ANN ARBOR, Mich. — They can lie to everyone else if they want. That’s part of the drill in college football.
But if they’re lying to themselves, we’ll all find out soon enough.
Michigan should know that by now when it comes to this game against their in-state rivals. If it means more to Michigan State, it’ll show up on the scoreboard, more often than not.
How else to explain Mel Tucker’s 2-0 record against Jim Harbaugh? Or the Spartans’ extended run of success against the Wolverines, winning six of the last nine meetings in this rivalry, including three of the last four in Ann Arbor, where Saturday night they’ll meet again under the lights to fight over state bragging rights.
“Our guys really want to win this,” Harbaugh insisted Monday at his weekly press conference. “I’m not going to lie to you: I really want to win it. And I have no doubt that if you (polled) every player or coach on both sides, they’d say the same thing.”
And while that’s a thing that shouldn’t have to be said in a rivalry that dates to 1898 — and an annual series that has been played uninterrupted since World War II — it still bears repeating in Ann Arbor, it seems.
The Wolverines have another archrival in Ohio State that has kept them preoccupied for quite some time. But after finally ending a decade-long drought against the Buckeyes last November, the reigning Big Ten champs were careful this summer when asked to outline their goals for 2022.
“Beat Michigan State and Ohio State in the same year, win the Big Ten championship, win the national championship,” Harbaugh said, making sure the order of operation was just right.
Right where they want them?
So, first things first, here come the Spartans, stumbling through a disappointing season at 3-4 overall and 1-3 in Big Ten play. And for the fourth-ranked Wolverines (7-0, 4-0), here comes an opportunity to prove a point that they couldn’t — or didn’t — a year ago, when Kenneth Walker III ran through Michigan’s vaunted defense and Harbaugh’s team blew a 16-point second-half lead to lose a 37-33 thriller in East Lansing.
“You just don’t like that feeling, don’t like that taste,” said defensive tackle Mazi Smith, Michigan’s senior co-captain. “And now you get an opportunity to get rid of that taste. So either you’re gonna take it, or you’re not. Everybody knows how important this week is and everybody knows how important this game is.”
We know the Spartans do, anyway. They’ve proven that, year in and year out, ever since Mark Dantonio returned to East Lansing and — with a little help from Michigan’s own identity crisis — turned the tables in this rivalry back in 2008. Tucker hasn’t skipped a beat since taking over in 2020, becoming the first coach in program history to start 2-0 against the Wolverines. And the fact the Spartans are listed as three-touchdown underdogs heading into this year's matchup plays right into his hands.
“We all know what this week is: It’s not just another game for us,” Tucker said Monday, with both teams coming off a bye week. “Our players understand that. Our staff understands that. Our fans understand that as well. … There’s not a day that’s gone by since I’ve been here that it hasn’t come up.”
Still, “you don’t assume anything,” said Tucker, who made sure to start off this week of practice for his players with an “educational” reminder of what’s at stake and what’s in store.
“We didn’t really roll out the bulletin-board material and all the videos and all that stuff until this morning,” Tucker said. “Even though it’s already out there.”
He didn’t elaborate on what he meant by that. But whether it’s Michigan’s Donovan Edwards telling analyst Jon Jansen on his “In the Trenches” podcast, “We're going to win and we're going to leave them no mercy,” or some other quote or social-media post that’s “out there,” Tucker knows it’s only kindling.
The real fire has to come from within, and it has to burn a little deeper than that. Like the way it did for Devin Bush in 2018, to cite one recent Michigan example among many more on the other side of the fence.
“Every time we get out there it’s just a dogfight,” shrugged Michigan left tackle Ryan Hayes, a fifth-year senior who has seen both sides of this in his career, with two wins over Michigan State followed by back-to-back losses. “I think we truly just hate each other. And I think it just comes down to that.”
Harbaugh, for his part, said all the obligatory nice things about his opponent on Monday, calling the Spartans “a really good team” that’s “dangerous in a lot of ways.” He praised quarterback Payton Thorne, suggested the receiving corps is “the best we’ve played” and even went so far as to cite Michigan State as a team that runs the ball well. Never mind that they’re ranked 12th in the Big Ten — and 116th nationally — in rushing offense, with Walker now off torturing NFL defenses.
Still, Harbaugh insisted, “It’s a big challenge. Our team knows that.”
If they don’t by now, they have only themselves to blame.
