Michigan Wolverines football head coach Jim Harbaugh loves to say “Onward,” and that’s precisely where his team needs to go in the fateful two weekends ahead.

Michigan fans and observers are not so burdened, at least for the moment. They can linger a bit, absorb, enjoy. Saturday will arrive soon enough.

Their favorite football team has slain one big, nasty dragon, even if it qualified as a half-dead one in the most recent encounter. Fully absorbing what that means can be accomplished while savoring the achievement.

Tom Crawford does just that. The Michigan grad, East Lansing resident and media personality continuously fights the good fight among Spartans, who enjoyed a decade of all too often rubbing Michigan’s football face in the dirt.

“I wear my Michigan hoodie, and people don't give you grief … Yeah, it’s great,” he said. “It’s great to be a Michigan Wolverine here in greater Lansing, and East Lansing, specifically.”

That’s no small luxury. As recently as a half-dozen years ago, Michigan State owned this series. The Spartans didn’t just beat Michigan with regularity, they beat the Wolverines down. They laughed about it.