Mark Dantonio refutes report 2 more players off team
EAST LANSING – Mark Dantonio took to Twitter tonight to refute a report that two more players had left his Michigan State football program.
SpartanNation.com reported defensive end Robert Bowers and cornerback Vayante Copeland “were no longer with the program.” However, a spokesman for the MSU football team said both players remain with the program.
Dantonio issued a tweet less than 20 minutes after the initial story: “The most recent report that V. Copeland and R. Bowers have been thrown off the team are (sic) inaccurate and has no validity. #RedLocked”
The term “red-locked” refers to a statement Dantonio made during the Big Ten spring football teleconference earlier this month when asked if anyone who participated in the Spartans’ spring game was no longer with the team.
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“Well, we red-lock people from time to time. We use the term red-lock for various things,” Dantonio said on April 12. “So yes, there has been. That’s a constant. There is constant people in and out of different situations. I think that is normal.”
Both Bowers and Copeland played in that April 1 scrimmage. Dantonio did not say if Bowers and/or Copeland were suspended, but an MSU spokesman confirmed “their status hasn’t changed.” SpartanNation.com updated its story after Dantonio’s tweet.
“Spartan Nation ran the report of what sources had told us,” the updated version said. “Spartan Nation after we ran our initial report has been told that the players (sic) status with the program, ‘Has not changed.’”
Dantonio dismissed Auston Robertson on Friday after the freshman defensive end was charged with third-degree criminal sexual conduct for an alleged April 8 incident. Three other unnamed players also are suspended from football activities but are still students while their involvement in an alleged sexual assault on Jan. 16 remains under review by the Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office.
Linebacker Jon Reschke announced he was leaving the program on Feb. 24 for making “an insensitive and totally regrettable comment involving a former teammate.” Offensive lineman Thiyo Lukusa told the Free Press in early February that he did not return to MSU for his second semester.
There were 15 players on the Spartans’ 71-player roster who did not dress for the spring game. When asked April12 if he expected more attrition from his team this spring, Dantonio did not deny that could happen or confirm that it would.
“That’s a tough thing to evaluate because people make decisions after spring ball relative to what they’re gonna do,” Dantonio said. “Some people tend to change, things of that nature. I think that’s natural. But I can’t put a number on that. All I can tell you is that we’re gonna do the things we have to do to move forward as a program.”
Contact Chris Solari:csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter@chrissolari. Download our Spartans Xtra app for free onAppleandAndroiddevices!