Here's What I'm Thinking...Mark Dantonio's Retirement

At 2:43 pm on Tuesday afternoon, Mark Dantonio shook up the Michigan State fanbase by retiring. Via Twitter.

I can't say I was surprised by the development. I was, however, surprised by the timing and the delivery.

The early signing period for the 2020 class was just a little over a month ago. On that day, 19 future Spartans signed on to play for Dantonio. That's a pretty cool present for a high school senior and his family just days before Christmas. Dantonio's resignation also happened to be the day before the traditional signing day. Michigan State was expecting to get three more signatures, but three-star running back Jordon Simmons decided to hold off. I mean, can you blame him? Dantonio's decision to quit is a direct slap in the face to those 22 young men who expected to call him Coach. Not cool.

As low as that move was, there are actually 4.3 million other reasons why the timing of Dantonio's retirement makes you cringe. The now former head coach received a $4.3 million bonus just 17 days before deciding to hang up the whistle. I guess you could technically make a case for Dantonio deserving the bonus after all he did for the Spartan program, but it just feels icky. I can't imagine taking that kind of money from my employer knowing I'd be out the door in a couple of weeks. It's entirely possible that Dantonio didn't know his future the day he cashed that check, but it still feels really dishonest.

As for the delivery, a guy like Mark Dantonio dropping a bomb that big on Twitter is just weird. Dantonio isn't overly active on the social media platform making the nature of such a huge announcement seem off. He's also been pretty outspoken in the past especially when it came to taking a shot at Michigan. If you can dish it out, you need to be able to take some criticism. Putting a message out there like that on Twitter seemed cowardly.

Granted, Dantonio did conduct a press conference later on, but it seemed reactionary and he didn't say much.

There's a lot swirling around Dantonio and Michigan State involving former recruiting staffer Curtis Blackwell so it'll be interesting to see what comes out over the next few days and weeks. Obviously Michigan State has to hire a new coach as well, which will also be very compelling.

Dantonio retiring was the right move, but when and how he did it definitely rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.

What did you think when you heard the news? Who do you think Michigan State is going to hire?