Michigan State football has its biggest game of the season this weekend. Sorry, Oregon, Ohio State, and even Indiana. The Paul Bunyan Trophy game is what matters in East Lansing.
Those pesky Wolverines from down the road, are on the clock. With that, it marks Hate Week around these parts. I myself know full well what that means. Now I don't want to sound like a bad person, but boy do I hate that school down the road.
Sure they are the defending "national champions", but they certainly don't look like it. This year's annual meeting is going to feel a little weird, because both teams are 4-3 and 2-2 in the Big Ten. This is also the first meeting between us and them where neither team is ranked, for the first time since 2008.
Funny, that was the year when MSU took over the reigns in the rivalry under Mark Dantonio.
Is someone going to quote Mike Hart again? No, who needs that garbage spouted again? Oh, I forgot the Wolverines can't help themselves. Go ahead and run your mouth.
I have been pretty fortunate during my life to see my alma mater get the job done against A2. Not to spell out my age, but I was born in 1996, and the rivalry certainly wasn't in the Spartans favor at that time. In fact they only won twice during the first 12 years of my life.
The 1999 and 2001 victories, I still remember even though I was a little boy. Growing up a Spartan fan didn't deter me in my early years. Sure I went through a lot of crap from "Walmart Wolverines" throughout elementary school, but I never let it deter my love for the green and white.
Those years made me tougher. This made things so much sweeter when Dantonio so brilliantly said in 2007, "Pride comes before the fall. It will never be over here," and completely turned the rivalry around.
Go Green pic.twitter.com/T2xmPsDjLu
— MSU Chief of Propaganda (@OdellBretthamJr) October 21, 2024
Those words I will never forget. It will never be over, and those guys never seem to learn. Sure the last two years have been dogwater for the Spartans, so what, at best those games were tainted.
That's the past, and everyone is focused on Saturday. The Spartans and Wolverines both came off of byes. Michigan State looked great and beat Iowa. Michigan? Not so much they completely fell apart in a loss at Illinois. It's pretty easy to see how far the directions each team is heading. It could easily flip this weekend.
I see Sherrone Moore is being pretty mum on the quarterback situation for the game. Good luck, that's all I have to say. Everyone knows what happens when you don't have your ducks in a row, especially at the quarterback spot.
No matter what happens, it's very clear Saturday's chapter is going to be something that hasn't been seen in a long time if ever. This is certainly a toss-up game, and that's crazy to me.