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Dantonio On Harbaugh's Spring Break Trip: 'I Think It's Creative'

By Ashley Scoby
@AshleyScoby

Raise your hand if you've heard this one before: Jim Harbaugh has done something that's made other people angry. But one of the people not irritated with Harbaugh's latest adventures? Rival head coach Mark Dantonio.

When Harbaugh announced he was taking his team to Florida for spring break, he made waves within the coaching community. The SEC commissioner, Greg Sankey, reportedly wants to block the move, under the guise of protecting players from increased practice requirements.

Harbaugh said the players would participate in four practices while in Florida, and the week would count as a portion of Michigan's spring practice allotment.

The Wolverines' practices will be held at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., conveniently where several top recruits play their pre-college football (including ESPN's No. 1 overall player, Dylan Moses). Even if they won't say it outright, other coaches are annoyed that Harbaugh will be in such close contact with top recruits, while also being able to advertise a free spring break trip for any football player who comes to Michigan.

But count Dantonio as one coach who isn't coming out strongly against Harbaugh's idea.

"I think it's creative, there's no question about that," he told reporters in Grand Rapids, according to the Detroit Free Press. "From our standpoint, we've never thought to do that – but we're thinking about it nowadays."

He continued, and said that as long as the loophole in NCAA rules existed, these things could always happen.

"If we want to go to Florida or someplace else, in Texas or something like that, that would be our option to do that," he told reporters. "And I guess that's allowed right now."

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