As the clock was running out on Michigan State’s 24-17 loss to Michigan, another fight between the two rivals broke out near midfield. During his weekly press conference on Monday, MSU head coach Jonathan Smith commented on the incident.
“Hopefully this is a scene that doesn’t take place again,” Smith said.
Afterward, MSU athletic director Alan Haller also answered questions from the media.
“I played in four of these (MSU-UM games as a player) and the emotions are high,” Haller said. “This game is not like anything that any of our teams played throughout the year, so the emotions are high. I can’t play in this game anymore, but when we play that team, I’m just going to make sure that our kids have a fair ... playing field and that we are held to the same standard as everybody else.”
It is the second-straight Michigan State versus Michigan game in Ann Arbor that has been marred by a physical altercation. Eight Spartans were suspended, with seven having criminal charges filed against them, after the incident inside the Michigan Stadium tunnel after the game in 2022.
During this year's incident, video from the broadcast appeared to show Michigan running back Kalel Mullings kicking or stomping on someone, presumably from the MSU side. Neither Smith or Haller directly accused Mullings or any Michigan player or staffer of anything on Monday.
“I don’t know (who was on the ground),” Haller said. “I’m waiting on the conference to look at that and they (will) tell me what they saw.”
“I haven’t thoroughly looked at every angle and all that,” Smith said when asked about it. “It was a lot of bodies out there. We had a staff member that was in the fray of it and a player in the fray of it, and that’s what we’re hoping (the Big Ten is) looking into."
Haller said that he does not have any extra angles of the fight, while deferring to the Big Ten to look at it.
There are also no plans to request charges be filed by the Washtenaw County's Prosecutor's Office.
“I don’t think (the tunnel) incident should have been a criminal incident, and I don’t think this should be (either),” Haller said. “This is a sports policy situation, and the conference will look at it. I did call (Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti) immediately after the game. I thought the sportsmanship policy should be applied and I requested that the Big Ten look at this.”
Petitti has a recent history of handing down hefty punishments under that policy, despite having only been the commissioner since May 2023. The conference cited it when it suspended then-Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh for the Wolverines’ final three regular season games during the sign-stealing scandal last year.
“We have a new commissioner,” Haller said. “We have new leadership in the conference office ... my wish is that the new leadership handles this on a clean slate and treats every school with the same standard.”
The whole incident began after some pushing and shoving between Michigan State rush end Anthony Jones and Michigan tight end Colston Loveland, which led to Loveland appearing to headbutt Jones, who then grabbed Loveland by the helmet and caused both teams to come together with the clock running.
All of it was closer to Michigan’s sideline, meaning UM’s players were able to get to the scrum quicker. Wolverines outnumbered Spartans by a wide margin during the altercation.
“Amongst the rules, the clock’s still going — you leave the sideline, that’s a penalty,” Smith said.
In fairness, he compared it to a typical victory formation situation, like what MSU had against Iowa, where coaches and players all meet in the middle of the field while there is technically still time on the clock. Fight or not, it was going to be the final play of the game.
“I can comment to say, yes, we had multiple staff and our own sideline getting over to break it up, to protect, to get out of there,” Smith said. “Like I said, I haven’t thoroughly looked at every angle and whatnot. I know the conference is going to be looking into it. We’ve been in touch with them. I think when emotions come in ... it’s a rivalry game ... the idea that it happened on their sidelines and we had very few of our players — you could see that our players were restrained and that our staff did a great job in preventing many of our players getting involved in what happened,” Haller said.
According to Haller, there is no specific timeline yet as to when the Big Ten’s rulings on the incident will come down, but that “the conference will be in touch.”
The Spartans will move on, with a big game against undefeated No. 13 Indiana coming up. That game is set to begin at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Saturday, Nov. 2 and will be streamed on Peacock.
Jonathan Smith's press conference:
