EAST LANSING — Mark Dantonio thus far has only joked about traveling to faraway lands to recruit rugby players to his Michigan State football team.
The odds of the Bullough family being replaced by Brits or Aussies or Kiwis are — in keeping with the spirit of this sentence — close to nil.
But Dantonio is damn serious about infusing rugby into his program — specifically tackling techniques.
Inspired by the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks and a rugby-tackling techniques video assembled by their coach, Pete Carroll, Dantonio is part of a growing but small group of college football coaches who’ve turned to rugby to teach the art of tackling.