EAST LANSING, Mich. – There was an inconceivable scoreboard gaffe. There were songs trolling Michigan. There were even some middle fingers.
But at every step of this strange chapter of the state’s greatest rivalry, Michigan football scored again and again and again, running Michigan State out of Spartan Stadium to keep the Paul Bunyan Trophy in Ann Arbor.
From “trouble with the snap” to the Braylon Edwards game to the 16-point comeback two years ago, no two meetings between Michigan and Michigan State are alike. But this one felt especially... unique.
First, consider the circumstances coming into the game. Michigan State was without a head coach because of allegations that center around phone sex. Michigan is being accused of an elaborate sign-stealing operation involving a former Marine. And we haven’t even mentioned what happened in the tunnel after last year’s matchup.
College football, folks -- there’s nothing else quite like it.
Saturday’s string of unusual events began 81 minutes before kickoff, when the Spartan Stadium scoreboard showed a photo of Adolph Hitler as part of a trivia quiz. Yes, that is actually a thing that happened.
Then, during the game, Michigan State trolled Michigan by playing “Signs” by Tesla and “The Sign” by Ace of Base (“I saw the sign!”). Well played -- that was objectively hilarious.
But it would have hit home a little harder if it weren’t for what was happening on the field.
Michigan and its massive contingent of fans at Spartan Stadium were the only ones laughing between the opening kickoff and the trophy celebration. The Wolverines made this rivalry as lopsided as we’ve seen in a decade, back to when MSU held Michigan to negative-48 rushing yards in a 29-6 drubbing.
Saturday made that 2013 matchup look like an instant classic. Michigan State had 51 yards and two first downs at halftime, while Michigan had 339 yards and 19 first downs. The Wolverines pulled most of their starters with 20 minutes remaining, and the score was 42-0, with the yardage at 375-109 and first downs at 24-4.
J.J. McCarthy threw for 105 more yards than the Spartans gained as a team, and he did it in only 40 minutes. Meanwhile, fourth-stringer Alex Orji came in on the final drive and bullied his way to the end zone to put a cherry on top of Michigan’s 49-0 victory.
For a rivalry that’s been defined by Michigan State’s ability to hang tough, even when outmatched, this performance felt completely out of place. The two teams didn’t look like they belonged on the same field.
One bright spot was that the game was mostly clean, especially compared to last year’s fights in the Michigan Stadium tunnel. The outlier was when Michigan State offensive lineman Spencer Brown took a cheap shot at Braiden McGregor during a Michigan pick-six.
Brown and McGregor were going at it away from the play, and McGregor fell down after a shot to the helmet. Brown then dove head first at McGregor, spearing him in the side of the head while he was on the ground.
Brown was ejected, and went into the tunnel with both middle fingers raised at Michigan fans in the crowd. In most games, that would be the most memorable moment, but Saturday, it sort of just fit right in with everything else.
At the end of the day, the main story was Michigan’s dominance, which is an improvement from last year, when nobody even cared about the outcome of the game because of what happened afterward. But it was still a really odd night for two teams dealing with very strange off-the-field storylines.
Michigan is competing for a national championship for the third year in a row and has gotten back to the mountaintop of college football. Meanwhile, Michigan State is about to begin a new era with a new head coach. So it’s not exactly surprising that the game was one-sided.
But hopefully future matchups will be more about what happens on the field, and less about scandals, controversy, head coach firings, and ejections.
