Mark Dantonio Tweets Then Deletes Not So Subtle Shot At Jim Harbaugh

Shots fired!

Has the Mark Dantonio-Jim Harbaugh era of the Michigan State-Michigan rivalry finally taken the personal turn so many have been clamoring for?

Perhaps.

Late Tuesday night, about 10:30 p.m., Dantonio sent out this somewhat cryptic tweet. Then he deleted it.

This, of course, happened not long after Harbaugh was the subject of some scrutiny for allegedly cutting loose 2016 Downers Grove South offensive lineman recruit Erik Swenson after his two-plus years of commitment to Michigan. Swenson accused Harbaugh of pushing him out just a handful of weeks before National Signing Day while refusing to speak to him directly, instead conducting all contact through assistants even though Swenson specifically asked to talk to the Wolverines' head coach about the situation.

Harbaugh took to Twitter last week to give about as much of a response as he can--NCAA rules prohibit coaches from talking about unsigned recruits.

(Side note: If you ever needed proof that Harbaugh does at least some of the posting from his official Twitter himself, here it is in all its bizarre, eccentric glory.)

There was a similar story on Monday. 2016 Florida defensive end Rashad Weaver said Harbaugh told him there was a 50/50 chance that Harbaugh and Michigan wouldn't have room for him, even though Weaver had been verbally committed to the Wolverines for seven months. Weaver further alleges he received little to no contact from the Michigan staff throughout his commitment. He elected to decommit, saying "I am not a plan b player."

Harbaugh's recruiting tactics have been labeled unscrupulous and worse by his detractors. Is this what Dantonio was coyly referencing in his deleted tweet?

The Michigan State coach's tweet was quickly removed, but not long after that the same words resurfaced via the Twitter account of Spartans recruiting coordinator Curtis Blackwell.

If you connect the dots, you could arrive at the conclusion that Blackwell accidentally tweeted his thinly-veiled shot at Harbaugh from Dantonio's official account--it would make sense for MSU's recruiting coordinator to have access to the head coach's Twitter, considering so many of those kinds of accounts are authored by ghost authors anyhow.

Regardless of what really happened, you've got to love the drama of grown men using social media to air their subtle, passive-aggressive musings.