Jim Harbaugh isn’t aching to talk about Michigan State. He’d rather invite the 2016 Ohio State game officials over for Thanksgiving dinner, substitute chicken for turkey and slug back a few tumblers of skim milk.
Harbaugh and his players engaged in as much rivalry banter as Fielding H. Yost during the opening two days of Michigan State week. Bulletin board material? Hardly. Harbaugh figuratively ripped the bulletin board off the wall, broke it into tiny pieces and tossed them in the trash.
He knows better than anyone that words mean nothing this week. He knows only actions matter, and his team plans to continue taking them.
Before the presumed say-nothing, do-everything edict went down, fifth-year senior defensive end Chase Winovich referred to Michigan’s closing stretch of games as U-M’s “revenge tour.”
One down, in a big way. Three to go.
Talk didn’t cause the Wolverines to literally run away with the win over Wisconsin, to out-badger the Badgers in the ground game and wear-down department. You can’t chirp your way to 320 rushing yards. You need to pound, slash and sprint your way there.
For certain, the Wolverines won’t shut the Spartans up with words of their own. It takes execution, from the start to the very last second (and an extra second, if the clock operator deems it so).
No dropped punt snaps. No torrent of turnovers. No falling prey to Gang Green’s gutsy gambits.
Harbaugh ought to give sophomore wide receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones the weekend off from punt return concerns. Play a straight-up defense in any and all punt situations, and let the football fall where it may.
Same goes for the field goal defense. Verify and don’t trust. Take away the fakes, and expose the frauds.
By all objective measures, Michigan brings the better team into Spartan Stadium on Saturday. That and $50 will buy about 10 bales of hay for the bovine brigade from the nearby vet school.
Deep down, Harbaugh knows his Michigan teams could just as easily be 3-0 as they are 1-2 against the Spartans. Subtract the luckiest bounce in the history of college football in 2015, losing a starting quarterback in the Big Ten opener last year and …
And it didn’t happen that way. It doesn’t matter. There’s no crying in football, and no re-dos of spilled skim milk.
Here’s what’s available: stick a foot in the ground, launch forward and change things. Michigan has given every indication it’s ready to do just that.
An offense that turned the football over five times in the downpour against the Spartans last year has turned it over five times in seven games this season.
“I’m learning — ball security is the biggest thing right now,” junior quarterback Shea Patterson assured. “I get the ball, every single snap it’s my job to take care of it.”
“As an offense, that’s the biggest focal point,” redshirt junior tight end Zach Gentry added. “Don’t turn the ball over. If you don’t turn the ball over and you limit your mistakes, you’re going to win most of your games. We’ve done a good job with that.”
They’ve done a good job, period, following a stumble out of the gate at Notre Dame. An offense that couldn’t get out of its own way a year ago is averaging 38 points a game, and hit that mark versus the No. 15 Badgers.
“We’re really feeling good,” Gentry said. “We’re putting points on the board, which is a great feeling, and moving the ball. This is definitely the most confident I’ve felt in our offense in a long time.”
They won’t score 38 at MSU. The Great Wall of Hate will see to that, despite the Spartans ranking No. 117 nationally in passing yards allowed per game (286.3). But U-M can slug out a win, not turning a rivalry back around in one day, but continuing to turn a program upward.
“It feels like the program is getting to the point where it’s going to start to roll,” U-M radio sideline reporter Doug Karsch noted. “You’ve got your upperclassmen who are contributing and the depth guys who are filling in, some of the younger classes making plays.
“Whether it’s the tipping point when it comes to Michigan State … I look at it as the tipping point for the program.”
The Spartans are the next available crew to cow tip. They won’t go without a fight, and talk remains cheap. Winning screams, and losing mutters under its breath.
---
• Talk about this article inside The Fort
• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, The Wolverine
• Follow us on Twitter: @TheWolverineMag, @BSB_Wolverine, @JB_ Wolverine, @AustinFox42, @Balas_Wolverine, @DrewCHallett and @Qb9Adam.
• Like us on Facebook
