Harbaugh, Dantonio snipe at each other

12/5/2017
BY KYLE ROWLAND
BLADE SPORTS WRITER

ANN ARBOR — On what should have been a casual Monday, a war of words broke out between Jim Harbaugh and Mark Dantonio.

The Spartans, passed over for UM in the bowl selection process, were not pleased with the result. Players and fans took to Twitter Sunday to air their grievances before Dantonio spoke to the media in the afternoon.

In two sentences, he delivered the ultimate shot at the Wolverines.

“The records are what they are,” Dantonio said. “I'll just continue to continue to focus on beating Michigan.”

Harbaugh didn’t take kindly to those remarks and couldn’t resist typing a message on Twitter.

“Saw Coach D comments on continuing to “focus” on how “he” can beat Michigan,” Harbaugh wrote. “Congrats on turning around a 3-9 team, plagued with off field issues. Good for BIG to have him back.”

Whoa.

A few hours later, Dantonio responded with his own tweet.

“For all Spartans, “it’s not over, it’ll never be over, it’s just getting started” #SpartansWill,” he wrote.

The Outback Bowl opted to pick Michigan over Michigan State, even though the Spartans have a better record and defeated the Wolverines.

The off-field troubles Harbaugh referenced in his tweet was the dismissal of four Michigan State players who were charged with sexual assault, part of 13 players who left the program prior to the 2017 season.

Dantonio is 2-1 against Harbaugh.

Contact Kyle Rowland at krowland@theblade.com, 419-724-6110, or on Twitter @KyleRowland.