It’s that time of year again. It’s the battle for Paul Bunyan. No. 7-ranked MSU (6-0 overall, 2-0 Big Ten) vs. No. 12-ranked University of Michigan (5-1 overall, 2-0 Big Ten).
MSU has owned the series since head coach Mark Dantonio took over. Dantonio is 6-2 against the Wolverines.
The first of his two losses came in his first season at the helm, and former Wolverine running back Mike Hart’s infamous “little brother” comments after that loss put a boulder on the shoulder of the Spartans.
MSU went on to win the next four straight and six of seven. The only other loss came in 2012 with former Spartan quarterback Andrew Maxwell unable to get the offense going. The Wolverines won on four field goals by a score of 12-10.
MSU hasn’t just beat U-M in their matchups since Dantonio took over, they’ve dominated. In the Spartans six wins over Michigan under Dantonio they’ve had a +16.3 margin of victory.
Since 2008, MSU has outscored U-M 197-101 — not bad for “little brother.” U-M fans will point to the Wolverines 68-34-5 all-time series lead, and that’s all they’ve been able to do since Dantonio took over.
U-M is relatively wealthy when it comes to their 11 national championships, but much like the Michigan Daily’s columns, you have to take that with a grain of salt.
Michigan only has one outright national title (1948) since 1936 when the Associated Press began naming the champion. Since 1948 U-M has just one championship, a split with Nebraska in 1997.
U-M fans like to live in the past, but most of their success came before the average Wolverine fan was born.
Since Jim Harbaugh took over as head coach at Michigan, it’s been all Harbaugh, all the time. Their fans have bragged about how they are “back” and how “order has been restored.” However, this is the new order — a world where the Wolverines have to beat MSU to prove they are relevant.
U-M’s last couple of games put the Harbaugh hype train at top speed, to the point where U-M is now favored by +8.5 despite being ranked lower and outscored 64-17 in the last two games between the two.
The last thing Michigan fans needed was another chip on the shoulders of these Spartans. The “little brother” fuel has provided four straight MSU wins.
Last year when U-M linebacker Joe Bolden foolishly put a stake in the ground at Spartan Stadium he put a chip on the shoulders of a better team.
It doesn’t matter how they won. MSU is undefeated and now they are being disrespected.
“Really doesn’t take much to have a chip on our shoulder,” MSU senior quarterback Connor Cook said. “We’re going to go into each and every game with the underdog mentality, that we’re going on out there and prove to everyone why we deserve the respect that we deserve.”
It may not be the Wolverines fault that their hype train has left the Spartans feeling disrespected, but they will suffer the consequences.
When the 2014 Online Pacemaker-winning and SPJ National winning paper comes out victorious as underdogs on Friday in our annual touch football game against the Michigan Daily the other “underdogs” will do the same on Saturday.
But no hard feelings after we win on Friday, and after we dominate in journalistic achievements. We'll still be able to give you some advice.
To read the Michigan Daily's dueling column, click here.
