Chris L. Rucker Reinstated

This sends a poor message. I don’t see how a guy gets a third chance, especially after how egregious the Rather Hall incident was for the university, regardless of his level of involvement. Have to disagree with coach on this one.

if dantonio hadnt said zero tolerance, would we even care that much?

i put this all on the coach. its his players his team. apparently everyone on the team likes the guy.

its dumb to go back on what you said like that as the coach, but he must have a grasp of everything more than we do.

besides its not like just because hes getting another chance doesn’t mean everyone on the team and future people will think they can do whatever they want.

Each additional time I hear the whole ‘disciplinarian’ bit by the media, I throw up a little more. I still trust he has the best judgment of this situation of anyone possible, but I’m incredibly disappointed.

If you’re an errors in judgement reveal uncorrectable defects of character person or a sometimes it takes some more time than others to mature.

For the former group he should be thrown off the team, lose his scholarship and if he chooses to remain in school, pay his own way.

For the latter group maybe he gets it this time.

Is there a middle ground? Has he completely lost the privilege of representing MSU on the football field?

I’m going to say it as well: if he were a non athlete, black college student who violated probation, would he have served just 8 days in jail?

I am putting the football stuff to the side. I hope he learned what he needed to in those 8 days. I hope he is a better person for it going forward.

but he’s missed 2 and a half weeks of football activity. I’ll take Dennard for the start.

I have to admit: I don’t know what I would do in Dantonio’s shoes. I don’t know Chris L. Rucker at all, much less well enough to say whether or not he deserves a third chance.

I have been in a similar situation as a Company Commander of an Infantry basic training company. Inevitably every class — an amalgamation of 18-year-old men, many of whom are 8 years old emotionally, but with guns — has a number of knuckleheads that do something stupid: fighting, contraband, going AWOL, drinking while on pass.

I did read the press release that Rexrode posted. In it Dantonio stated that he knows people will disagree with the decision he made. He also accepted 100% of the responsibility and accountability for the decision, and clarified that “zero tolerance” does NOT mean automatic dismissal. Dantonio said that each case has to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis and he seeks to do what’s best for the individual as well as the program.

Which brings me back to my knuckleheads. I similarly evaluated each one on a case-by-case basis. Some I tossed out of the Army completely. Some I punished administratively as severely as I was allowed (rank, forfeiture of pay, and extra duty) and sent them back to square one to start all over again. And some I punished lightly and let graduate with their newly-made battle buddies.

About a year ago I ran into one of my former knuckleheads, one that I had given an extra chance to. He stopped me outside the shoppette. I recognized him instantly. He was now a two-tour combat Infantry veteran of Iraq, and had made Sergeant in the minimum amount of time possible. I like to think that the extra chance had made the difference in making him into a good Soldier.

So while I might not agree with Dantonio’s decision on its face, I respect it, and respect him for accepting 100% responsibility for the decision.

Now get back to work. Beat Iowa.

On making the decision:

“When you coach, I don’t care if you are at the high school level or college level, you become a parent away from home in some regards. So when the time comes to discipline that young person, I think you want to make it severe, you want to make it serious, but you also need to allow room to come back to the family, if at all possible. That’s the way I have always coached and I have always tried to look for the good in young people. I think I’m making the right decision. I think I’m making the right decision for him.

“The easy thing right now would have been to cut bait. That’s the easy thing to do. It’s not easy to stand here and be publicly put through the ringer. But I feel like after consulting with our football team and our unity council and our coaches and all the people that touch Chris in all areas of his life, in academics, equipment, strength, training room, all those areas, and asking them where they are at in terms of what type of person is Chris, and I know what type of person he is, so I have to do what I think is right in this area and that’s why I’m the head coach. When I first came here, I wanted to be a players coach. I’m going to love our players and do my best to take care of them.”

I am 100% behind his decision.

But not much. I think it would have made more sense to sit him one more game, maybe two. But this doesn’t seem like a boot-worthy offense, dumb as it was.

…that Mitch Albom is upset about this in some way. So I guess Dantonio did the right thing.

is whether Dantonio’s “leniency” is due in part to Rucker being a starter (and arguably best member of the secondary).

Having Rucker play in the Iowa game would put a taint on the biggest game of the season in the greatest MSU season of my lifetime. While I agree that public opinion is often overblown and the media has been down right MSU haters this season at times in general, perception IS important.

For Iowa, winning without Rucker would legitimize MSU’s success this season. Winning with Rucker gives all detractors incentive to hate us more and adds fuel to stoke their bitter fires.

Coach D made the tough decision, not us, and now we don’t have to worry about it, except from a football standpoint. Time to move on & worry about taking care of business Saturday. If Coach D feels he puts us in the best position to win, then he’ll be out there. I’m fine with whatever he does at this point.

Good thing this game is on Halloween (Eve), so a ton of people will be dressed up in costume. So all the people dressed up as jailbirds with “C. L. Rucker” 29 on their back, won’t really stand out.

The hate for us over at BHGP is rampant. They’re only reading the posts in support of Dantonio. With all due respect to any Hawkeyes reading this: You have come late to the party my friends. We Spartans have been debating this debacle since it started. Opinions varied widely from Rucker must go to whom among us has not made more than one mistake in our lives. We looked at similar situations at other schools, asked what would happen if the violator was not an athlete. Much was said, consensus was little until gradually, throughout almost 3 weeks of this junk one by one most agreed we are glad we are not in Dantonios place; he deserves our support based on the quality we think he has displayed overall since he’s been here. The general consensus was not to reinstate Rucker but trust Dantonio. To date, he has deserved our respect.

Also, as I and others have stated elsewhere if you do not read selectively, I hope Rucker does NOT play in the Iowa game. If he does, in my opinion, we deserve your scorn.

Coach is giving Rucker the choice of whether to travel to Iowa this weekend or not. Does that mean he’s not gonna play, but he’s allowed to travel with the team? That part doesn’t make sense to me.

But we can’t forget that he DID receive punishment for this already in the form of jail time and the fines that go along with such incidents. This is what anyone in his situation would receive regardless of being a college athlete.
Also, most folks do not have huge media coverage of their mistake, so i view that as an additional punishment.
That said, I would be suprised if he played this week just becuase of the practice time lost. He sat out two games, so I find whatever Dantonio deems the correct punishment here on out as fine with me

Or have we decided to start screaming at each other?

You’re officially the Florida State of the Big Ten.

there’s zero reason to listen to anything they ever say about anything having to do with amateur sport.

We are in the unique situation where Michigan State and the Big Ten have lower behavioral standards than the NFL. Rucker wouldn’t be allowed to play in the NFL this weekend. Great job!

Homerism is right. Name a single instance ever in the history of the Big Ten when a guy is wearing the jumpsuit on Thursday and playing on Saturday?

If this guy plays, I suggest that anyone who formerly had very high respect for Dantonio, is now lost. And MSU (including your president), and the exalted Jim Delaney, will be national laughingstocks. Florida State of the Big Ten is too kind. This is Coffeyville Junior College-level thinking, though I imagine I was just extremely unfair to Coffeyville Junior College. Perhaps I should just say, somewhere in the NJCAA, I’m sure, there’s a coach and school who would play a parolee two days after he is released from jail for a probation violation involving DUI, six months after conducting a gang assault. I don’t know where that coach is, and I doubt he would spin it as parental care and concern, but I’m sure there is one. Someplace.

I particularly like the in loco parentis excuse. “I love him like a son, and what’s 10 days in the hoosegow amongst fathers and sons.”