Mark Dantonio returns to Michigan State football: 'It's their show, they're running it'

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Mark Dantonio’s phone rang early Sunday morning. He was busy changing a diaper.

When he hung up with Michigan State athletic director Alan Haller, Dantonio himself changed — from affable "Grandpa Mark" back into football-focused "Coach D."

Dantonio quickly returned to campus Monday to become Michigan State football’s associate head coach, getting up to speed on what help his protégé Harlon Barnett as acting head coach.

“Well, I think that every day is a new day,” Dantonio said late Friday afternoon at MSU’s Clara Bell Smith Center. “To me, great challenges bring on great adversity, which provide great growth for people. And so for coach Barnett and our football team, it's another lesson in life.

“As I said when I walked out of here, there's there is nothing that won't be changed inevitably. So change is inevitable for all of us. It's a tough situation.”

Barnett takes over following Mel Tucker’s suspension by Haller on Sunday following a USA TODAY story that detailed allegations of sexual impropriety for the fourth-year head coach’s actions on a phone call with sexual assault victims advocate Brenda Tracy. Tucker was hired eight days after Dantonio’s abrupt retirement in early February 2020.

“I told him, I said, ‘I'm thinking about doing this.’ And then he said, ‘How about this?’” Barnett said Tuesday about Dantonio. “I can't share all this stuff and I don't really want to share all of it. But he's I'm glad he's here. Love me some Coach D, man.”

Dantonio’s final game as MSU’s coach was the Pinstripe Bowl in New York on Dec. 30, 2019, the last of his program-record 114 victories. His last win at Spartan Stadium was the regular-season finale over Maryland on Nov. 30, 2019.

Now, he returns — though will be on the sideline only in an advisory capacity and not wearing a coaching headset — as the Spartans prepare for the major challenge of facing Michael Penix Jr. and Washington at 5 p.m. Saturday.

“No, I don't think that's my place right now,” Dantonio said about whether he would be coaching and working on the gameplan. “I think my place is to sort of sit back and see what's going on. But I have watched a lot of Washington film, I have watched practice some, I have been in defensive staff meetings.

“I have worked the 12-hour days — not the 14, but the 12. I'm just trying to immerse myself a little bit and trying to get confident in terms of knowing the system a little bit. But that takes time.”

That has meant going from changing his 1-year-old grandson — his namesake, Mark Robert Carpenter, the second child of Dantonio’s daughter, Kristen — to on-the-fly learning the X's and O's the Spartans are using under Barnett and the remainder of Tucker’s staff, as well as getting to know the players and personnel around MSU’s program.

“You don't get into coaching and go halfway in,” Dantonio said. “If you step back in this arena, you're gonna step back in and try and do the very best you can do and do something positive. So, but I think my role is different, certainly than it was, because there's a lot of things you don't know.”

Dantonio had always planned to be on campus this weekend, for his former running back Javon Ringer's induction into the MSU Athletics Hall of Fame on Friday as well as the 10-year reunion of Dantonio’s 2013 Big Ten championship and Rose Bowl-winning team. Many of his former players are back as well.

Yet he returns to the place where he served as an assistant coach under Nick Saban from 1995-99, then under Bobby Williams in 2000. Dantonio left MSU and was Ohio State’s defensive coordinator for its 2001 national championship team, then took over Cincinnati for three seasons (2004-06) in his first head coaching job.

He accepted MSU’s head coaching position in late 2006; over 13 seasons (2007-19), he surpassed Duffy Daugherty as the school's all-time winningest football coach. Now, he’s back to help out however he can.

“I am excited to be back out there,” the 67-year-old said. “It's a different role. But I'm really excited about the Rose Bowl reunion and seeing my guys. I saw Darqueze Denard and Kurtis Drummond yesterday, I saw Benny Fowler and Trae Waynes today. I'm sure I'll see a lot of other ones tonight or tomorrow. So I'm very excited about that, and then also about Javon.

“I didn't know I'd be here with coaching stuff on (Saturday), but it's an exciting day for everybody.”

That changed with the phone call from Haller.

“I spent 19 years here as a Spartan,” said Dantonio, who added he could not comment on Tucker’s suspension. “I've always have been on contract, a small contract, and always said to Alan Haller, ‘Whatever you need me to do, anytime I can help, let me know.’ And he reached out. So I said, ‘Yeah, sure, I'll help you.’ And I put aside everything for a little bit (to) do this.”

Dantonio gave Barnett his first full-time coaching job at Cincinnati in 2004, and Barnett, an MSU alumnus, followed him back to East Lansing in 2006 as his defensive backs coach. Barnett ascended to co-defensive coordinator from 2015-17, then left to be the sole defensive coordinator at Florida State from 2018-19. Tucker hired him to return to MSU in 2020 as an assistant coach in charge of the secondary.

“He's always had great relationships with the players,” Dantonio said of his new boss Barnett. “He's always been a tremendous recruiter. He's a very good football coach. And the players believe in him. I think he's about coaching, and coaching is about bringing young people forward in a positive way and leadership and things of that nature. He's very much about that.”

Dantonio also previously knew current MSU wide receivers coach Courtney Hawkins, who was football coach and athletic director at Flint Beecher before Tucker hired him in 2020. Getting to know the rest of the Spartans’ staff and players he did not recruit, Dantonio said, has been his primary mission this week since returning to work Monday.

“I envision my role sort of as an ongoing thing,” Dantonio said. “I'm four days in, and you know as a coach, terminology and systems in place, it takes so long to get those things. So I'm sort of a consultant, an advisor. I'm gonna just immerse myself in football a little bit. And if I have something to say, I'll say it. But it's their show, they're running it. And I'm here just to help in any way I can.”

Some of Dantonio’s recruits remain and are now veterans in key positions. Among those he recruited on offense are quarterback Noah Kim, receivers Tre Mosley and Montorie Foster, tight end Evan Morris, running back Jordon Simmons and offensive linemen Spencer Brown, J.D. Duplain, Dallas Fincher and Nick Samac. Among the key defensive players who were Dantonio recruits are defensive tackles Simeon Barrow and Maverick Hansen, defensive ends Avery Dunn and Brandon Wright, linebacker Cal Haladay and defensive back Angelo Grose.

“All the players have been great,” Dantonio said. “The ones that I recruited here welcomed me back, obviously, but all the players have been great. Great energy. ... I'm just getting to know them. I got a sheet in my office with pictures and names and numbers, so I'm just trying to get to know everybody.”

It isn’t like Dantonio is an unfamiliar face, either. He has made pilgrimages every summer since he retired, to places he coached or programs where his assistants landed. That included visits to MSU, Pat Narduzzi at Pitt and Luke Fickell at both Cincinnati and Wisconsin.

The difference between those and what he’s about to undertake now in his return to coaching?

“Well, what I gleaned was when I got back in the car, I knew I was going home,” Dantonio delivered in his trademark deadpan fashion, eliciting laughter. “It's always good to be around football. I get my little football fixes and spend some time with the people that have been a part of my life as I've coached. So I've enjoyed doing that. I've done that every year since I've retired, and so I'll probably continue to do that.”

And as to whether this new role points to more coaching in his future?

“Hey, I've always said I'm looking forward to retirement,” Dantonio said with a grin. “So I'll leave it like that.”

Contact Chris Solari:csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.