The Really Big College Football Thing Was …
Michigan State won, and Jim Harbaugh lost.
Here’s the thing about Jim Harbaugh and his time at Michigan – he doesn’t lose to bad teams.
2021 Michigan State is a great team.
Throw out everything that happened in 2020 – that was a weird aberration of the season in just about every way. Before that – and this year, too – Michigan always beat the mediocre under Harbaugh and only lost to the elite of the elite.
Again, outside of 2020, Harbaugh’s only loss to a team that didn’t finish with ten wins was the wild walk-off 14-13 night game at Iowa in 2016. It’s been easy for too many to forget that losing was a regular occurrence at Michigan before Harbaugh showed up.
Despite all the bluster and hype and fan hoo-ha, dogging any Michigan coach for losing to Ohio State right now isn’t really fair. However …
The Michigan head coach really can’t lose to Michigan State.
The Michigan head coach just lost to Michigan State. Again.
Michigan fans might not like it, but they get it when it comes to Ohio State. But lose to “little brother” and there’s a big, big problem.
What Michigan and Harbaugh can’t blow off about 2020 was how a bad Spartan team won 27-24. Excuses – fair or not – don’t matter when the score check is now Mel Tucker 2, Jim Harbaugh 0.
And that’s really where this all should be right now. The media narrative is about Harbaugh losing to another great team – I just did the same thing – when it’s the other guy and the other team that’s the real story now.
The Michigan State 37-33 win over the Wolverines was one of the best games of the year – Oklahoma-Texas was better, but that’s for another day. Both teams played well, both teams deserved to win, and both teams are still deep in the Big Ten title chase with Ohio State still on the respective slates.
It’s not like the Spartans are playing with house money now for a fan base that knows recent success – it’s still the only Big Ten program other than Ohio State to get into the College Football Playoff – but 8-0?
A win over Michigan? The puck on the stick with a shot to play for the Big Ten title by winning out? A running back who’s probably the leader right now for the Heisman?
This is really big, really fun stuff for a program that seems to be just getting started with a whole new style and era now under a rising superstar head coach in Tucker.
And best of all of the Spartan fan base, it’s going to be almost a full three years of bragging rights over that self-proclaimed Leaders and Best school.
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