C L Rucker suspended at least one game (confirmed)
This will probably get nuked in no time, but RCBM is reporting that starting senior corner C L Rucker has been suspended for at least the next game for the ever popular "violation of team rules."
October 11th, 2010 at 10:05 AM ^
I was referring to past issues at WVU. But you're right, it doesn't apply to UM... right now.
October 11th, 2010 at 10:10 AM ^
you're getting to troll-level stages right now. it's cool to try to invoke a discussion but most of your posts are dipping into instigation/finger pointing
October 11th, 2010 at 10:29 AM ^
Don't mean to be that way. The initial response was an attempt at a "Pot-Kettle" comment, regarding Dantonio and Rodriguez. I'd rather talk football. I hear ya.
October 10th, 2010 at 8:32 PM ^
I don't care if I look like a sore loser here. I'm tired of this crap. If the incident occurred before the game and was worthy of a suspension, he shouldn't have played. What kind of message is he sending by delaying punishment until after the U-M game?
October 10th, 2010 at 8:38 PM ^
I would be upset if coach Rod knew of an incident and waited until after a big game to discipline. Either way, we shouldn't jump to conclusions that this is definitely the case, but I see no problem with asking for more details.
October 10th, 2010 at 10:35 PM ^
Can you imagine the story the Free Press would make out of that if Rich Rod let a player play against MSU and then disciplined him? Yikes.
October 10th, 2010 at 9:09 PM ^
With you. If Nick Saban or Urban Meyer did something like that, and I wouldn't put it past them, that'd be a topic of discussion around here too and we'd rake 'em over the coals. You know Brian would at least give it a mention in a UV post, especially Saban. Beating U-M shouldn't give Dantonio immunity from the same treatment, if indeed that's what he did. And his history suggests it's not farfetched.
October 10th, 2010 at 9:43 PM ^
Easy if you do something I'll suspend you if the game doesn't matter.
October 10th, 2010 at 9:25 PM ^
It would make the fans look like sore losers if everyone tried to blame yesterday's loss on Rucker being out there (though I'm sure it would have been a disruption if a starting DB was out). It is more fans noticing a trend of MSU punishing players (or welcoming back guys from prison) at opportunistic times right around the UM game. I've always been annoyed when coaches suspend a guy for the first game of the season against Baby Seal U or half a game and act like they really sent a message. Heck, I thought it was weak when the Jets suspended Braylon for a half after he was caught drunk driving. Its the hypocrisy that makes this a worthy post, not any sense of justification for the loss.
October 10th, 2010 at 9:40 PM ^
A voice of reason.
October 10th, 2010 at 9:01 PM ^
Dantonio has no need to answer to the fan bases of his rivals, right?
October 10th, 2010 at 9:05 PM ^
Did Rucker make us drop passes and throw interceptions? No. They beat us on the football field. Whether their morals are up to par has nothing to do with this game anymore. I hate MSU as much as anyone else here, but I don't want to be associated with a group of people that are using the "yeah, we lost by 17 but that one player maybe shouldn't have been in the game so it doesn't REALLY count."
Take it like a man.
October 10th, 2010 at 9:18 PM ^
I agree and am not suggesting anything of the sort. Hell, I believe whatever happened happened in EL last night after the win. More than likely, it had to do with alcohol or a violation of curfew imposed by Dantonio following the Rather incident.
If TPryor was the person involved, somoeone (or even I) would have posted it as well.
October 10th, 2010 at 9:24 PM ^
Absolutely. I appreciate you posting it. It's news. Just not happy with anyone implying without information that Rucker should have been suspended before the game yesterday or that their win is devalued because of it.
October 10th, 2010 at 9:38 PM ^
it appears you are the one making the "leap". i don't really see many (if any) comments saying we would have won had he not played. it's just the further dantonio hypocrisy at work, IF the incident occurred before saturday.
October 10th, 2010 at 9:26 PM ^
It's possible to simultaneously believe that 1) they beat us fair and square (though Rucker did have one of the INTs) and 2) playing him (if he committed a suspension-worthy offense beforehand) was incredibly bush league. The two do not have to be mutually exclusive.
October 10th, 2010 at 9:32 PM ^
For sure, but we have no idea what happened. Once we know, Dantonio bashing becomes fair game.
October 10th, 2010 at 10:16 PM ^
In all likelihood, we won't find out what happened. I think everyone can agree that we were outplayed and MSU deserved their win. Acknowdledging that the timing of this announcement is a little suspicious doesn't change that.
October 11th, 2010 at 2:37 AM ^
I don't think that having Rucker suspended would have made Denard overthrow Stonum by any less, or make our receivers not drop about 8 passes.
Putting aside the game entirely, however, Michigan fans have a right to be frustrated that the Saint Dantonio myth continues to be perpetuated despite ample evidence to the contrary. He actually gets positive press for imposing light disciplinary measures on those who commit major disciplinary infractions, while the fact that his players are consistently committing such infractions seems to be ignored.
Lets be honest. If Dantonio caught a key starter beating up Dantonio's mother while high on coke the night before the Michigan game, that guy would still start. If is true that we don't know whether this infraction occurred before or after the game. Based on his track record, however, we are pretty safe in assuming that regardless of whether the violation occurred before or after the game, the suspension would not occur until after the game. The fact that the media never call bullshit on that is what bothers us.
October 11th, 2010 at 10:45 AM ^
Speaking only for myself, I don't care about Chris L. Rucker. If he did something stupid, or not. If he killed somebody, or not. I really don't care. I don't care if he plays, or not. Or if State wins, or loses, the rest of their games. I don't care what happens to them.
What I care about is Dantonio, and his veneer of respectability. The guy is obsessed with beating Michigan, and if (and again, I don't know the answer) Dantonio was aware of a repeat-offender issue with Rucker before they played Michigan, but waited until Sunday to suspend him, then that is a HUGE story that I will spread as far and as wide as I can.
The Sparties over at RCMB seem concerned about whether it was a serious matter, a criminal matter, and whether they will lose Rucker for the remainder of the season. They are concerned about the image of their program, and the welfare of their kids, and oh yes whether Rucker's backup can cover deep when they play Iowa.
I don't care about any of that.
The Sparties care about "what" happened. I don't. I only care about when it happened, and what Dantonio says about the "when."
October 10th, 2010 at 9:13 PM ^
Captain Character "might as well tell you"...... ???? WTF?
October 10th, 2010 at 9:17 PM ^
That Illinois team didn't look like the autowin many of us were making them out to be before last weekend. Its a noon start in EL, they better wake up for.
October 10th, 2010 at 9:43 PM ^
This.
October 11th, 2010 at 3:38 PM ^
MSU is 6-0 in the two weeks after the Michigan game under Dantonio, they'll be ready. And Illinois beating PSU by 20 is the best thing they could have done to put MSU on notice that they're a good team.
October 10th, 2010 at 9:19 PM ^
Of course he did - even in victory, MSU cannot help but taint their victory even a smidge.
That said, Rucker had little to do with yesterday's loss. I doubt it would have mattered either way, and right now the focus should be on Iowa and moving forward. But yeah, between this and Glenn Winston being given a furlough on Saturday for a couple of hours in EL, timing always seems to work out for Sparty.
October 10th, 2010 at 9:41 PM ^
With Iowa in 3 games I'm sure he'll be suspended for 2 games.
October 10th, 2010 at 9:44 PM ^
I guess I just don't see the big conspiracy here. Rucker wouldn't be suspended at all if the tin foil hat crowd was correct that he is unwilling to discipline his players.
I'm sure at least some of you remember how Carr handled Marlin Jacksons run in with the law, and the delayed 1 game suspension he served.
Goose/gander, pot/kettle and all that.
October 10th, 2010 at 10:14 PM ^
Way back in the early spring, before anybody knew anything about the invesitgation into the theft of DPS computers, we heard Tom Izzo say that he was letting Sims go from the basketball team so he could concentrate on football. Dantonio, meanwhile, says nothing, while the kid sits out football games with, uh, an injury?
Turns out that the Spartan Athletic Department knew all along, and had been advised of the investigation and knew that Sims was a target, as early as like February or something. Izzo's statement last spring is, in retrospect, a masterwork of obfuscation and misleading information.
October 10th, 2010 at 10:22 PM ^
I guess I'm not sure what you're seeing. According to the Freep, Sims played in every football game last year, and none this year. The fact that he was part of an investigation kept him off the field...once charged with a crime, he was suspended.
As far as basketball, I doubt Sims evey made it into a game, even in trash time. He did have some D1 BB offers, but not from any schools like MSU. He just isn't close to being good enough to crack the lineup in BB.
October 11th, 2010 at 3:16 PM ^
Remember, I don't care about any of the Spartan players or their futures. I really don't care if Dion Sims comes back to play at MSU, or if he drives a cab, or spends the next 10-15 years in the Muskegon Correctional Facility. I'll leave all of that to somebody who cares about whether MSU teams win, or what kind of reputation and image they enjoy.
But if MSU "suspended" Sims once they became aware of his being the target of a grand larceny and conspiracy investigation, they didn't say that.
Here's the Izzo story from the Grand Rapids Press, dateline Feb. 19, 2010 -- this was all apparently transpiring after Izzo was apprised of the criminal investigation:
EAST LANSING -- The Dion Sims experiment is over for now, but probably not forever.
Sims, the Michigan State football tight end, joined the basketball team last month.He is back on full-time football duty now.
"Because we got him so late, I said, 'Let's give it three weeks, a month, and see what happens.' But we decided, probably two weeks ago, that unless something changes quickly, he'd better go back to his bread and butter, where his money is," MSU basketball coach Tom Izzo said.
"Then, he comes back next year, he'll be a little more acclimated to everything and it'll be a little bit more easy on him."
Sims, a freshman tight end, also was a star basketball player at Orchard Lake St. Mary's High School.
Izzo said Sims "loves basketball, and I don't think there's any question that he'll be back."
He said Sims' shooting ability surprised him most.
But unlike Matt Trannon, who played both sports, Sims was not able to jump quickly into basketball because the Spartans played in a bowl game again this year. Trannon, who played football during the John L. Smith era, joined the basketball team in November during his senior season.
The problem with the 6-foot-5, 265-pound Sims is what position he would play, Izzo said.
"He's not as big as Trannon, in some ways," Izzo said. "And then, he needed to get into things and, in the middle of that stretch we were in, with all those games, and all of them on the road, there was just no time to spend.
"That's why it wasn't fair to him, or fair to football, or fair to anybody -- except to us. It was just a luxury to have a kid, but we didn't want to do that to him."
Sims suffered from the flu for several days, which cost him practice and game availability and further reduced his basketball viability.
October 10th, 2010 at 10:52 PM ^
And your point is?
What should they have done, exactly? Tar and feather in the public square? What would have worked for you Section 1?
October 10th, 2010 at 11:00 PM ^
Said Sims is no longer on the team? Would that have been so hard? Was lying the right response?
October 11th, 2010 at 10:11 AM ^
is a better assertion than "he should stick to football." izzo lied (or stretched the truth lots) about why Sims was no longer on the team. that's worth at least a raise of the eyebrow
October 11th, 2010 at 1:24 PM ^
I think that's just standard practice at MSU. If I recall, Jenrette was "attending to personal issues" when he was sent to the offenders' program following his 2nd B&E charges.
October 11th, 2010 at 12:47 AM ^
October 11th, 2010 at 9:33 AM ^
Finally, someone in this thread who gets it.
But sorry wolpherine2000, not that you asked for or wanted it, but my endorsement will no doubt cost you a few points!
October 10th, 2010 at 11:05 PM ^
I'm sure at least some of you remember how Carr handled Marlin Jacksons run in with the law, and the delayed 1 game suspension he served.
I remember it, but I'm not sure you do. He sat out the season opener.
October 11th, 2010 at 12:15 AM ^
And Jackson was later awarded six-figures for defamation. That really is a spectacularly bad choice for an example.
October 10th, 2010 at 9:51 PM ^
Seems kind of suspicious. Well, we wouldn't have won if he didn't play anyway.
October 10th, 2010 at 10:48 PM ^
....right?
October 10th, 2010 at 11:02 PM ^
Tucker Max? That guy is a dbag.
October 10th, 2010 at 11:30 PM ^
You act like Rucker being suspended would have impacted the fact that you got absolutley OWNED in your own house. You are all a bunch of whiny, silver spoon fed pieces of garbage. Eat dicks.
October 10th, 2010 at 11:34 PM ^
Wow. That really hits home. Excuse me while I re-evaluate my life. Thanks for the eye opener! :)
October 10th, 2010 at 11:36 PM ^
But......I loved you.
October 10th, 2010 at 11:49 PM ^
You totally missed the point on this one. Good luck in life with your one brain cell.
October 10th, 2010 at 11:58 PM ^
Great, now all our replies look like they were aimed at Big Redacted.
October 11th, 2010 at 4:19 PM ^
So that some of these questions can get asked...
Or does Dantonio schedule his first weekday presser for Tuesdays?
I just heard the guy on 97.1 -- I forget his name and I always want to call him "Michael Andretti" -- suggest that Rucker was suspended because of some kind of celebration after the game. Is that right? Who knows about that? Or is it the wishful thinking/hope/presumption in Spartyland that it was a purely post-Michigan-game issue?