Wolverine Watch: On An Angry Mission
“These are just two teams that don’t really like each other. There’s kind of a hatred. Our fans don’t like each other. Our teams don’t like each other. It’s always been like that, at least since I’ve been here.”
— Senior left tackle Mason Cole
The dislike remains normal, filled with mutual slings and slights, along with simmering resentment on one side, antagonism on the other. But results-wise, there’s been nothing normal about the Michigan-Michigan State football series since Cole arrived, or for the last decade.
When Bo Schembechler rolled into Ann Arbor in 1969, the conflagration settled into a comfortable one for the winged helmets, producing a frustration- and fury-filled four decades for the Spartans. The Wolverines won at a .775 clip, going 31-9 from Schembechler through Lloyd Carr.
Then Michigan exited the big stage, the Spartans surged, and the college football world in the Great Lakes State spun out of control. The Wolverines couldn’t beat an egg in the 2008 transition from power football to the spread, and could only knock off MSU in one out of the next eight.
While U-M went DOA (Defense Optional Alternative), the Spartans began playing bully ball. They not only beat Michigan, they beat up the Wolverines.
Fifth-year senior defensive tackle Maurice Hurst Jr. and Cole both made their playing debuts in the 35-11 smack-down in East Lansing in 2014, from which former quarterback Devin Gardner might still suffer PTSD. Hurst and Cole, from Massachusetts and Florida, respectively, quickly absorbed the U-M/MSU feel.
“I was used to just knocking people back in high school,” Hurst recalled. “My first play, I got a double team and caught one under the chin. I knew this was sort of a different game, and you really had to bring it every play.”
It didn’t take Cole that long to feel the Gang Green revulsion.
“Just running out on the field my first year, in East Lansing,” Cole said of his rivalry-grasping moment. “You were hated there … and you still are. Their fans will still hate us when we’re playing here, and our fans will probably hate them. There’s not a lot of liking between these two teams.”
There’s also not nearly the MSU swagger since Jim Harbaugh showed up. Yes, the Spartans stole one in Michigan Stadium in 2015, a mishandled punt situation literally handing the game to the visitors on the contest’s final play.
But MSU’s hoped-for “new norm” is done, and all but the deeply deluded know it. The Wolverines won in Spartan Stadium a year ago, and at 4-0, No. 7 in the nation, host Mark Dantonio’s 3-1 crew on Saturday.
It won’t be easy. It rarely is, in the annual fistfight. But the Wolverines are bringing bigger, faster fists to the fray under defensive coordinator Don Brown.
U-M lost two years ago against MSU because it didn’t finish the game. The Wolverines missed the College Football Playoff last year because they didn't quite finish the season.
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that a 2017 Michigan mantra involves putting people away.
“We talk about that in the defensive meeting room,” noted fifth-year senior linebacker Mike McCray, who along with Cole captains the team. “It’s just finishing games. Just finishing. I guess we’ve been doing a great job of that.”
You could say so. In four games, Michigan has surrendered a grand total of 14 second-half points, or 3.5 per game over the final 30 minutes. Brown’s defense — you know, the one bound for a major falloff after losing 10 starters from 2016 — is making adjustments like a top NASCAR pit crew.
McCray insists Michigan has the best defensive coaching staff in the nation. He’s also not backing away from the notion that the Wolverines’ defense is better than last year’s.
“Right now I’d say yes,” McCray said. “It’s the second year in the system, and everybody is more comfortable in the system. We’re out there having fun with each other, playing with a lot of confidence and playing hard.”
Of course, all assessments change every week. A Purdue cheap shot sidelined redshirt junior starting QB Wilton Speight for the foreseeable future. The Spartans know they’re one Denard Robinson-style head-twister on fifth-year senior John O’Korn away from facing a redshirt freshman behind center.
Last year, the Spartans gashed Michigan’s staunch run stoppers at times. They’ll try the same this season, against a crew that leads the nation in run defense (69.3 yards per game allowed), total defense (203.3) and sack average (4.5).
The veteran Wolverines are ready to get back to a normal they haven’t experienced.
“It’s your last shot,” Cole stressed. “It’s the last time we get to play Michigan State. The last time any of these seniors will. You want to go out the right way.
“It’s the same thing with this whole year. You don’t want to go out with any regrets, wishing you’d played a little harder or prepared a little more. You want to do everything you can now.”
There’s no added motivation necessary. But a little dislike can go a long way.
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