Has there been a Michigan State vs. Michigan rivalry game with less juice than the 2026 version? The Wolverines have struggled heavily this season and the fanbase has been calling for Kyle Whittingham’s job while the Spartans are 2-6 after six consecutive losses.
The juice just hasn’t been there.
Until Friday night when Michigan State released its latest game trailer, but this one was special. The annual Michigan vs. Michigan State hype video is here, and it’s a good one.
The juice has been injected as the Game 9 trailer is alive.
Narrated by Dalton Shetler, the trailer for the 119th meeting between the two teams was fantastic. It could have used a narration from Mark Dantonio to really get the rivalry juices flowing, but the highlights and the message were on point.
This one just means more. pic.twitter.com/ymk7wPBAMf
— Michigan State Football (@MSU_Football) November 6, 2026
Michigan State could use all the good vibes and momentum it can get for this one seeing as it’s on a six-game losing streak and hasn’t won a single game since the second week of the season back in early September. Plus, it’s lost a couple of games recently that it probably should have won like the Illinois and Northwestern contests.
Michigan is also lacking a little juice, and the trash talk this week has been pretty light.
The most egregious thing said about the rivalry all week actually came from Kyle Whittingham who said that he is starting to understand the rivalry and that it’s a big one but “not the biggest one” and it’s Michigan State’s Super Bowl more so than Michigan’s.
A more subdued rivalry game was somewhat expected given all the changes and one coach who isn’t familiar with the Battle for Paul Bunyan but man it’s been boring.
Hopefully this hype video at least got Michigan State fans fired up.
Michigan State will have to face Michigan massively shorthanded
Not only is there a lack of juice entering this year’s rivalry game, but there’s also a lack of Spartans. They’re entering this game incredibly shorthanded with Jordan Hall, Tre Bell, Jaziun Patterson, Marvis Parrish, Charles Brantley, Ben Roberts, and Jayden Savoury all out while Alessio Milivojevic and Devin Vaught were listed as questionable.
Fortunately for Michigan State, the Wolverines may not have the offense to run away with Saturday’s game even though they’re going to be heavy favorites at home.
Michigan State does have a secret weapon: playing with nothing to lose.
Saturday will be very interesting.
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