It’s late October, and “State of Rivalry” week is descending upon the state of Michigan.
No. 24 Michigan football (5-2, 3-1 Big Ten) heads to East Lansing for a clash with Michigan State football (3-4, 0-4) under the lights at Spartan Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 25 (7:30 p.m., NBC).
The teams are seemingly headed in different directions, with U-M’s 24-7 victory over Washington keeping its College Football Playoff hopes alive and MSU’s fourth consecutive Big Ten loss – a 38-13 thumping by then-No. 3 Indiana – seemingly pushing the Spartans’ postseason plans further away.
It has been more than a month since the Spartans have won a game and nearly 1,500 days since they’ve defeated U-M. But Michigan coach Sherrone Moore knows better than to doubt anybody in a rivalry game; on Monday, agreeing with a question in his weekly media availability that slumping teams often play their best against their rivals.
“Oh yeah, 100%,” he said. “So you can’t look at the past. … We’re going to get everything they got. We’re going to get their best. They’re going to get our best. So it’ll be a great game, be a physical game, be a great atmosphere.”
The Wolverines have experienced the effects of motivation in a rivalry. It was just last year when a 6-5 U-M team went to Ohio State as three-touchdown underdogs and pulled off a stunning upset, defeating the then-No. 2 Buckeyes.
This year Michigan State is a big underdog − the line opened at 12½ points and has since climbed to 14 − but that’s still a better prognosis than U-M had last November.
Offensive lineman Gio El-Hadi grew up in metro Detroit and didn’t watch a ton of football in his youth – mostly soccer, he said – but he was always drawn to this matchup. On Monday, he sheepishly admitted he rooted for MSU, for some reason, before adding “It’s not like that anymore, obviously.”
Now in his fifth season at U-M, El-Hadi has played in a handful of U-M/MSU and knows the pride that comes with winning.
“It’s kind of like the Ohio State rivalry, same type of thing, you know, but this is a little different,” he said. “This is, you know, our hometown, Michigan, so it’s like a state champ. That’s how I look at it. … This is for the title.”
Recently, the rivalry has stirred up some bad blood. Following U-M’s 24-17 win last year in Ann Arbor, U-M tight end Colston Loveland got in an altercation with MSU edge Anthony Jones following the final snap. That came two years after a postgame melee between the teams in the Michigan Stadium tunnel.
What was Moore’s introduction to the rivalry?
“Yeah, it was pretty intense,” he said. “It was 2018, (Michigan linebacker) Devin Bush, stomping on the field. I got a quick (introduction). … I was holding him back while he was trying to fight half their team, so I got introduced fast.”
Moore said it’s not up to him to decide whether the relationship between the programs (and the relationship between their fans) have grown too toxic. Instead, he’s hammering home the notion that none of the tussles, pregame or post, will help his team come out on top – his only goal for the week.
“It actually takes away the energy from you winning the game,” Moore said. “Can’t worry about the past, but we can learn from it and learn about those things. So we’re just going to continue to harp on all that stuff. … Just work on the things we need to work on to win the game.”
Tony Garcia is the Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football knows what’s at stake vs Michigan State: ‘This is for the title’
Reporting by Tony Garcia, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
