Despite the criticism he’s taken for reinstating Chris L. Rucker to the Michigan State football team after a drunken driving arrest, Spartans coach Mark Dantonio says he wouldn’t have handled the situation differently.
“In terms of the timing of it all I would have done nothing different,” Dantonio said at his weekly news conference. “I believe whenever you have a problem you need to get out front and handle the problem as best you can. I think we did that. The problem was not resolved until Thursday, so I was not making a decision until Thursday.”
Dantonio went on to say that while reinstating Rucker hasn’t been a popular decision among some, others support him sticking behind his players.
“As I said before, I try to do the best I can for each individual player that’s here and their families. I think that’s what they signed up for. They didn’t sign up to go 11-1. They signed up because they felt like I would take care of their sons. I would take their sons and mold them into productive members of society. I don’t think that work is done until they graduate and you don’t see that work until they are 25, 26, 27 years old.”