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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Before the 2019 season started, the early line for the Michigan – Michigan State rivalry saw the Wolverines as double-digit point favorites, which was questioned by many, given that the battle for the Paul Bunyan Trophy tends to be a close affair. But MSU didn’t uphold its end of the bargain this year, as the reshuffling of the offensive staff didn’t yield many positive results as the season progressed.
The Spartans haven’t won a game since the month of September, yet here we are in mid-November. Once MSU got into the meat of the schedule, every game has looked similar: they’ve looked decent to start before the other team pulls away.
It was no different in Ann Arbor, but this one probably hurts MSU the most, given that the Wolverines are the Spartans’ chief rival. Now Michigan has won two-straight over their in-state enemy, and head coach Jim Harbaugh now has a 3-2 record over Michigan State and coach Mark Dantonio.
After the game, Dantonio praised Michigan and the effort the Wolverines put in while noting how effective the maize and blue were at stymying what MSU wanted to do.
“(We) hung in there initially,” Dantonio said. “I think the third quarter hurt us with the first interception and then at the beginning of the fourth quarter, I guess the blocked punt – the exchange there, the third and fourth quarter, the blocked punt sort of turned it. We had an obviously a very ugly fourth quarter. Too many problems, too many situations.
“Credit Michigan. They played extremely well on defense and offense. I talked about them having shock – we had to play with that same kind of shock and explosiveness. They got after the quarterback, pressured the quarterback. We were unable to run the ball effectively enough – at all. I thought we hung in there a little bit there as it was going forward.”
Though many have seen this as a referendum game for Dantonio, in the sense that — while no one expected MSU to win coming in, it could either push the Spartans to get better or it could spell the end for the legendary head coach who really made an enemy of the Wolverines.
Well, even with a lopsided 44-10 loss, it doesn’t sound like Dantonio has any machinations on calling it career in East Lansing after this one, noting that he has to ‘even it out’ to make things right for the green and white.
“From a leadership stand(point), you must stand vigilant – that’s what leaders must do,” Dantonio said. “You must stand vigilant, you must take responsibility, but you must stay the course, too. And you must be strong. And I keep asking ourselves, just like I ask our football team – and I didn’t ask them this game – how strong are you? How strong are you? Can you weather storms? If you can’t weather storms, this might not be the situation you want to put yourself in.
“We weather the storm, that’s whether you’re a leader on this football team internally as a team member, collectively as the coaching staff or as the head football coach.
“I’ll weather the storm.”
Still, while there were no barbs or insults hurled towards Michigan — something of a rarity in this rivalry since Dantonio took over in 2007 — the disgust from the loss, especially to his chief rival, remains apparent.
“I don’t like losing to these guys,” Dantonio said. “I don’t think you’ve gotta reinvigorate me. I don’t like losing period.”
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