Michigan State football suffered through a 3-9 disaster last season, fielding a team that both 1.) fell far below expectations and 2.) often looked very disinterested. Winter brought very serious off-the-field issues to supplement the on-the-field catastrophe, as a sexual assault complaint was filed against three players.
Those three Michigan State football players, who allegedly committed the attack in January, were indefinitely suspended in February. Yesterday, the still publicly unnamed Michigan State football trio were charged with formally charged with sexual assault.
Today we finally learned their identity as Josh King, Donnie Corley and Demetric Vance have officially been dismissed from the Michigan State Football program, effective immediately.
The full statement attributed to Dantonio and sent out by Michigan State football media relations is below:
“I have decided that regardless of the final outcome of the criminal process, these three individuals have been dismissed from our program, effective immediately. When we choose student-athletes to come to MSU, we enter into a relationship with them and their families, and we welcome them into ours. We emphasize that success on the field is not enough, as I made clear when all three individuals were suspended four months ago upon us learning of the allegations. They also must embrace our core principles, which include integrity, respect and accountability. The individuals in this case put themselves in a compromising position and did not live up to the standards we have outlined for our program.
“Sexual assault has no place in our community, and I want to share my deep concern for the young woman affected and her family.
“This is an extremely challenging situation that we have taken very seriously and has affected everyone in this program. The high standards I have established for this program will not change, and the values that we teach to everyone in this program will be enforced. I expect all of our players and staff to conduct themselves in a manner that reflect the ideals of this university.”
King was expected to be in the mix for a starting position this season. Corley had a big freshman campaign in 2016, finishing second on the team with 453 receiving yards. Obviously, he was expected to be a major contributor this fall, and his loss hurts the team (from an on-the-field perspective) the most. Vance was a backup defensive back who possibly figured to maybe make an impact in the two deep.
MSU isn’t the only B1G team to kick three players out of school this offseason. Illinois dismissed a trio of football players who are facing armed robbery charges.
Dantonio obviously made the right call here, and that’s not up for debate. If you think it is, then something is seriously wrong with your priorities. What you can have a reasonable argument about is the temperature of Dantonio’s seat in East Lansing.
If you start to see more criminal cases being brought against Michigan State football, supplementing last fall’s drastic on-the-field decline, well 2017 then becomes a very pivotal season for Coach D. Perhaps it already is.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes to WGN CLTV and KOZN.
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