Michigan coach Brady Hoke issued an apology to Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio for his players planting a stake in the Spartan Stadium turf before Saturday’s 35-11 loss, calling it “poor sportsmanship.”
Hoke said he spoke with Dantonio on Sunday morning.
“We meant no disrespect to his team,” Hoke said.
Hoke said that during the Wolverines’ Friday night meeting, the team was presented with a tent stake as part of a motivational speech.
“The stake was brought into our locker room as a visual reminder,” Hoke said in a statement, “and one of our team leaders chose to take it out on the field. As the leader of our football program, I take full responsibility for the actions of our team. We believe in displaying a high level of respect at the University of Michigan and unfortunately that was not reflected by this action prior to kickoff.”
Before the game, the Michigan players planted some sort of spear in the turf near its sideline and it did not go unnoticed by Michigan State. It was the motivation for the Spartans scoring one more touchdown — a 5-yard run from Jeremy Langford — instead of taking a knee with a 17-point lead in the final minute.
“As far as the score at the end,” Dantonio said after the game, “I knew we were going to pop one when they had everybody up there, so we popped one and I just felt like we needed to put a stake in them at that point.
“You might as well just come out and say what you’re feeling at some point in time because you can only be diplomatic for so long. The ‘Little Brother’ stuff, all the disrespect, it didn’t have to go in that direction.
“We try to handle ourselves with composure. It doesn’t come from the coach, it comes from the program. Throwing the stake down in our backyard out here, coming out there like they’re all that, it got shoved … in the last minute or half. We were not gonna pull off of that. We didn’t want to kick a field goal. That wasn’t the MO, but if our guys could get it in, we would get it in.”
The Spartans have often felt disrespected in the in-state rivalry. Then-Michigan tailback Mike Hart referred to them as “Little Brother” after a 2007 Wolverines win.
Since then, Michigan State has won six of the past seven meetings and the fourth straight at home.
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