It wouldn’t be a Michigan State fall camp without some sort of obstacle, and this year’s hurdle is much more concerning than in years past.
This could affect Michigan State’s offense greatly as Nick Sharpe, a projected starting guard for the Spartans, was accused of sexual assault by a woman from Texas who allegedly came to visit him.
According to Connor Earegood of The Detroit News, the Bath Township police are currently investigating the situation that reportedly happened in July.
You have to subscribe to The Detroit News to read all the details from the accusation, but it’s still in the early stages of the investigation and it sounds like Sharpe is being cooperative and believes in his innocence. Sharpe described the encounter and said that everything that occurred between him and the accuser was consensual.
I’m not going to get into any speculation about the specifics of the accusation and the story coming from both sides because I’m not law enforcement, but this is obviously not something that Pat Fitzgerald was preparing to deal with this summer.
Sharpe has been practicing with the team so it sounds like Fitzgerald is waiting for the investigation to conclude before making a decision regarding his transfer offensive lineman.
If Sharpe does get held out of games now that this has gone public, that’s going to lead to someone like Luka Vincic and Andrew Dennis stepping up in his absence. This is just a nightmare scenario for Michigan State football which had nothing but positive headlines throughout fall camp.
We’ll have more details when the investigation concludes.
Pat Fitzgerald has to be prepared for the worst
It goes without saying that this is going to undoubtedly affect Michigan State in some way even if Sharpe hasn’t been held out of team activities.
Now that this report has gone public, Fitzgerald is going to have to answer for it and he’s going to hold his guy accountable until the investigation concludes. If he’s found to have done nothing wrong, both sides can move forward, but a sexual assault allegation is nothing to gloss over.
If Sharpe does miss an extended period of time while the investigation progresses, he’ll have to have some guys ready to replace the South Carolina transfer for the time being.
For now, he’s going to have to try and keep the team focused and avoid distractions stemming from the Sharpe-refuted allegations.
Not an ideal situation in East Lansing right now.
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