Michigan State Football: Mark Dantonio voted one of nation’s cleanest coaches

Michigan State football coach Mark Dantonio was voted one of the cleanest coaches in college football by his peers in a recent poll.

Just how clean a program does Mark Dantonio run at Michigan State? According to his peers, one of the cleanest in college football.

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CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd ran a poll called ‘Candid Coaches’ where he asked head coaches from around the nation, ‘Who runs the cleanest program?’

The No. 1 vote-getters weren’t a total surprise as Stanford’s David Shaw received 17 percent of the votes (one-fifth of active head coaches were polled) and so did Chris Petersen of Washington. Duke’s David Cutcliffe was in third with 13 percent, but tied for fourth was Dantonio.

This, too, should come as no surprise seeing as Dantonio seems to reel in plenty of three-star recruits and doesn’t exactly land blue-chip prospects on a consistent basis.

The quote from one of the coaches who voted for Dantonio was refreshing:

"“Mark Dantonio. Getting to know him personally and observing him over the years, I know he does things the right way.”"

Obviously the poll and the quotes were anonymous, but that doesn’t take away from the high praise the Spartans’ head coach received.

Sure, he’s had some hiccups in terms of players having off-field issues, but he’s handled those incidents swiftly and has no problem punishing players no matter how big of stars they are — just look at the 2014 Rose Bowl when he suspended Max Bullough.

You have to think this is mostly a poll about recruiting tactics, but either way, Dantonio seems like a stand-up guy, despite how some national media members want to portray him.

This is a good look for Michigan State.