Just like the discussion about storming courts, everyone and their mother seems to have a take on teams planting the flag at midfield after defeating their rivals on their turf.
This past weekend, three Power Four games (Ohio State-Michigan; Florida State-Florida; North Carolina-NC State) featured brawls, but the spotlight remains on the chaotic postgame scene in Columbus. The Ohio State-Michigan altercation turned violent, with both reporters and players being pepper-sprayed amid a physical confrontation.
The fallout has prompted reactions from just about everyone in the sport, from Kirk Herbstreit to Joel Klatt. And now, Dusty Dvoracek is the latest college football announcer to wade into the discourse that undoubtedly will dominate the conversation throughout the week.
“What happened after that game was ugly and bad for college football.”@DustyDvoracek sounds off to @dannykanell on the post game fight between Ohio State and Michigan.
🎧https://t.co/YgNNO9VzbH pic.twitter.com/jjev7C4Wuq
— College Sports on SiriusXM (@SXMCollege) December 2, 2024
“What happened after that game was ugly, and it was bad for college football,” he said. “And fortunately, someone wasn’t seriously injured. You got police pepper-spraying football players. That was as bad as it gets. It was an ugly scene.
“[Michigan head coach] Sherrone Moore out there in the middle of this fight, trying to break it up. You got Sherrone Moore out there, literally in the middle of a scrum, head coach after he just won, trying to keep the peace the best he possibly can, trying to protect his players—Ryan Day’s just like in La-la land. I don’t know what’s wrong with him. He’s just in shock. I don’t know if he knows what’s going on at that point.”
Day later seemingly defended his players for their role in the fracas.
“It’s just bad,” Dvoracek continued. “That was unfortunate for everybody, but, again, there’s going to be people who say, ‘You can’t plant a flag…’ I mean, who cares? What does it matter? And then we see these fights throughout the rest of the day and all this different stuff. I would be more upset as a player that we just lost. I lost a few — very few homes games — when I was in college.
“And you know what? I could’ve cared less what the other team did after the game. I was so pissed off about losing the game I didn’t care what happened after the game. And you know what? I guess my mindset is: they deserve to celebrate in whatever fashion they want; they just came into our backyard and kicked our butt.”
And that perspective seems to be lacking in many of the reactions to these flag plantings.
