Michigan State football's account of pregame skirmish with Michigan

EAST LANSING — Word traveled quickly from one side of the divided press room to the other.

Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh had called Michigan State “bush league” when asked about a pregame confrontation between players from both teams. And he pointed to Spartans coach Mark Dantonio being behind it all.

Dantonio was asked about it after the Spartans’ 21-7 loss. And Harbaugh’s words immediately drew his ire.

“That’s B.S. You heard me. That’s B.S.,” Dantonio said of Harbaugh's comments, before being asked specifically what happened on the field.

“You guys get your cameras out,” he said. “It’s all on Fox. I’m not gonna go to that. Go ahead, next question.”

A few seconds later, unprompted, Dantonio muttered into the microphone after another question:

“Bush league? Mmmhmm.”

MSU captain Joe Bachie backed up his coach.

“That’s fine," Bachie said. “You know, I don’t control how their brain works and how they think. If that’s how they think over there, that’s fine to me. Coach D has been doing a great job here. He’s (won) eight out of the 12 against those guys, so we’re just gonna push forward and ignore whatever they say.”

So what happened?

That depends on which side of the rivalry you fall — and whom you choose to believe.

Here's the Michigan State account of what happened pregame. You can also read the Michigan version.

The timeline

At 9:45 a.m., MSU players and coaches left Kellogg Center to make their traditional game day walk past fans and along the Red Cedar River.

Wearing helmets and gray sweatsuits, they started to pour through the Spartan Stadium tunnel at 10 a.m., lining up along the back of the north end zone. Players all linked arms to walk the length of the field, something they do before every home game, before gates open.

The tradition is meant to simulate the phalanx formation of that is credited to the military of ancient Sparta. Their attire generally varies, but they have worn helmets in prior pregame walks. The team does it both at home and on the road.

Usually, at Spartan Stadium, MSU makes its walk before visiting teams start warmups. The stadium clock starts running 90 minutes prior to kickoff to begin team activities.

When MSU arrived Saturday, they found about eight Wolverines stretching — the rest of the team remained in the locker room. The U-M players had been on the field for at least 5 minutes.

Michigan's Devin Bush and Lawrence Marshall stood in between the hashmarks near the north side 35-yard line. Lavert Hill, wearing headphones, walked circles around the Spartan head logo at midfield. A few others moved closer to the U-M sideline near midfield on the east side of the stadium.

Bachie said he has “never” seen opposing players on the field.

“We walk together (before) every game,” the junior linebacker said. “They just thought it was right to be on the field when we were walking. I guess a couple guys got tangled up a little bit. It’s just something we do every game."

Just before 10:02 a.m., the Spartans began their walk. Bush and Marshall were facing them. Both started doing squats as MSU players walked closer.

The first player the interlocked Spartans encountered was linebacker Khaleke Hudson, who turned sideways and did not make contact with any MSU players around the 30-yard line.

At the 33-yard line, video shot by the Free Press shows Marshall stood up from his squat and reached both arms outward toward the oncoming opponents. He made contact with at least one of them and ripped his way through the interlinked arms that crossed his chest with a two-armed swim move.

Bush also stood still, his head down as the line of MSU players approached, then reached his hands out into one opponent. The Spartans appear to eventually pull their arms over Bush’s head.

Both Michigan players ended up standing on either side of Dantonio, who walked past them with his team. The two Wolverines turned and appeared to start yelling at a few Spartans who turned around. Dantonio seemed to tell his players to go the other direction, and they kept walking.

MSU senior safety Khari Willis said he has seen a few opposing players on the field before when the Spartans arrive for the walk.

“Most of them, I guess when they’re asked to move, they moved," Willis said. "Some people didn’t move. I don’t know, it was a little chirping and stuff that happened from there. Some other teams respect it and move out the way, and some teams don’t. I think it was just talking more than anything.”

Hill, meanwhile, slowly bobbed his way toward the oncoming MSU players near the north side 45-yard line and walked directly into the procession, getting swept up with them across midfield before appearing to shove one of the Spartans in the back. Hill continued to follow the MSU players down the field yelling before being restrained by a Michigan staffer.

A rope went up across the field seconds later. The Spartans met in the south end zone, let out their usual cheer, then ran back toward the tunnel and their locker room. Michigan players continued to yell at them, and MSU players barked back.

MSU quarterback Brian Lewerke said he was told strength coach Ken Mannie asked the Michigan contingent to move before the Spartans began their walk.

“I guess we maybe might have been a little late," Lewerke said. "We always link arms and walk down the field. To my knowledge, coach Mannie had gone and informed the Michigan players that we were about to do that and just asked them to step to the side. And they didn’t, so we just kept walking.”

“I guess one of them ran into one of the guys and we just kept doing our walk. We walked down, then ran back to the tunnel. Didn’t make it into anything bigger than it needed to be.”

Bush, meanwhile, walked toward the Spartan head at midfield and began dragging his feet across the logo and putting divots in the turf. He kicked and thrashed until his beanie hat fell off, then scuffed up the logo some more.

MSU players did not see that live, but they quickly saw the video while they were in the locker room.

“Everyone knew it had happened,” Lewerke said.

Said defensive tackle Raequan Williams: “I guess they had a certain mindset. I mean, what are you gonna do to the field, I guess? It was childish.”

The Spartan Stadium grounds crew came out to repair the damage to the logo before the actual warmup clock began.

But that was just the warmup act.

The two teams combined for six offsetting unsportsmanlike conduct penalties in the game. There also were three personal foul flags thrown.

“It’s Michigan-Michigan State," Willis said. “We both feel some type of way about each other. And I feel that’s just a result of the emotions and tempers flying.”

In case you’re wondering, MSU plays at Michigan on Nov. 16 next season.

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari. 

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