Michigan State still owns Michigan, even if it needed total magic this time
Jim Harbaugh’s back, and the Wolverines are already really scary. But Mark Dantonio tried to tell you it wouldn’t stop.
That’s Mark Dantonio in 2007, his first year as Michigan State head coach, after losing to the Michigan that lost to FCS Appalachian State.
“Pride comes before the fall,” he said, in response to Michigan players staging a moment of silence in Spartan Stadium. That moment of silence was in response to Dantonio’s own comments about Michigan’s loss to ASU. In year one, the circle of hating was complete.
Dantonio also responded to U-M running back Mike Hart’s famous “little brother” comment, asking, “Does Hart have a little brother? Or is he the little brother? I don’t know; he’s about that tall.” This was a brand new head coach, with an 0-1 record against his archrival, openly implying that one of the country’s winningest programs was his mediocre program’s lesser.
“It’s not over. It’ll never be over, here. It’s just starting.”
Michigan State won the next four games in the series as the disastrous Rich Rodriguez era came and went. The Wolverines won in Ann Arbor in 2012 on a field goal, but then the Brady Hoke thing found its microcosms as MSU’s titanic defense held Michigan to -48 rushing yards in 2013 and 186 total yards in 2014.
Michigan State, which didn’t even join the Big Ten until 57 years after founding member Michigan, won the BCS era’s last Rose Bowl and the Playoff era’s first Cotton Bowl. Spartans partied with a smiling rapper in Pasadena while Wolverines limped from the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl to the end of Hoke.
Then Jim Harbaugh came home. The state pecking order was about to correct itself, if maybe not too soon.
Michigan played tough against a Utah that would turn out to be the Pac-12’s last unbeaten, then allowed all of 14 points against its next five opponents combined, including three straight shutouts, which hadn’t been done by anybody in 20 years. During this, MSU lived up to its top-10 AP ranking against nobody, letting multiple MAC teams linger, squeaking past perhaps the Big Ten’s two worst teams and watching its marquee win over Oregon collapse in value.
The state pecking order was about to correct itself, and pretty soon after all.
The Wolverines were a touchdown favorite over the country’s No. 7 team, and with good reason. The advanced stats looked at what the two teams had done entering Week 7 and saw a far superior Wolverines team.
Rivalries, man. You saw the punt flub that ended the game and gave MSU seven of the last eight, the wildest ending to a major game since the Kick Six itself.
Via ESPN
That’s a fluke. That’s a one in a million. MSU had a 0.2 percent chance of winning, per ESPN. MSU didn’t play well enough in the other 59 minutes and 50 seconds to win. We can’t make too much of one play.
Did you also see Michigan State held Michigan to 230 yards, a UCF-grade total? Did you see the Spartans produced 386 yards of their own, the most anybody’s put on the Wolverines this year? Did you notice Connor Cook threw for 328 yards against a defense loaded with versatile talent?
Did you see Michigan State didn’t turn the ball over once? Michigan did, and did so on the last play. It was also the last play that Harbaugh’s team will play against Dantonio’s for 12 more long months.
See More:
