Saint-Dic and four other Spartans out for bowl

Five Spartan football players, including senior defensive lineman Jonal Saint-Dic, will not play in the Champs Sports Bowl against Boston College on Friday due to academic ineligibility or violating team rules.

MSU announced Monday that senior wide receiver Terry Love, sophomore cornerback/wide receiver T.J. Williams and freshman offensive lineman Abre Leggins were academically ineligible to play, according to the Lansing State Journal.

Senior linebacker SirDarean Adams is out due to an undisclosed violation of team rules.
Saint-Dic, who broke the Big Ten single-season record for forced fumbles this year, told the State Journal that he failed a Math class.

Coach Dantonio is building a program AND a new culture with the Spartan football team. What kind of message does this send to the current players, especially freshman, and new recruits about how he runs the team?

Academic ineligibility is an NCAA decision, but Adams’, unspecified violation team rules sounds to me like he stayed out in Orlando partying and missed curfew or a meeting our something like that.

If that is indeed what happened, then he let the team down and the fans down and Dantonio just let everybody know, that if you are going to be a part of the new Spartan football culture, lack of focus and discipline is not tolerated — period. Remember, if the Spartans went 6-6 and were passed over for bowl invitations because of other competitive Big Ten teams, most fans would accept the disappointment and not blame Dantonio. This is his first year, he doesn’t have to win this bowl game.

Do think he has the players’ attention? He certainly has my respect.