WichitanWolverine

May 17th, 2010 at 3:13 PM ^

I just had this conversation 2 days ago with a Sparty alum.  I thought it was completely classless for a D1 head coach to retaliate to Mike's comment by making fun of his stature.  The Sparty alum thought it was no worse than Mike's original comment.

Call me crazy, but when you're a college kid and go 4-0 against a team during your tenure, I think you have the right to poke fun at them.  As a coach, you should be a little more mature than that.

dahblue

May 17th, 2010 at 4:27 PM ^

I'm not sure how Dantonio looks classy to you.  The guy rooted against his own team's best interests just so he could root against Michigan.  That's classy?  He started a trash talking battle with Michigan and Mike Hart and then complained about it.  That's not classy either.  He doesn't seem classy to me.  He seems like an asshole.

willywill9

May 17th, 2010 at 4:40 PM ^

He doesn't look classy to me.  He looks like an angry, up-tight version of Billy Bob Thornton.

I think you may have misinterpreted what I wrote.  The point of my post was to highlight what a respectable coach would say; instead, he's an idiot who will be outcoached and outworked this season by Michigan.

dahblue

May 17th, 2010 at 4:48 PM ^

I figured you were just giving him the polite benefit-of-the-doubt approach.

It just drives me crazy when Little Brother talks about that incident as if Mike Hart's actions are the ones to question when it was their COACH who started the whole thing.

And you're right.  He really does look like Mr. Woodcock.

willywill9

May 17th, 2010 at 5:14 PM ^

I know what you mean.  I might have already told this story on this blog before, but my first ever Michigan vs MSU game was in 2002.  As an out of stater, I didn't quite have any understanding of how obnoxious fans can be.  I was late to the game (Sorry, I was a freshman at the time, not knowing that I would ultimately develop an unhealthy obsession for Michigan athletics.)  Anyway, I was late to the game, and as I got close to the stadium, these Michigan State fans (drunk and older) were like "It's already 3-0!  We're going to destroy you today, you might as well go home to the library WOOOOOOO!"  (Not verbatim, but very similar to that.) 

Needless to say, the final score of that game was 49-3 Michigan.  I, to this day, don't really have as much animosity for MSU as your standard Michigander, but after the last two years, I understand 100% why everyone (over)uses the Little Brother quote.

dahblue

May 17th, 2010 at 4:25 PM ^

Michigan fans shouldn't give Dantonio so much slack on this...He STARTED the shit talking by trashing us for losing to App State ("moment of silence").  Months later, Mike Hart dropped the "little brother" line after our "moment of silence" for dropping MooU.  

Dantonio isn't just a piece of garbage who feuded with a student athlete at another school.  He's a piece of garbage who began and continued a feud with that school and one of its students.  Then, he complained that Mike Hart shouldn't talk trash.  How's that hypocrisy thing working for ya, Coach?  If you start the shit, Coach, don't whine about it.  And what coach (other than Kiffin) talks trash like that?

-As a side note, we need more emotion like Hart brought to the sideline. 

ajscipione

May 17th, 2010 at 8:47 PM ^

Dantonio is classless jerk. No head coach should ever respond in public to anything a college athlete says about a rivalry. Do you think Lloyd Carr would have made any comment if the situation was reveresed? I doubt he would have even acknowledged it. Dantonio made his bed with his "Should we have a moment of silence?" comment when he heard about M's loss to Appalachian State. In my opinion, it's OK to stoke the fires of the M-MSU rivalry because as Rick Leach said "Their day is coming".

TheCommodore

May 18th, 2010 at 12:02 PM ^

He didn't call anyone else "little brother," but he was talking smack to OSU after he lost to OSU (and went 0-4), and didn't he get into an argument with Harbaugh?  I don't see how anyone couldn't respect Hart as a player, but he needs to learn when to keep his mouth shut and be more like Long or Henne.

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

May 17th, 2010 at 3:36 PM ^

every single one of Hart's NFL teammates is apparently a Sparty alum:

"They don't care what happens to their school," Hart said of his teammates. "Their school can lose every week, but if Michigan doesn't win, there's going to be 52 guys in that locker room talking about Michigan.  They want to see us lose, and they like to see us down."

BlueinOK

May 17th, 2010 at 3:52 PM ^

I have MSU friends who try to call Michigan "little brother" now.  It makes me laugh.  MSU will always be "little brother."

Blazefire

May 18th, 2010 at 9:51 AM ^

I mean, seriously. Okay, MSU, you beat us in 2008. BIG achievement. Who DIDN'T beat us in 2008? This is not something to be proud of.

And then 2009? Really? The overtime, lucky break win because Tate Forcier was trying too hard in his first ever away game?

I hate to say it, because I love Michigan so much, but getting excited about winning those two games? It says an awful lot about your mindset.

Braylon1

May 17th, 2010 at 6:03 PM ^

imo s*** talking is food for the opponent. to me, msu knows they are Michigan's little brothers because they are, not because anyone has to tell them. i think MSU did nothing but use those comments as motivation.

Seth

May 18th, 2010 at 12:16 PM ^

Drew Henson, on if he could go back to 2000 and decide again between a senior year at Michigan and George Steinbrenner paying him to play baseball because he was Michigan's starting quarterback...

"Would I have liked to (have had) a fourth year to be in school and played and see what we could have done? Looking back, right now, I'd probably say yeah."

Because this decision still bothers me as a Michigan fan (Henson was my class so I was there for the whole saga), but I still can't fault him -- bird in hand and whatnot -- for taking the offer in front of him.

In the quote, Henson notes that he thinks differently at 30 than he did at 20. Which, duh, but I remember being right there at the same age and I still think exactly how I did 10 years ago about that.

Also: 10 years?!?

M-Wolverine

May 18th, 2010 at 10:09 PM ^

When the players weren't alive when you were in school? Yeah, that's happening. Worse with things like Coach Jackson's kid who I remember as a toddler, and now he's on scholly.