MSU President John Engler (Photo: Screen grab from Detroit News video)
MSU President John Engler (From Detroit News video)
Michigan State interim president John Engler is not shy about speaking up.
On Saturday, during a pregame show on 94.9 WMMQ-FM, he blasted Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany for fining the school $10,000 for a pregrame scuffle at the MSU-UM game last weekend. He called the ruling “absurd” and blamed Michigan for the incident, according to Chris Solari of the Detroit Free Press.
The Big Ten determined this week that Michigan State violated policy when its football team walked across the field with linked arms and initiated contact with multiple members of Michigan’s team who were legitimately on the field during pregame warmups, said a press release issued by the Big Ten. Besides the fine, the MSU team was reprimanded, as was head coach Mark Dantonio for for failing to take action to "mitigate a foreseeable conflict from occurring."
Michigan’s Devin Bush Jr. and Coach Jim Harbaugh were also reprimanded. Bush tore up MSU's midfield logo with his cleats before the game.
“It was a setup. I think the whole thing was staged and the behavior just outrageous,” Engler said on the station. “The idea that Michigan State gets fined is absurd. The Michigan player (Devin Bush) that was out there tearing up the field, that seemed to be the single-most egregious act. I mean, blocking the players was dumb, the players as they did the march. But his behavior in front of everyone, trying to tear up the field and forcing our groundskeeper to come out and fix it — come on.
