“Like everyone else, you want to protect your players,” Harbaugh told reporters. “Ten to one, whatever it was, was just bad. It must be studied and carried out. Our sporting director will make sure that happens.
Although Harbaugh said “two of our players were assaulted”, only McBurrows was visible in some videos, although the Free Press noted that another video entering the tunnel showed Michigan cornerback Gemon Green also cutting their way through Spartans players. Harbaugh said a player appeared to have a nose injury but did not identify him.
Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel joined Harbaugh in speaking to the media and called the incident “completely unacceptable”. I spoke to [Big Ten Conference] commissioner – he is looking into the matter. The police are also looking into the matter, as they have seen the video and are dealing with it. We’ll leave it in their hands, but that’s not how we should interact after a game.
“This is not how another team should grab a player and do what they did, it’s completely and utterly unacceptable. We’ll let the Big Ten and law enforcement deal with it. , but that’s not what a rivalry should be.
The Michigan Daily identified some of the Spartans surrounding McBurrows like linebacker Itayvion Brown, defensive end Zion Young, and safety Angelo Grose.
Michigan State coach Mel Tucker told reporters after the game that he didn’t discuss the matter with his players in the locker room because “I don’t know what happened. . … I know it was a heated game. Things were heating up. We were trying to get our guys into the locker room. We will have to figure out what happened.
Another video showed a fan leaning from the bleachers and touching Tucker’s head as he entered the tunnel. Tucker brushed off the man’s hand in the brief video.
Kevin Warren, the conference commissioner, was at the game and the Big Ten were later released A declaration promising “appropriate action” after an investigation.
“The Big Ten Conference is aware of an incident tonight at Michigan Stadium between student-athletes from Michigan State University and the University of Michigan,” he said. “The conference is currently collecting information, will thoroughly investigate the fact and take appropriate action.”
Early Sunday morning, Michigan State Athletic Director Alan Haller said in a press release“I have been in contact with Commissioner Warren. We will cooperate with the conference office and other efforts to gather more information.
Tucker released a statement about the incident Sunday morning, tweet in a thread“As Spartans, our program has a responsibility to maintain the highest level of sportsmanship. While emotions were running high at the end of our rivalry game at Michigan Stadium, there is no excuse for behavior that puts our team or our opponents at risk.”, we will assess the events in Ann Arbor and take prompt and appropriate action.
In full cooperation with law enforcement, the Big Ten Conference, and leaders of MSU and UM, we will assess the events in Ann Arbor and take prompt and appropriate action.
—Mel Tucker (@Coach_mtucker) October 30, 2022
The incident is the second to occur in Michigan’s stadium tunnel, opened in 1927, in as many games. The Penn State and Michigan players had a heated exchange when they entered the tunnel at halftime in the Wolverines’ 41-17 victory last weekend.
“All you have to do is walk into their locker room,” Harbaugh told reporters Monday. “Like, you saw pretty clearly that they completely shut down. They weren’t letting us go up the tunnel. And it just seemed like a sophomore ploy to keep us out of the locker room.
There is only one entrance to the locker room from the Big House pitch and the visiting team usually enters first. After the Penn State game, an unidentified Michigan player appeared to be in the tunnel as the team still celebrated on the field.
“There really should be a policy that the first team that comes in, there’s a buffer,” Penn State coach James Franklin said afterwards. “Otherwise, this team starts talking to this team, they start chewing back and forth, and something bad is going to happen.”