With 39 of the last 41 games won by the team with the most rushing yards in the rivalry series, junior running back Edwin Baker and the No. 23 MSU football team knew they needed a big day on the ground to beat No. 11 Michigan.
This summer, senior quarterback Kirk Cousins was asked a question he’ll probably never forget. While speaking to a K-8 grade school in Michigan, Cousins opened it up for questions when a second-grader raised his hand.
The Paul Bunyan Trophy is a coveted award for MSU and Michigan, and Saturday, the Spartans will compete to keep the trophy in East Lansing, where it’s been for the past three years.
When most of this year’s senior class first arrived in East Lansing in 2007, the times were much different. The Spartans were loved by many, but undoubtedly Michigan was seen as a maize and blue state.
What’s more sickening? That Michigan is ranked No. 11 in the country, or that I offer the newspaper I saw those rankings in as toilet paper for my apartment?
For the 115 years since you started playing football, you’ve been obsessed with waging an imaginary battle against Michigan. Your original fight song included lines of “smash through that line of blue” and “Michigan is weakening.” Your name as the Spartans came as a direct response to Michigan being called the “Athens of the Midwest” (Athens and Sparta were rival city-states in ancient Greece. Wikipedia it. I hear that always works for class.).
Gov. Rick Snyder got an unexpected surprise Thursday — one he likely wasn’t happy about. Sparty, a rival of Snyder’s University of Michigan Wolverines, paid an unannounced visit to the governor’s office when he was between meetings Thursday.
The Spartans (4-1) will take on their Wolverine rivals Saturday night. MSU has walked away as the victor the past three years.
Prior to the MSU football team’s matchup last season against Michigan, the Spartans did everything in their power to anticipate Wolverine quarterback Denard Robinson’s every move and be adequately prepared to face the dynamic leader.
Staring down at the grass, sophomore defensive end William Gholston was holding back tears. The 6-foot-7, 280-pound lineman was not just MSU’s five-star recruit but a man who was experiencing more pain than any football game could cause him.
Looking to play college football, Marcus Rush had options coming out of high school, and although his several options included Michigan and Nebraska, the now-redshirt freshman defensive end chose MSU.
MSU football head coach Mark Dantonio has been rewarded with a new contract, the school announced Saturday in a joint statement from MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon and MSU Athletics Director Mark Hollis.
While head coach Mark Dantonio and the MSU football coaching staff are recruiting during the bye week, tired and banged up players are using the time to recover and take advantage of a couple days off. The Spartans (4-1 overall, 1-0 Big Ten) took three days off after the 10-7 win over Ohio State (3-2, 0-1) and began practice again Wednesday. At his press conference Wednesday, Dantonio said he approaches each bye week differently, depending on the season, but as it is still early in the Big Ten season, he said the week will be a time to evaluate before moving on to No.
There it was — the Spartans had just given up a touchdown and the Buckeyes kickoff team prepared to make a last-ditch effort to recover the onside kick and score. Some will say there was no way the Buckeyes could have reached the end zone, but for senior safety Trenton Robinson, the memories of the last-second 29-27 loss to Central Michigan in 2009 were just too cruel. MSU needed to get this kick.
Three drives into the game — two for Ohio State and one for MSU — both teams had yet to make an opening statement against the other.
Walking into Ohio Stadium, you could sense it was going to be a defensive game. There were overcast skies, rain was drizzling down and it was just cold enough to see your breath.
Columbus, Ohio — In the middle of his fifth season with the MSU football team, head coach Mark Dantonio can now say he has defeated every team in the Big Ten he’s faced.
MSU holds Ohio State to 178 yards of offense on the way to beating the Buckeyes for the first time since 1999.
COLUMBUS, OHIO – The defense carried the MSU football team to the finish line Saturday, as the Spartans broke their streak of seven consecutive losses to Ohio State and beat the Buckeyes 10-7 in Columbus, Ohio for the first time since 1998. The defenders racked up nine sacks, three more than their total for the first four weeks of the season, setting a new team record. The first touchdown of the game happened in the first quarter when senior quarterback Kirk Cousins rolled right and found senior wide receiver B.J.
MSU football head coach Mark Dantonio has brought the Spartans a Big Ten Championship, three straight wins against Michigan and four consecutive bowl game appearances since he arrived in 2007.