The cameras would’ve caught it. They would’ve had to at least once.

If a documentary series followed Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio around, surely they’d see him smile. Unfortunately, we’ll never get that privilege.

Dantonio said he turned down HBO when asked if the network could do a college version of the network’s “Hard Knocks” documentary series.

“HBO actually asked us to do that this season, do a Hard Knocks this season. But I sort of passed on that because I didn’t really want to put ourselves in that situation,” Dantonio said on Tuesday during his press conference. “I think it’s a good show. I’ve watched it and I think it’s well done, but we just passed on it right now because I want our players to concentrate on what we have to do here and not on a camera. I want us to be us and I just didn’t feel like at this point in time that that was something that we should do. Maybe in the future…”

Former Penn State coach and current Houston Texans coach Bill O’Brien was the star of this year’s “Hard Knocks” show, most notably for his non-stop cursing. It even prompted him to make a swear jar.

Ohio State allowed the Big Ten Network to follow the program around for “Scarlet and Gray Days,” which was a three-part mini series on the Buckeyes’ training camp. The show set ratings records for the Big Ten Network.

As usual, Dantonio elected to fly under the radar.