On Signing Day in February, Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio praised Pennsylvania recruit Jay Harris as an "exciting" player who was versatile enough to play on both sides of the ball. Dantonio noted how "powerful, explosive, tough" the 5-foot-10, 180-pound Harris was and the player's ability to do 50 pull-ups.

The Downington (Pa.) High School East receiver had racked up 698 yards and 12 touchdowns as a senior, and after signing his national letter of intent, the Spartans listed in his biography that he planned on majoring in sports management. When he had committed last June, he told 247Sports.com how he liked Michigan State's academics and praised its business school.

Harris' actions in recent days have painted a different picture, as the artist known as "Jay DatBull" released a rap video containing explicit lyrics and what appear to be images of himself smoking marijuana. Michigan State associate athletic director John Lewandowski said Tuesday that Michigan State parting ways with Harris was "a mutual decision."

Harris laughed as he acknowledged his marijuana usage in an interview Wednesday with Yahoo! Sports Radio 1560 in Houston, noting that it was to his knowledge present during college campus recruiting visits.

"You can go to any school across the nation, and when they take you out on your official (visit), they take you out anywhere, that's what you do," Harris told the station. "You get drunk and smoke weed, to be honest. To be honest. So at the Division I level, they're doing the same thing I'm doing.

"I'm just making it clear for everyone who thinks I'm just somebody who just wants to start using drugs and doing something stupid and just started rapping."

Harris told the station that if Michigan State wouldn't have allowed him to play on the team, it was news to him while conceding he knew the Spartans wouldn't approve.

"Obviously if you see what I'm doing on the video, they're not going to like it," he said. "I expected that."

Harris told the Philadelphia Inquirer he called Michigan State quarterbacks coach Brad Salem two weeks ago to inform the Spartans' recruiting coordinator of the decision to pursue a career in music. He told Yahoo! Sports Radio 1560 that more recently, he spoke with Michigan State co-offensive coordinator Dave Warner to confirm the decision.

"To be honest, if it was mutual, I had no idea about it," Harris said. "They never said anything to me about taking my scholarship away. The only time I ever talked to them when I dropped my music video, the only time I talked to them like throughout that whole timespan was a couple days ago when I called them up on the phone and I talked to Coach Warner, and he acted funny, and he was like, 'I heard you had a change of plans or whatever,' and I was like 'yeah.' I told him straight up I wanted to chase my music career, and all he said was, 'Best of luck with that, and I wish we could have had you up here, but if not, best of luck with it,' and that was the end of it. So if they had plans on taking my scholarship beforehand, I didn't know about it or they didn't contact me about it."

Harris told the station he decided he did not wish to pursue football as a career and instead was hoping to get signed as a recording artist. He said his father, James Harris Sr., wanted him to play football for Michigan State, but was supportive of his decision.

"This is what I wanted," Harris said of hearing his music play on Yahoo! Sports Radio. "This is what I expected.

"I'm not crazy at all. I'm just not scared to chase my dreams like a lot of other people are. I guess they don't like my decision, but I don't live for them. I live for myself, and this is what I want to do, so hate it or love it, that's what I'm going to do."

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