Follow up to the Dantonio Incident Today

Submitted by Mr. Rager on

Some dude just posted on the Rivals message board about the coaching clinic today aka the Mark Dantonio incident.  I am not sure what the rules are about posting a direct quote from a premium message board about a coaching clinic are, but here goes the best part:

"Wanna know why MD was so upset? He was upset before it ever started, because for the SECOND year in a row, the moment you walk in the building there is a huge table spread out with all of UM's camp and clinic info, brochours, practice visit info, etc. A grand spread. And for the SECOND year in a row, MSU's table is small and stuck off to the side in a corner. Buddy said the entire MSU staff was PISSSSSSED the moment they arrived yesterday, and they bolted out of there as soon as they were done today. The UM staff, meanwhile, is still there mingling with the HS coaches and putting on a very nice representation of the U of M. In fact my buddy got to sit with Funk all alone and shoot the shit about OL coaching for a half hour last night."

There is a lot more to it, but he basically confirms all the rumors are true, and Dantonio lost a lot of credibility with Michigan HS coaches.

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dwags

January 21st, 2012 at 7:12 AM ^

They actually make Heck look stupid. Oh and that fake email going around about tables being set up? Lol. I was there. What a crock. Nobody, not one hs coach even stops at them unless they have clipboards they're giving away. We're more interested in the beer. Dantonio did the right thing. He noted only two coaches had d1 players in the room TWO and it shouldn't have been about a school preaching about itself. Those coaches were there trying to help THEIR kids, the ones not going to u of m and MSU that's why the panel consisted if the coaches it did. Usually the first email or post that lies about something like this is a giveaway as to what ACTUALLY happened. Let me appeal to any logic you might have: do you think the writer of that email polled all those coaches in the room on how they felt? The email is bull and only you guys would believe it

Joined: 10/28/2010

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gbdub

January 21st, 2012 at 7:25 PM ^

You're totally right. Clearly, Heck was in the wrong and Dantonio handled the situation with all the class and professionalism befitting a representative of a major university.
<br>
<br>P.S. and seriously. What kind of idiot is Heck, thinking people would invite a division 1 recruiting coordinator to talk about division 1 recruiting?

Joined: 02/16/2010

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snoopblue

January 20th, 2012 at 7:53 PM ^

That's like showing up to the science fair with a shitty experiment and then getting angry at the kid with the gigantic volcano exhibit. It's not the Michigan Staff's fault that they were prepared to spread the word about their program - that's what these things are about, regardless of what they are called.

However, I really think everyone should just take these things and shrug them off, there have been like 6 posts about this once incident. Dantonio is a moron and we all know it - we don't need to sit here and make fun of him about it....that's a Sparty thing to do...i.e. "Brady Hoke is fat ahahahha"

Joined: 11/11/2009

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switch26

January 20th, 2012 at 7:55 PM ^

true or not, these guys could of acted professionally regardless.  What a way to make your program look like a joke

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kmd

January 20th, 2012 at 7:56 PM ^

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/bigten/story/2012-01-20/michigan-state-dantonio-michigan-coaching-clinic/52700868/1

 

In a nutshell, Dantonio was supposed to speak for 15 minutes and leave, but was under the impression that everybody was doing a 5 minute intro before fielding questions from the audience as a group. It's an honest mistake, but still pretty dickish to cut the guy off and take charge when you admittedly have never done this before and don't know how it's supposed to go.

Joined: 04/09/2009

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kmd

January 20th, 2012 at 8:12 PM ^

It's more that he didn't know it was supposed to be a series of 15 minutes talks, and thought it was supposed to be short intros followed by a Q&A session (which admittedly is the format I think of when I hear 'panel discussion').

Joined: 04/09/2009

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Raoul

January 20th, 2012 at 8:24 PM ^

I don't know how you can say this was an "honest mistake." Hoke was originally supposed to be there instead of Hecklinski. Do you really think they would have let Dantonio speak for 15 minutes and then given Hoke only 5 minutes? I don't buy that for a second.

From the article it appears that Dantonio just took over the session and make it into something other than what it was originally supposed to be. I also fail to see how anyone could put a positive spin on this power-grabbing display:

"How many guys got a guy that's going to play in the Big Ten?" Dantonio asked the high school coaches. After a couple raised their hands, Dantonio said: "One, two -- so the two guys can go back there in the corner and talk about that. All of us right here, we're going to talk about recruiting for everybody. Let's go."  

Joined: 09/29/2009

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kmd

January 20th, 2012 at 8:34 PM ^

Dantonio only talked for 5 minutes, and said nothing of substance. So presumably, he thought the format was that each panel member would give a fluffy <5 minute intro, and then they would collectively field questions from the audience for the remaining 30+ minutes (and to my knowledge, this is generally what panel discussion is). Had that actually been the intended format, I can understand being frustrated with someone going on for 10+ minutes talking to the audience instead of fielding questions from them.

Joined: 04/09/2009

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BradP

January 20th, 2012 at 8:58 PM ^

The USA Today article seemed to suggest that he did speak for 15 minutes, and that he didn't know the format because he wasn't going to be involved.

 

Larry Merx of the coaches association said there was a misunderstanding on the format because Dantonio decided to stay for the entire 90-minute panel discussion, rather than leave after giving a 15-minute presentation, as he had planned.

"I told him we would have arranged things differently had we known he was going to stay," Merx said. "What happened, Mark's a good guy. He helps us out a lot. He's a good guy for high school coaches. He got to a point where he'd spoken and couldn't leave. He didn't want to jump ship and wanted to stick around.

"We'd have changed the whole situation. Because Mark wanted to be good for us, it wound up having the Michigan coach think he had more time to speak, and Mark lost his patience a little bit."

Joined: 10/17/2010

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umchicago

January 20th, 2012 at 8:30 PM ^

uh, i'm sure he was informed and i'm sure he was provided, or had plenty of opportunity, to see the agenda/program provided to everyone.  

he obviously just didn't take any time to prepare for the discussion at hand.  instead, he talked about cousins, bell, kittens and rabbits.

he's either just an a-hole or just a stupid a-hole.  you take your pick.

Joined: 02/05/2009

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BigBlue02

January 20th, 2012 at 8:55 PM ^

Dantonio didn't know what the format was because he wasn't even supposed to be there. He was supposed to talk, then leave. He talked, stayed for a while, and decided he didn't like how the event was actually supposed to go, so he interrupted and looked like a douchebag

Joined: 06/29/2009

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CompleteLunacy

January 20th, 2012 at 9:48 PM ^

Dantonio is fully in the wrong. Why was he the sudden authority running the session? If he didn't speak for the full 15 minutes and didn't understand the format, blame lies in Dantonio and the session chair/hosts. Even if that was the case, it is always always completely wrong to suddenly shut off somebody's presentation and takeover like that. It's rude. It's unprofessional.  

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bronxblue

January 20th, 2012 at 10:04 PM ^

I totally understand what happened and don't complete blame Dantonio, though it sounded like he had his 15 minutes to talk, then decided to contemplate how the panel should be run for those coming after him.  It was certainly a bit rude to cut off a guy during his talk, regardless of how you felt about the content, and could have been remedied after UM had his chance to speak.

Reading over at the MSU boards, they think this is great that their HC "swung his big balls" at the WR coach at UM.  Good to see that they are still aiming high.

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MaizeAndBlueWahoo

January 20th, 2012 at 8:20 PM ^

"I really didn't know how this was all going to work, this forum," Dantonio said. "This is the first time we've ever done this, and I just didn't know how this was going to work, and I didn't want it to become a recruiting presentation."

Straight from the clinic schedule:

Arcadia 1: Mark Dantonio, Head Coach, Michigan State University; Jeff Hecklinski, Wide Receiver Coach and Recruiting Coordinator, University of Michigan; Former Alma College Head Coach; Jim Lyall, Head Coach, Sienna Heights; Paul Winters, Head Coach, National Champion Finalist Wayne State University, "Important Issues Facing High School Football And Recruiting"

Is Dantonio really that stupid?

Joined: 07/02/2008

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turfboy

January 20th, 2012 at 8:41 PM ^

this is in fact very true. we sell and install synthetic turf playing surfaces and always have a large booth there with our michigan sales rep....he saw the whole thing and just laughed....hes an "ohio" fan, which is why i gave him michigan and indy territories :)

Joined: 12/01/2009

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reshp1

January 20th, 2012 at 9:32 PM ^

<blockquote>"How many guys got a guy that's going to play in the Big Ten?" Dantonio asked the high school coaches. After a couple raised their hands, Dantonio said: "One, two - so the two guys can go back there in the corner and talk about that. All of us right here, we're going to talk about recruiting for everybody. Let's go."</blockquote>

 

What a colossal bag of dicks. Whomever was in the wrong regarding the allotted time or topic, to jump up and say that in the middle of someone else's turn has just got to come across as totally petty and classless

EDIT: quote fail, what's the syntax?

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