Borton's Blog: Wolverines Look To Settle Family Business

Thirty-two years ago, they broke his arm. One year ago, they broke his heart.

But shed no tears for Jim Harbaugh. He doesn’t get even. He gets ahead, and stays there.

Or as Doc Holiday once solemnly declared in the movie Tombstone: “Make no mistake. It’s not revenge he’s after. It’s a reckoning.”

The reckoning — or full settling of accounts — begins on Saturday for the Wolverines at Michigan State. They’re not trying to wipe out eight years of historically aberrant suffering in one game, especially since Harbaugh wasn’t even around for seven of those.

They are looking to win a football game like they have for seven straight contests — with overwhelming defense, ball-conscious and diverse offense, and explosive special teams. They are focused on finishing a job they didn’t finish a year ago.

The 7-0, No. 2-ranked Wolverines haven’t fed any rivalry talk. They’ve called this another championship game week, in a season filled with them. And you don’t take chances with championship games.

“You don’t make it a close game,” insisted fifth-year senior captain defensive lineman Chris Wormley. “You put them away as fast as possible. That’s what we try and do each and every week.”

There it is, simply stated. If you’re Michigan, you don’t let it come down to one dropped snap of the football. You don’t let it ride on uncalled pass interference, an alligator-armed spot by officials or the fervent fandom of a clock operator.

You do what the Wolverines have done all season: mercilessly dismantle an inferior opponent.

Some might call that designation into question, given the recent history of the series. But Michigan State has been a bigger mess than a grass hut in a hurricane, running a revolving door with personnel, suffering infighting between upperclassmen and younger players, and hurtling toward a disastrous season.

By recent standards, they’re already there, with Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State still on the docket.

Like a lion staring down a three-legged impala, Michigan appears disinclined toward mercy. It’s going places and won’t be lulled by the Spartans’ sleepwalk.

“We control our own destiny, at every point of our season,” assured senior cornerback Jourdan Lewis. "It doesn’t matter what their record is. I know they’re going to go out there and compete.”

That’s the flip side of the argument, of course. Michigan State’s raging hatred of all things maize and blue isn’t any secret. The Wolverines haven’t won in East Lansing since 2007 — that’s three Michigan coaches ago for those monitoring the series Misery Meter.

The Spartans are that wounded animal and therefore doubly dangerous, some will contend.

Maybe so, but Michigan carries a wound of its own, on its pride and its football soul after last season, and after the last several seasons. The Wolverines are far more equipped to take that hurt and turn it into a fist.

The Spartans come in averaging 21 points a game in Big Ten contests, while the Wolverines are giving up 6.3. Michigan has averaged 45.5 in conference contests, and the MSU defense — its heart and soul under Mark Dantonio — is hemorrhaging 33.5 on average.

Anger can count for a lot in football, but you have to hit the target. Michigan appears ready to take the Spartans’ best punch — literally, at times — and come back with a withering assault.

Wormley knows the Wolverines are headed into hostile territory, and he embraces it.

“I think they dislike us probably a little more than most,” Wormley noted, summoning the diplomatic skills of a foreign ambassador.

“When you go to Rutgers, they were playing our fight song with the band. I think they kind of like us. When you go up to Sparty, they’re not going to be playing our fight song. Their fans are probably not going to like us. There will probably be some boos. We like that. We like the chance to win on the road.”

Wormley acknowledged thinking the 2015 game was over with nine seconds remaining.

“You can’t do that,” he stressed. “You’ve got to play until the clock says zero.”

The memory of last season gives Harbaugh every reason to push the accelerator through the floorboards this year — not that he needed any encouragement. The Wolverines aren’t taking anyone for granted this season in a pitiless push toward a title.

When it comes to settling all family business, MSU is up next. Dantonio once famously said, “I find a lot of the things they do amusing.”

That may not be the case this week.