Less than 18 hours after Bobby Williams was fired Monday evening, Morris Watts fielded questions from the media for the first time as the interim head coach Tuesday afternoon. Watts has been handed the task of trying to motivate a 3-6 team that has been blown out in its last four games.
Former Spartans football head coach Bobby Williams spoke out Wednesday for the first time since his firing. Williams told ESPN his expectations as coach included the same opportunities extended to his predecessors - former head coaches George Perles and Nick Saban - when they took over the football squad. Williams was fired after a team practice Monday.
No. 23 MSU missed claiming its second consecutive Big Ten title by just three points Sunday, finishing behind Michigan with a score of 73. Junior Michelle Carson finished first in the 5-kilometer race with a time of 17:24 to become MSU’s first individual champion in 11 years, earning All-Big Ten first team accolades for her efforts.
The MSU women’s soccer team dropped its final regular season game Saturday, falling to Furman 1-0. Defense fueled the game as neither team got on the scoreboard until Furman’s Emily Turgeon netted the game winner in the 86th minute. MSU had the corner kick advantage 6-0 but lost the shot battle 8-6.
The news of Bobby Williams’ termination swept threw campus like wildfire. After weeks of pleading from fans and alumni for MSU Athletics Director Ron Mason to fire the third-year head coach, some Spartan followers finally were granted their wish. While fans who booed and held signs at recent home games that said “Fire Bobby Williams” were satisfied, players on the team didn’t take the news well. Many members of the football team, who learned about Williams’ firing minutes before Mason’s press conference, were visibly upset by his termination. Junior defensive lineman Luc Mullinder was one of the players who showed frustration over the evening’s news in the lobby of the Clara Bell Smith Student-Athletic Academic Center. “I don’t want to hear this shit, man,” he said while trying to be calmed.
The No. 5 MSU field hockey team closed out the regular season with a 5-1 victory over Ohio State on Saturday. Sophomore forward Michelle Carstens netted the first goal in the 12th minute and Junior back Alexandra Kyser netted the second in the 19th minute to give MSU a quick 2-0 lead.
In the midst of a season full of disappointment, suspensions and substance abuse, Athletics Director Ron Mason announced Monday the firing of head coach Bobby Williams.“I’ve terminated Bobby Williams as our head football coach, effective immediately,” Mason said at a press conference following Monday’s practice.The Spartans’ 23rd head coach was notified of the decision only moments before the press conference and didn’t speak to the media.Since taking over the football team at the 2000 Citrus Bowl, Williams is 16-17 at the helm of the MSU football team.
A day after Dawan Moss was arrested and dismissed from the MSU football, details of the incident have become clearer.Early Sunday, the co-captain was charged with second-offense drunken driving, fourth-degree fleeing and eluding and resisting and obstructing a police officer.
Senior John Wechter posted a perfect 5-0 record in the first event of the year for the No. 11-ranked MSU wrestling team.
An MSU trustee issued a statement Monday alleging officials treated Bobby Williams, the university’s first black head football coach, differently from his white predecessors. Williams, one of only four black coaches in Division I-A football and the first black coach of any MSU revenue sport, was fired Monday night by Athletics Director Ron Mason.
In trying to sum up his team’s offensive struggles earlier this season, MSU hockey head coach Rick Comley kept coming back to one central theme - several sophomore forwards weren’t fulfilling their potential.Undoubtedly, sophomore center Ash Goldie was one of the guilty parties.
After Monday’s announcement that Bobby Williams will no longer be MSU’s head football coach, students and trustees are making their feelings known.MSU Trustee Joel Ferguson released a statement following the announcement that said he felt Williams was not given a fair opportunity to build a program.Ferguson, who is the only black member of the Board of Trustees, cited the two coaches who preceded Williams, George Perles and Nick Saban, were given at least four years to develop a program.Following the firing of Williams there are now only three black coaches in Division I-A football.The Black Student Alliance will hold a meeting at 6:30 p.m.
Sophomore Kellen Kalso connected on an overtime penalty kick to lift the Spartans to a 1-0 win over Bowling Green (4-11) Friday. Senior Tyler Robinson had four saves between the posts for the Spartans to gain his sixth shutout of the year. MSU improved to (11-6 overall, 3-3 Big Ten) with the victory, its last regular game of the season. The Spartans next will travel to Penn State for the Big Ten Tournament Nov.
The Michigan Wolverines simply embarrassed the Spartans 49-3 Saturday in Ann Arbor. The blowout victory was MSU’s worst in the rivalry since Sept.
Defensive tenacity paid off in the second half as the MSU women’s basketball team shut the door on the Athletes in Action, battling its way to a 83-72 decision Sunday. Athletes in Action, or AIA, is a traveling team composed of professional and post-collegiate players on a three-week, 16-game tour playing exhibition games around the country. Perhaps the most impressive statistic for the Spartans was the even scoring distribution, as four MSU players posted double-digit scores, while no player had fewer than five points. The Spartans were led by senior forward Syreeta Bromfield who knocked in 21 points and nabbed seven boards in the process.
The showdown between one of the nation’s top wide receivers and defensive backs didn’t play out the way many envisioned. Michigan sophomore cornerback Marlin Jackson - a Jim Thorpe Award candidate for the nation’s best defensive back - wasn’t matched with MSU junior wide receiver Charles Rogers in man-to-man coverage nearly as much as some thought. Instead, the Wolverines’ secondary played zone most of the afternoon and had safety help on other plays.
After a crushing loss to Michigan on Wednesday, the No. 25 MSU volleyball team regained its composure, defeating No.
Earvin Johnson showed fans at Breslin Center that even at 43, he still has some “Magic” left. Johnson netted his second triple-double against MSU in as many years while leading the Magic Johnson All-Stars to a 104-85 victory over the Spartans Friday. MSU was largely outplayed in its first exhibition game, leaving head coach Tom Izzo disheartened with the cagers’ lackluster performance. “We had some guys that just did not play anything like Michigan State basketball and that will change,” Izzo said.
This football team is a dysfunctional bunch. Rumors of point shaving, gambling and drug use inside the Spartan football program run rampant during one of the most disappointing and embarrassing seasons in the land-grant university’s 147-year history. Although MSU head coach Bobby Williams says, “99 percent of the things you’re writing about are not true.” Well, if so, let the truth be told. The green limelight sours on the football program following a Spartan arrest during the weekend, a statement disclosing the star quarterback’s substance abuse problem and the team’s top athlete calling his teammates “embarrassed” following one of MSU’s worst losses to its rival school. And I hate to admit it, Dawan Moss finally ran over somebody this weekend.
Dawan Moss has been dismissed from the MSU football team after Lansing police arrested the senior tailback early Sunday and charged him with his second drunken driving offense, fourth degree fleeing and eluding, and resisting and obstructing an officer. “Dawan Moss has been dismissed from the team following his arrest this weekend,” MSU head football coach Bobby Williams said in a written statement released this afternoon.