was “10 to 15 minutes” late for their pre-game field walk.
Michigan players might have been a few minutes early, some of them were on the field at least five minutes before 10 a.m. - and some of them seemed to welcome a confrontation.
DEFIANCE ON BOTH SIDES
Marshall, Bush and Hill didn’t seem surprised when the Michigan State line started walked toward them. Marshall leaned forward, directly toward the oncoming line of Michigan State players when they were 20 yards away, bracing himself just short of a three-point stance. Bush did the same thing. Hill pranced around at mid-field.
As the line marched toward them, Marshall leaned down into the oncoming traffic. He formed a wide base, flared his elbows out. He was caught up by the oncoming arms of Michigan State players, and some brief tussling took place.
There was an air of defiance on both sides. Some Michigan players didn’t want to step aside for the Spartans, while other Wolverines did. Hudson turned sideways and two MSU players released their arms so he could pass through the line peacefully. This worked out better than the full-on, square-up red rover stance that Marshall favored.
The line met Hill a few yards later. He was caught between two players and was dragged or pulled a few yards. Hill became angry and pushed a Michigan State player in the back as the line continued to walk.
Were the Michigan State players wrong to conduct their field walk late? Maybe so. But I can see why Michigan State wanted to go forward with their usual pre-game ritual. Coaches don’t like to change their routines. Were they in fact late? There are differing accounts. I doubt they were that late.
And I do know Michigan’s players were on the field early.
Should more of the Michigan players have turned sideways like Hudson? I’m not sure. I can see why players don’t want to kowtow if they feel like an opponent is overstepping its bounds.
If the incident had ended with the field walk and the brief tussle, it wouldn’t have been nearly the story and curiosity that it became when Devin Bush went chicken kick crazy on the midfield grass.
That’s all fine. If you want to act like the Miami Hurricane renegades of yesteryear - kick, point and scream at midfield, and have to be restrained, as was the case with Bush - then go ahead and do it. Own it. But the coach shouldn’t feed us this line of holier-than-thou bull crap.
Dantonio threw Harbaugh a softball earlier this week by complimenting Michigan for playing with clean sportsmanship in the three prior meetings between the coaches. Well all that that yielded for Dantonio from the Wolverines is the scuzziest display by a visiting team since Jacksonville State in 2014.
Back to Harbaugh’s hearsay account:
“Lawrence Marshall, they just went up and clotheslined him,” Harbaugh said. “Old fashioned Clothesline. One of their guys ripped off Lavert’s headphones. Total bush league.”
The gullibles will want to believe that Marshall and Hill were standing in a prayer circle with other teammates, listening to Josh Groban’s “You raise me up,” when Spartan players wearing helmets, and maybe some ski masks, began felling Wolverines with clotheslines, and maybe even some elbow drops. That’s the way Harbaugh made it sound.
This is an Mlive.com photo of Marshall “being clotheslined:”
Clotheslined?
“That might be dramatic,” Bachie said. “Our guys just had our arms up and walking like we usually do.”
Wait a minute. How did we get started talking about the minutiae of the field walk? Bush’s cleat-rage behavior at midfield is what raised most of the eyebrows across the college football world.
Harbaugh conveniently never spoke about Bush’s actions, and was never asked about it. I regret that I was in the other room, awaiting the Michigan State press conference or I would have asked him if Bush’s actions at midfield were bush league as well.
Harbaugh continued about the great helmeted massacre.
“Apparently Coach Dantonio was five yards behind it all, smiling,” Harbaugh said.
Video showed Dantonio cracking a grin after Marshall busted through the line of Michigan players. I’m not going to pretend to know what caused Dantonio to smile. It didn’t look like a sinister grin.
Dantonio and Marshall go back quite a ways. Dantonio recruited him for more than a year when Marshall was coming out of Southfield High School.
During the summer prior to Marshall’s senior year in high school, he committed to Michigan over Michigan State. A few weeks later, Marshall and Dantonio crossed paths at the Sound Mind Sound Body Camp.
Dantonio saw Marshall approaching. Dantonio smiled and began to say wave. Marshall ignored him and kept walking. Dantonio stopped him and said with a friendly voice, “Hey, it doesn’t have to be like that. We can still say hello.” Marshall smiled and they exchanged a handshake hug. Dantonio wished him well.
That’s what went through my mind when I saw the video of Dantonio smiling at Marshall as he busted through the line. Those two have a history, and it’s been a pleasant one.
It was a tense moment between players, and I was surprised that Dantonio managed a smile. Maybe he was trying to quell the situation. Of course he could have canceled the field walk, but like I said, coaches don’t break routine. That doesn’t make them right, but I can understand their course of action.
Back to Harbaugh:
“So yeah, I think it’s bush league,” he said. “That’s my impression of it.”
Then Harbaugh’s voice went deep meat-and-potatoes, “But our guys, they didn’t blink. They didn’t come here to back down or get intimidated by anybody.”
The carnival barkers will love that part, the part about Michigan being the big, strong, humble, noble good guys, setting things right in the face of bush league tactics. That’s their culture. They’re finger-pointers. Even when their side is the one with the lunatic.
Word got back to Dantonio’s press conference that Harbaugh had used the word “bush league” to describe MSU's role in the incident, and that Dantonio was five yards behind, smiling. Dantonio was asked about it.
“That’s b.s.," Dantonio said.
“I’m sorry?,” the questioner in the press responded.
“You heard me,” Dantonio said. “That's b.s."
When asked what happened, Dantonio said: "You guys get your cameras out. It's all on FOX."
Then he paused.
"I'm not going to go into that," he said.
Then while waiting for another question later, Dantonio sarcastically said under his breath: "Bush league? Uh-hmm."
Now people think they caught Dantonio in a lie with his “That’s b.s.” response to Harbaugh.
Was Dantonio saying the claims that he smiled was b.s.? Or was he saying b.s. to Harbaugh’s claim that MSU’s actions were bush league?
Instead of discussing Bush’s dangerous behavior, some barkers are parsing Dantonio’s “that’s b.s.” statement, looking for an inconsistency to prove MSU's unholiness and exonerate Bush.
BUSH: 'I HAVE TO LIVE WITH IT'
After the confrontation between the Michigan State walk-line and the Michigan players, there were angry words and pointed fingers. Most of it died down, but Bush kept going, and going, and yelling, and pointing. Michigan State players weren’t saints. They returned verbal fire.
Bush came face-to-face with a Michigan State player, and they had to be separated.
The Michigan State players eventually exited the field and went to their locker room.
Bush continued to yell across the field, and had to be restrained by a Michigan aide.
Then he went chicken scratch crazy at mid-field, stomping and digging his cleats across the grass.
That part? That wasn’t bush league. Apparently not in Harbaugh’s estimation.
To Bush’s credit, he took responsibility for his rage.
"It was so emotional and intense," Bush said. "I just got caught up in the moment, in my emotions. I felt like they took a shot at us, and it was something where I got wrapped up in.
"It was pure emotion. I did what I did and I can't take it back. I'll live with it."
So why am I wasting time on this instead of talking football? Because, sadly, that’s the way this rivalry is. That’s the way Michigan makes it. Like a child in a sandbox, every chance it gets after one of these games, Michigan points at Michigan State and accuses Michigan State of wrongdoing, just like I said would be the case. When Michigan cries foul in the sandbox, it becomes an international incident.
Even when millions of people nationwide saw Devin Bush kicking at the field like an escaped loon, it’s Michigan State being accused of bush league behavior. The gullibles will believe it and perpetuate it. All of that garbage ends at the water coolers and on the talk shows, with no real damage.
But I agree with what Chuck Long on a bigger point. The BTN analyst said the coaches need to get a handle on this before it gets worse.
You can argue with me, but I blame Michigan more than Michigan State for this incident. I understand why Marshall, Bush and Hill didn’t move aside. But they chose to complete the confrontation, whereas Hudson didn't. I'm not convinced that they didn't plan the incident. And then Bush didn’t let it die. He acted like a 1988 Miami Hurricane.
When Bush went down with a temporary injury early in Saturday’s game, some members of the Michigan State sideline cheered and taunted him. That’s not right, either. And they wouldn’t have acted like that if Bush hadn’t acted the way he acted in pre-game.
These type of things lead down a one-way street toward the type of ugly incidents we’ve seen in the Miami-Florida State series, or the nasty brawl between South Carolina and Clemson. Leave that garbage in the dysfunctional South, please.
The Michigan State-Michigan rivalry is heated, but in the past, there’s been a tradition of proper decorum for most Midwestern rivalries. Harbaugh should know that. He was reared on the respectful competition that Michigan vs Ohio State used to be. But that rivalry has taken on some ill rust, too. He had a chance to say the right, corrective things about this incident, but he blew it. He chose to throw sand.
Next, Michigan players will be picking fights with Spartan players in the stadium tunnel. And Harbaugh will probably blame Suzy Merchant.