EAST LANSING, Mich. _ Mark Dantonio began his 12th spring practice at Michigan State with questions he could not answer a year ago.
Asked by an ESPN reporter if he wanted to add anything to his statement from Jan. 26 about sexual assault allegations within his program, Dantonio responded he and his program must be "respectful of the process" in handling such matters.
"I want to commit to be a part of the solution," Dantonio said Tuesday. "I made my statement on how I feel about things. But hopefully, we're healing as a community and healing as a university. It's a step by step process.
"A lot of times, spring is a time for new beginnings. So I'll use that in this case as well. It's an opportunity to grow and get better at everything we're doing and looking at."
Dantonio closed spring practices last year while an investigation was ongoing into allegations that resulted in sexual assault charges and eventual dismissals of Josh King, Donnie Corley and Demetric Vance. Another player, Auston Robertson, also was charged with criminal sexual conduct in a separate incident days after last year's spring game. He also was dismissed.
A year-long Free Press investigation found four other cases of sexual assault allegations involving seven MSU football players in 2007-15. Only the two incidents in 2017 resulted in charges. None of the current players on MSU's roster were involved in any of those allegations.
Junior linebacker Joe Bachie said Dantonio goes over the team rules "all the time."
"Obviously, it's tough listening to all of that stuff," Bachie said. "But Coach D addressed everybody. It's a tough time, but we know what our culture is here, we know what our expectations are. We try to keep ourselves to a high standard."
Dantonio was asked what he has told his players about how to handle themselves.
"You know, be respectful of the process. Make sure that we respect women, obviously," he said. "Make sure that we have no incidents, and that we have to be careful everywhere we go. And understand that this is a process.
"They know the expectations here, they know the guidelines and the rules. And we're going to follow those and stay within those."
On the field, Dantonio has even more answers than he did after last spring. The Spartans are coming off a return to form, a 10-3 season and a victory in the Holiday Bowl that was Dantonio's 100th at MSU. He needs 10 more to surpass Duffy Daugherty's school record of 109.
And he will have a veteran group back that returns all but three starters from a year ago and that lost just 12 seniors, a group that helped direct a turnaround season from 3-9 in 2016.
"Last year, we sort of re-gathered ourselves and went at things one thing at a time. That's what we gotta do," Dantonio said. "We had our best semester academically I think in the history of Michigan State football last fall, so that was a positive as well. We just gotta continue to try and do things right, on the field, off the field and in the classroom. And that's what we're gonna do."
