Michigan State Football: Ranking Mark Dantonio’s 8 wins over Michigan
1. The -48 game (2013)
If you ask any Spartan fan what their favorite win of the Mark Dantonio era was, they’d either say the Rose Bowl, 2013 Big Ten title game, Cotton Bowl or this one.
The -48 game, as it’s known by many, was arguably the most memorable in the Dantonio era. It was expected to be an even matchup between No. 22 Michigan State and No. 21 Michigan. The Wolverines were 6-1 heading into the game and the Spartans 7-1.
Evenly-matched was probably the last phrase anyone would have used to describe how the game played out. The Spartans not only made Devin Gardner second guess his decision to become a collegiate quarterback but they held Michigan’s run game to negative rushing yards — -48, to be exact.
Fitzgerald Toussaint was the Wolverines’ leading rusher in this one with eight carries for 20 yards, but Gardner was sacked more times than he’d like to admit.
Michigan State dominated this one from start to finish, making a mockery of the Wolverines and dropping them from the rankings.
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The Spartans built on this win and went 13-1 with a Big Ten title and Rose Bowl victory.