University of Michigan Police release statement on incident involving Michigan State, Wolverines players in tunnel

Tha annual rivalry showdown between Michigan and Michigan State took an ugly turn on Saturday, as a fight broke out in the tunnel afterwards.

Following the Wolverines defeating the Spartans 29-7, multiple Michigan State players were seen on video fighting with what appeared to be a lone Michigan player. Speaking with the media later in the night, Wolverines coach Jim Harbaugh went as far to say two of his players were “assaulted” during the altercation.

Now, University of Michigan Deputy Chief of Police Melissa Overton has released a statement on the incident, with Tom Van Haaren of ESPN sharing to Twitter.

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“University of Michigan Police, in partnership with MSU Police, Michigan athletics and the Michigan football team, is actively reviewing footage and investigating the post-game incident,” read the statement, via VanHaaren. “Situations like these, and the safety of the community, are taken very seriously.”

Moreover, it’s unclear exactly which Michigan State players and which Michigan players were involved, but multiple reports and further video from Matt Charboneau of The Detroit News showed Michigan State head coach Mel Tucker coming in to get his players to the locker room.

Continuing, Charboneau added that the Michigan player was potentially wearing No. 1. Michigan has two players that wear No. 1 — wide receiver Andrel Anthony and defensive back Ja’Den McBurrows. A close look at the video around the eight-second mark appears to show the Michigan player have a nameplate with “Mc” at the beginning.

Footage of the scuffling pic.twitter.com/cipLWi5RBS

— Matt Charboneau (@mattcharboneau) October 30, 2022

Several Michigan State players can be identified by nameplates in the video. Angelo Grose, Zion Young, Jordan Simmons and Itayvion ‘Tank’ Brown all appear to be a part of the fight, as does Charles Brantley.

In his press conference after the game, Tucker said that he did not know what happened.

“I know it was a heated game. Things were heated. We’re trying to get our guys in the locker room. We’re gonna have to figure out what happened,” Tucker said, per Matt Fortuna of The Athletic.

Later, the aforementioned Harbaugh spoke on the incident, adding that one of his players potentially broke his nose during the scuffle.

“Two of our players were assaulted. You saw the one video, the 10 on 1. Pretty bad,” Harbaugh said according to Austin Meek of The Athletic. Harbaugh added one had a nasal injury, potentially a broken nose. He also said Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel would address the incident. 

“It needs to be investigated and brought to a conclusion,” he added, according to Chris Solari of The Detroit Free Press.

Manuel has apparently already spoken with conference commissioner Kevin Warren. A number of the accounts from reporters covering the game indicate that the Michigan athletic director was extremely upset with what happened after the game.

“This is not the way another team should grab a player and do what they did. It’s completely and utterly unacceptable,” Manuel said according to Meek.

What will come in terms of punishment for this incident remains unclear — as does the full scale of the injuries or aftermath — but this is clearly something more than the usual postgame scuffle.

For now, more details are sure to trickle out before any formal actions are taken — suspensions or otherwise.

On3’s Andrew Graham contributed to this article.