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Mark Dantonio sounds off on late-game officiating in Spartans’ loss to ASU

Dustin Schutte

By Dustin Schutte

Published:

Mark Dantonio dropped some not-so-subtle hints that he wasn’t too pleased with the late-game officiating in Michigan State’s 10-7 loss to Arizona State on Saturday evening.

Late in the game, Michigan State trailed Arizona State 10-7 and was able to piece together a nice drive with less than a minute to lay, setting up a game-tying field goal attempt for Matt Coghlin. A 42-yard attempt sailed through the uprights, knotting the game at 10-10 with just :06 left on the clock.

After further review, though, Michigan State had 12 players on the field, negating the field goal. Coghlin then attempted the kick again and was way off the mark, leading to a Sun Devils victory.

Following the game, Dantonio pointed out that one of Arizona State’s players attempted to hurdle a Michigan State offensive lineman, an illegal move. That penalty was not flagged and Coghlin was not permitted a third attempt.

Dantonio wasn’t very pleased.

“They tried to hurdle us, that should be a penalty,” Dantonio said, noting that the penalty was not reviewable. “I think they need to take a good, hard look at the officiating. That’s all I’ll say, because there were some disputes out there.”

Dantonio hasn’t been one to criticize the officiating much throughout his career, so he must’ve been pretty unhappy with what he saw on the field.

With the loss, Michigan State drops to 2-1 on the season and will likely drop out of the top 25 rankings. The Spartans also lost to Arizona State last season, as well.

We’ll see if Dantonio gets any further explanation from the officiating later this week.

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB