Michigan State football: Jacoby Windmon is built for Michigan rivalry

Being versed on the Michigan vs. Michigan State football rivalry is a process all first-year players need to go through.

Coming in, they don’t quite grasp the nature of the rivalry and the hatred unless they’re recruits from the state of Michigan or they grew up watching the rivalry.

Guys like Jacoby Windmon haven’t been versed on the rivalry and everything it means and has meant to Spartans — until this week. He spoke to the media about how he’s been basically taught everything he needs to know starting on Monday by Mel Tucker.

It started with the story about how Michigan didn’t want MSU in the Big Ten and he’s already showing that he’s built for this rivalry.

He’s not going to give Michigan any bulletin board material.

This is confidence but it’s also what Michigan State has been built on over the years: letting play do the talking. Michigan is usually the side that does all the pre-game talking and more often than not over the past 15 years, it’s backfired.

Windmon is showing that he knows that.

Windmon is Michigan State football’s key to beating Michigan

If Michigan State wants to pull off this upset, Windmon needs to lead that defense along with Jacob Slade and Xavier Henderson.

It looks like the Spartans are running more of a 4-3 with Windmon back in his natural linebacker spot so if he can do what he did against Wisconsin, Michigan State will be in good shape. He has a tall task ahead of him in terms of slowing down that elite Michigan run game, but from the sounds of it, he’s up to the task.

Windmon just feels like the kind of guy who feeds off the hostile energy and environments of a rivalry and that bodes well for MSU.