John Engler praises Mark Dantonio as 'honorable' as contract extended
EAST LANSING – With Michigan State University’s Board of Trustees giving football coach Mark Dantonio a contract extension until 2024, interim president John Engler again took a shot at ESPN’s reporting on the university.
Asked Friday after the board meeting about ESPN’s coverage, Engler singled out a female reporter who he believes has an agenda and “cherry-picked facts to write a fanciful tale.”
The former governor also added privacy laws prevent him from saying what he might want to say.
“A reporter can take something that’s leaked, put her spin on it and run with it, especially from a news media that’s frankly struggling,” Engler said. “Great way to be sensationalistic, and then I’m barred from saying what I might know.”
Dantonio, who is heading into his 12th season in charge of the Spartans, signed a six-year deal in 2016 worth $4.3 million annually. The contract renews annually and contains a $700,000 annual retention bonus.
At a meeting of the board Friday morning, Engler called Dantonio “one of the most honorable coaches, I think, in the country,” saying Dantonio’s handling of two sexual assault cases involving four football players last year was “textbook.” All four players are awaiting trial in Ingham County.
Three of the players – Josh King, Donnie Corley and Demetric Vance – were suspended Feb. 9, 2017 for a January sexual assault allegation. Dantonio dismissed them from the program June 6 when charges were issued by Ingham County Prosecutor Carol Siemon. MSU did not renew the contract of staffer Curtis Blackwell, who also was suspended for his role in handling the case.
Dantonio also dismissed a fourth player, Auston Robertson, after he was charged with criminal sexual conduct April 21 for an incident that allegedly happened earlier that month.
“That’s a great tribute to him, because that’s the kind of man he is,” Engler said of Dantonio. “That’s the integrity he has.”
It was the second time in a week that Engler defended MSU’s coaches. On Monday, the interim president in an email to MSU’s students and community called ESPN’s reporting that attempted to connect Dantonio and basketball coach Tom Izzo to the Larry Nassar scandal “a sensationalized package of reporting.”
Nassar, the former MSU Sports Medicine doctor, pleaded guilty last month to multiple charges of assaulting girls and women over the past 20 years.
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ESPN published its initial Outside the Lines story on Jan. 26, about two hours after Mark Hollis announced his retirement as athletic director and two days after Lou Anna K. Simon announced her retirement as MSU’s president.
In its report, ESPN detailed 16 football players and five basketball players who were alleged to have committed sexual assaults and/or violent attacks on women.
A Free Press investigation also published that day, which began in 2017, identified three previously unreported sexual assault reports involving six former players, bringing the total to 11 players involved in six alleged sexual assault reports during Dantonio’s tenure, which began in 2007.
Dantonio addressed the reports on Jan. 26 before the MSU-Wisconsin basketball game, denying an ESPN allegation that he personally handled at least one sexual assault claim.
“Any accusations of my handling of any complaints of sexual assault individually are completely false,” Dantonio said. “Every incident reported in that article was documented by either police or the Michigan State Title IX office. I have always worked with the proper authorities when dealing with cases of sexual assault.
“We have always had high standards in this program, and that will never change," he said. "The values that we teach to everyone in this program will be enforced. We’ve also always tackled problems here head-on and have dealt with issues. When you find out about the problems, it has come from the police or the university authorities. I can assure you as in last year’s incident, I also immediately reported that to the proper authorities.”
Contact RJ Wolcott at rwolcott@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @WolcottR. Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari. Download our Spartans Xtra app for free on Apple and Android devices!