In 2006, did some of the animosity come from Illinois players planting the flag at midfield?
“That was so blown out of proportion. I kind of lost a good friend that’s a writer in South Florida that’s a Michigan State grad. If you guys remember that, it was our first Big Ten win. Someone handed them a flag, and it seemed like they had turf. Anyway, it never would have happened had they not seen them the week before doing it at Notre Dame. Believe me, they didn’t plan, “Hey, if we win this game, we’re going to go do something silly like that.” I assure you, we hadn’t won enough games to do something like that.” Do you advise… “I don’t advise that.” Do you advise against it? “Yes, I advise against all that stuff. I think there’s a lot of people that lose respect for the game of football and what it’s all about. Not only the players, players aren’t the only ones that do. We want them to act the way they should act.