Michigan Wolverines Football: Runyan Calls Out "Dirty Player" Panasiuk
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan fifth-year senior left tackle Jon Runyan Jr. didn't mince words Monday when looking back at U-M's 44-10 blowout of Michigan State. He'd seen film of MSU lineman Jacub Panusiak's late hit on Shea Patterson, one for which the Spartans' lineman was ejected for a flagrant penalty, and had a strong opinion on both Panasiuk brothers.
Mike is also a Michigan State starter up front, though it was his brother who went head to head with Runyan a number of times. He'd been well blocked before taking several steps and delivering a cheap shot to Patterson's back in the fourth quarter with the game no longer in doubt.
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"I didn't see it at the time," Runyan said. "I always knew that No. 96 [Jacub Panasiuk] was kind of a dirty player, him and his brother. I really don't care too much for them. I made clear of that. You can go back and watch the film ... we have a play where I cleaned up 96, took him 20 yards up the field. I'm not a real big fan of him.
"I don't really want to talk trash about him, but I really don't like that guy and don't like how he plays the game of football. That was disgusting what he did. Completely unnecessary. You can tell he was frustrated because he couldn't do anything against me or Jalen [Mayfield] all game, so he had to come out with a different way to affect the game. He ended up taking himself out."
Senior tight end Sean McKeon was close to the play and had words for the younger Panasiuk, but he kept his cool.
"A lot of emotions going when rivals like Michigan State, but just though we were more disciplined than them, didn't let them kind of get in our hands, distract us in any way," McKeon said.
"... I kind of wanted to fight him, but I honestly can't with the ref right there. Just try not to make the situation worse. They did the right thing by getting him out of the game."
Runyan said controlling MSU's defensive line was one of the keys to the game, and he was pleased with the way he and his teammates responded.
"Up front going into every game, it's going to be a battle. We knew their d-line was the strength of their defense," he said. "We did our best to game plan them up and felt like we were the aggressors on the line of scrimmage and stayed that way the whole game. That's indicative of the score."
He didn't get heavily involved in the trash talk that inevitably takes place in this game until late, when U-M had it well in hand.
"Sometimes my emotions get the best of me towards the end of a game," he said.: "I kind of let my game do the talking. No. 48 over there [Kenny Willekes] is a good pass rusher. He talked a lot last year, not too much this year. Again, they couldn't really do much against me or Jalen, and that's a credit to our preparation and the kind of game plan we had going in there."
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