INDIANAPOLIS — It was a wild two or three hours over the early summer when the unthinkable happened — twice.
It’s pretty rare that you see players switch rivalries anywhere in college football, but in particular, when it comes to any of Michigan’s rivalries, you don’t often see much movement to or from the Wolverines with the Spartans or Buckeyes. Yet, we not only saw an MSU player transfer to Michigan, but only a few hours later, a Michigan player transferred to MSU.
The reception from either fan base was wild. When safety Jaden Mangham defected from East Lansing to Ann Arbor, the Michigan fans were joyous while the MSU fans were salty. However, when linebacker Semaj Bridgeman went the other way, the MSU fans were understandably joyous, while the chorus of most Michigan fans tended to be mostly congratulatory.
That’s something that Michigan graduate safety Makari Paige noticed.
Paige is a Michigan native, so he’s well-versed in the rivalry. So when the two players switched sides of the rivalry, he noticed how not only the fans but also teammates of both reacted. He shared more at Big Ten media days last month.
“It ain’t really weird to me at all. I mean, I don’t know, I don’t feel a certain way about it at all. But maybe they do more so — not us,” Paige said. “Like Semaj leaving go to Michigan State, it was like, ‘Congrats, bro!’ because like, ain’t no hate like that, you know I’m saying?
“But (Mangham) coming over here, he told me that guys on the team probably talk down on whatever. I saw on Twitter, somebody said something about him like, ‘He’s soft anyways!’ Like, he was your teammate two days ago, so how is he soft now? You know what I’m saying? Like, kind of brotherhood is that? Yeah, I don’t know.”
Now Mangham is a Wolverine and Bridgeman is a Spartan — even if it’s inexplicable. But what does Mangham bring to the table for the maize and blue?
Days before the start of fall camp, Paige shared what he knows of his new teammate in the defensive backfield.
“(Takeaway ability), for sure,” Paige said. “I didn’t really watch him much (at MSU) but he could get the ball out the air, for sure. Not scared to hit at all. Yeah, definitely somebody that we need in our backfield.”
When MSU comes to Ann Arbor in October, the battle for the Paul Bunyan Trophy certainly is going to have even more of an added emphasis given the teammate swapping we’ve seen of late.