The Mark Dantonio background check. Michigan State "vetted" Auston Robertson after this incident:

Michigan State officials have said the university was aware of two criminal charges in Robertson's past. One was sexual in nature, and the other was not. He was charged in January 2016 with misdemeanor battery related to an incident during school in which he "rubbed and grabbed" a female classmate's groin area against her will in the fall of his senior year.

Robertson had "several other police reports documenting alleged sexual violence and misconduct" just waiting to be asked after. Two were for attempted rape. The victim in the misdemeanor described above told police of two earlier incidents. There were no fewer than five incidents of sexual assault during Robertson's high school career, described in police reports. MSU didn't bother looking for them.

No one from Michigan State requested information about Robertson's criminal history in Fort Wayne through formal records requests during the school's vetting process, according to the city's records department. …

Allen County (Indiana) Prosecutor Karen Richards said no one from Michigan State contacted her or her office for records or discussion about Robertson during the time that Michigan State was vetting him

What is the first thing you'd do if you were serious about vetting someone? That. Instead, Michigan State went through a sham process that put Robertson on campus. Predictably, he sexually assaulted someone within the first year. He's now facing three years in prison.

Mark Dantonio put the MSU student body at risk because he didn't care one iota whether or not Robertson was a threat. If you don't think the Larry Nassar attitude extends to football and basketball, you are wrong.

In related news, Curtis Blackwell is suing various MSU people after being made the fall guy for the three guys who got expelled for a sexual assault that got pled down to "seduction" and a former employee is suing after MSU was unresponsive to harassment allegations against a union head.

This seems good. The Solid Verbal compiles points per drive stats in conference play:

B1G Points/Drive Improvement
(2017 -> 2018, vs conf opp) pic.twitter.com/zzV2R3OOb1

— The Solid Verbal (@SolidVerbal) November 12, 2018

Michigan near the top of both lists; OSU near the bottom. Maryland vastly improved! Every other weekend.

Press conferences have gotten weird. Mostly talkin' snakes these days:

Junior running back Tru Wilson, who finished with eight carries for a career-high 58 yards on Saturday, faced the media. Wilson didn’t receive any questions about his previous game.

But he got plenty about his pet snake, Mako.

“He’s just getting done shedding, so I haven’t been able to play with him for the last week or so,” Wilson said. “I guess he’s blind when he sheds, so I guess it’s kinda dangerous — not dangerous, he’s not gonna kill me. The ball pythons are a very defensive creature.”

Doesn't Higdon have a snake, too? How many Michigan running backs have snakes?

[After THE JUMP: PFF stats, maybe they make waffles, sketchy Zach Smith stuff]

Various PFF stats. Items PFF has loosed into the world of late:

• Nico Collins is among the national leaders in passer rating when targeted on throws that take some time to develop.
• Collins and DPJ are #2 and #4 in the conference in passer rating when targeted. OSU's Terry McLaurin and Parris Campbell are #1 and #3.
• David Long and Lavert Hill are #1 and #3 in yards allowed per coverage snap. Long had the best coverage grade in the Big Ten prior to Rutgers.
• As a unit the secondary is giving up just 2.3 yards after the catch, which is #5 nationally. OSU relies heavily on run after catch yardage.

It's no "bust they ass on three," but it'll do. Chase Winovich and Shea Patterson are roommates. But do they make tacos?

Only one way to find out.

"Who can know?" should maybe get spiked. Bret McMurphy's latest foray into the Zach Smith swamp probably shouldn't have been published, which you can tell just by the headline:

The Search for the Truth About Trevon Grimes’ Transfer From Ohio State to Florida

It's never good when "the search for" precedes "the truth." Grimes's father contends that Smith dropped an n-bomb on him and Urban Meyer "covered it up." Grimes himself offered a no comment; three other Florida players said he'd told them about the incident; a guy who just graduated put this on the record:

“Coach Smith might have said something that pissed off Tre about his previous route. He was always known for saying s – – -, you had to have tough skin.

“It didn’t get like they were throwing punches, but we did have to break them up,” Goins said. “He curses and uses profanity, but he never took it to that level with me. He knew his boundaries.”

Then the Florida SID calls him and says Grimes's dad is a liar and hasn't talked to his son in two years… which was easily disproven by the dad's phone records. It's a mess. The situation is a mess, the story is a mess, and it unfortunately undermines McMurphy's earlier reporting. We already knew Zach Smith is a horrible person who skated along under Meyer for almost a decade; even if this was rock-solid it wouldn't tell us anything new.

Furbush is a serious dude. From the Blade:

“I think people have passions in life and my passion is flying,” said Furbush, who earned his pilot’s license two years ago. “I know where I want to go, and I want to join the military. I know it’s uncommon for most people, but it’s always been something I’ve looked at and always wanted to do.”

With an aerospace engineering degree already in hand, Furbush, who had 30 tackles, 2½ tackles for loss, one sack, and a fumble recovery for a touchdown in 2017, is pursuing a master’s degree in engineering with a specification in space engineering. On Saturdays, he flies around the football field.

He wants to fly F-35s, but he's 6'5". I don't know if that's going to happen.

The defensive coordinator. Luke Yaklich lets Brendan Quinn inside the curtain a bit:

Yaklich sips his coffee.

“Going into every game,” he says, “the key for us is, one, you have to stop transition offense, and, two, what’s your ball-screen defense plan? There are so many moving parts. That’s the fun part about coaching. Putting a defensive plan together, you’ve got to figure out how to get your moving parts to disrupt their moving parts in the most simple way possible.”

This is how Yaklich explains defense. He begins with a rudimentary detail, explaining things that go without saying. He wants you to understand the premise because a stack of information will come atop it. It’s all based on endless fieldwork. Ask anyone around Michigan and they will tell you that this man consumes a disturbing amount of film. When I ask Yaklich how much time he spends per week on film study, he glances over sheepishly and says, “I don’t think I want that out there. People might think I’m crazy.”

Etc.: Talking Josh Norris. RIP Ron Johnson. Izzo's getting into the Captain Queeg mode early this year. Higdon drawing some NFL attention. Caris Levert's injury is much less bad than it looked. The Nets are looking at him as a cornerstone.