Michigan State Football: 5 reasons the Spartans can beat Michigan

By Adam Zdroik | Oct 5, 2017

EAST LANSING, MI - OCTOBER 25: Marcus Rush #44 of the Michigan State Spartans and teammate Connor Kruse #54 celebrate a win over the Michigan Wolverines and carry off the Paul Paul Bunyan trophy at Spartan Stadium on October 25 , 2014 in East Lansing, Michigan. The Spartans defeated the Wolverines 35-11 (Photo by Leon Halip/Getty Images) /

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1. Mark Dantonio

Mark Dantonio’s success – and hatred – against Michigan is well known. That’s turned into a 7-3 record against the Wolverines, which many Michigan fans fail to recognize whenever talking about the rivalry. Per usual in the week leading up to the game, Dantonio made comments about this not being “just another game.”

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As for Jim Harbaugh, it’s typical coach speak for him, saying that Michigan State is a “very good football team.” While Harbaugh is a better coach in some areas than Dantonio and has brought Michigan back from the abyss in recent seasons, he still doesn’t put as much into this game as Dantonio.

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Even when Michigan State was coming off some embarrassing defeats last season to BYU, Northwestern and Maryland, Dantonio still got his team up for this game. With the Spartans actually playing with confidence this time around, things could be different, especially with a quarterback that the team believes in, Brian Lewerke.

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