Tag: Michigan State Spartans

Review: FOX Sports’ ‘Divided We Stand’ is must-see viewing for Michigan – MSU fans

After getting an early glimpse of the new FOX Sports documentary on the Michigan – MSU rivalry, we share why it’s must-see TV.

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There are only a handful of states in the entire country that have more than one competing big-time, Power 5 conference football team. Sure, you can point to the Floridas and Texases and Californias of the world, but those states are much more expansive in population than the state of Michigan.

Yet, some 60 miles apart are the University of Michigan and Michigan State University — two institutions and athletic departments that have been at odds with one another since the inception of the latter.

FOX Sports Films, in association with Big Ten Network Originals, delved deep into the rivalry — a hatred that’s regional in variety, as it doesn’t get the same national headlines as The Game vs. Ohio State or like the preeminent in-state rivalry, Auburn vs. Alabama. Divided We Stand, which airs on Thursday, Nov. 14 at 11:00 p.m. EST on FS1, quickly whisks viewers back to how the rivalry started in earnest, what kept it going, and then how it’s only intensified in nature over the course of the past few decades, in both football and basketball.

Of course, for Michigan fans, some of the iconography isn’t pleasing. But to get some first-hand recaps from green and white legend T.J. Duckett on the ‘Spartan Bob’ play that won MSU the game in 2001, or even Wolverines QB Devin Gardner recounting the trials of the 2013-14 games in East Lansing, it makes for incredible storytelling.

Naturally, there’s a lots of incredible moments that also cater to Michigan fans. But when it comes to football, much of the focus is on the era that started with Mark Dantonio taking over the MSU program and the subsequent barbs traded by him and then-Wolverines running back Mike Hart.

While the ‘little brother’ moment might be rehashed somewhat, it doesn’t play as old, sterile news as it could have, given that every year when this game comes up, that moment is replayed like the story just broke. What adds to the moment are the reactions from former Wolverines such as Gardner or Jake Long — who was on that 2007 team.

But the documentary, which clocks in at 44 minutes of viewing time, isn’t solely focused on the football side.

Perhaps the most gripping part came on the basketball side of it all — though football certainly drives the narrative. While new Michigan head coach and Fab Fiver Juwan Howard does make his own talking head appearances, it was a welcome sight to see former head coach John Beilein — albeit weird to see him in Cleveland Cavaliers garb — talking about the rivalry, interspersed with similar moments with MSU’s Tom Izzo. There are two seminal moments with Beilein that showcase when U-M’s basketball program clearly ascended from the decade-long doldrums, including a wonderful teaching moment from Beilein to former forward DeShawn Sims.

The best part, however, was Izzo talking about Beilein after the latter’s surprise heart surgery, and how some things transcend sports rivalries.

MSU might have particular disdain for the ‘little brother’ moniker, and some certainly take exception to it. But moments such as these highlight that there is, indeed, a kindred nature to this rivalry, and that it’s not all about hate or disliking one another. As divided as the two programs are, and forever shall be, the existence of each helps to prop the other up, sometimes in unexpected ways.

Watch the premiere of Divided We Stand on FS1 at 11:00 p.m. EST.

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Michigan hyper-prepared for MSU special teams trickery

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – If there’s one place where Michigan is certainly on high-alert for Michigan State this Saturday, it’s the Spartans’ penchant for trick plays on special teams. The mishandling of a snap in 2015 not included, there are several key …

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — If there’s one place where Michigan is certainly on high-alert for Michigan State this Saturday, it’s the Spartans’ penchant for trick plays on special teams.

The mishandling of a snap in 2015 not included, there are several key plays that MSU has had over the years on the third unit that have given the Spartans a lot of key success. So, naturally, for special teams coordinator Chris Partridge, the preparation for Saturday’s matchup requires a little bit of reverse engineering, taking a look at how and where MSU might attack the Wolverines in that light and knowing how to handle those situations should the Spartans attack in-kind.

“Really, it’s about, we have to look at what our weaknesses might be and how they might attack them,” Partridge said. “That’s the first and foremost. Then we have to look at what they do, trick play or not, we’ve gotta prepare for everything. But yeah, we just have to make sure our eyes are disciplined and we’re ready for anything they can throw at us and be ready to understand the situations they could throw at us and go from there. But it’s really looking at ourselves and how they can attack any of our weaknesses and then looking at what they’ve done and what their strengths are and how they can try to do something like that.”

Doing that is one thing, but knowing what might be coming is another.

Partridge & Co. are being quite fastidious when it comes to studying what MSU likes to do on that front, going all the way back to the beginning of the Mark Dantonio era to study the team’s tendencies when it comes to trickeration.

That doesn’t mean that every past situation is replicated in practice, but the team is well aware of what could be should MSU decide to trot out a surprise special teams play.

“Michigan – Michigan State – 12 years ago, they ran a fake punt or something – we’ve seen it all,” Partridge said. “We’ve seen every fake punt that they’ve run, probably, for 12 years. We’ve seen all their trickery on field goal. We watch it all. We’re not gonna practice it all, but we’re gonna make sure we’re aware of all of it.”

But not every play in that light is different. Some are wildly different, Partridge notes, pointing out that the field goal tricks all have different looks. But the fake punts are something that MSU tends to use out of the same formation and look.

In that light, Michigan has to be ready, because if MSU does pull out some kind of fake or trickery, it’s likely due to the level of success that the Spartans feel they could have against a particular look.

“The last three fake punts are exactly the same,” Partridge said. “They’re the exact same one. The field goal stuff has been quite different. But they’ve run some different fake punts as well, but the last three have been the same. Again, opportunities presented themselves. They’re not going out there – I don’t know if people are saying, ‘Hey, there’s a trick play,’ – they’re not going out there doing crazy stuff for no reason. When you watch their fakes, they’re executing them because the opportunity presented itself from what the the other team was doing. It’s smart coaching, it’s smart football on their part, I believe.”

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Michigan State Basketball signs two recruits during early signing period

AJ Hoggard and Mady Sissoko are officially Spartans

Today is the first day basketball players in the class of 2020 can sign their national letters of intent and Michigan State’s two basketball commits did just that.

AJ Hoggard and Mady Sissoko both announced on Twitter that they had signed and sent in their NLIs.

Hoggard is a point guard out of Huntington Prep in West Virginia. He is rated as the No. 13 point guard in the country and No. 71 player overall by 24/7 Sports’ composite rankings.

Sissoko will head to East Lansing from Wasatch Academy in Mount Pleasant, Utah. The 6’9 center is rated as the No. 7 player at his position and the No. 37 player in the class of 2020.

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Could Shea Patterson be more of a run threat vs. Michigan State?

Could we see more of the Wolverines quarterback keeping the ball against the Spartans?

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The moment that Michigan finished its win at Maryland, the team turned its attention directly to rival Michigan State, even if there was a waiting period of two weeks before the teams would actually face off against one another.

Sitting at a table in a small cramped room, Wolverines hybrid linebacker Josh Uche noted that the maize and blue already had the Spartans on the mind, a notion which quarterback Shea Patterson, seated next to him, nodded in affirmation.

But Michigan had a bye week, so how did the team handle it?

“Take a day or two to kinda relax – still watched all the games over the weekend,” Patterson said. “We had two or three good practices last week, and I think that carried over today. We had a really good one today.”

Given that the bye week is generally called ‘improvement week,’ and with two giant games remaining on the schedule, how did Patterson feel he, personally improved?

He pinpointed one area, and it’s something that fans have wanted to see all season long, where he particularly excelled down the stretch a year ago.

“I think maybe running, running a little bit more,” Patterson said. “Even if it’s not a designed run. If it’s a dropback pass, and you see a lane, just getting out and making something happen with your legs.”

But why is this ability to run emerging now?

We’ve seen it in small doses — starting late against Illinois and again against Penn State and Notre Dame. But the lack of Patterson keeping the ball and using his feet had to do with the injury he sustained on the very first play from scrimmage this season. While he did get healthier as the season went on, he insists that now he’s the healthiest he’s been.

“Just a little banged up earlier in the season,” Patterson said. “Just doing what I can do. Whatever I can do to help the team, I think. None of it’s really changed, just starting to execute more, and being a little more healthy.”

We’ll see if that plays dividends, especially given MSU’s proclivity at stopping the run — though, the Spartans have not been quite as stout as anticipated coming into the season.

Regardless, while Patterson says it’s not the chippiest rivalry, it’s certainly up there when it comes to intensity.

“I mean, it’s definitely the most intense,” he said. “Both sides of the ball, they’re gonna get our best game and we’re gonna get theirs. I think, the way they’re season’s going, they still have a lot to play for. They’re playing for their coach, they’re playing for the fans, they’re playing for that logo on their chest. We’re doing the same. I think it’s gonna be a well-fought game.”

The Wolverines and Spartans are set to face off on Saturday at The Big House, with kickoff slated for noon EST. The game will be broadcast nationally on FOX.

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‘It don’t have to be a close game’ if Michigan plays up to expectations vs. MSU

Why one Wolverine doesn’t think the margin between the rivals has to be a closer affair.

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — One of the biggest concerns before the 2019 season was how Michigan would play down the stretch, with a road game at Penn State preceding a rivalry game against Notre Dame. Then, the Wolverines would have to wait a few weeks to take on in-state rival Michigan State, a preseason Top 25 team.

All of this would need to be done while breaking in a new offense.

The early season growing pains on that side of the ball created a series of concerns, naturally, and though the maize and blue lost on the road to the Nittany Lions, that game was seen as a turning point for the Wolverines.

It was the week before when Michigan finally got its running game going, and it did it again against PSU and the top-ranked run defense, in terms of yards-per-carry allowed. It’s a credit to the offensive line and to the tailbacks who have really got things going up front.

But Saturday presents another challenge, as stopping the run is part of Michigan State’s modus operandi.

Michigan right guard Michael Onwenu acknowledges that the biggest thing for the maize and blue on Saturday is to play their game, or as he notes: ‘just sticking to the script.’ But also, having familiarity with some of the MSU players helps, he says.

“I think I know two of the D-linemen, and a few through the secondary,” Onwenu said. “Last year, it was a dogfight. And it doesn’t have to be that way.”

But what does he mean when he says it doesn’t have to be a dogfight?

Again, if Michigan plays its game, despite the Spartans coming to town with the nation’s No. 24 defense, then the Wolverines should cruise to victory.

Call it confidence, call it bravado — whatever you will. But with the way that Michigan has played as of late compared to the Spartans, coupled with an extra week to prepare due to the bye week, Onwenu is sure that the Wolverines can get their first home win over MSU since 2012.

“It don’t have to be a close game,” Onwenu said. “(If) we come out and play like we did the last few weeks.

“I think the bye week did fall on a good week for us. We’ve been playing well these last few weeks, and now we can play even better with a few days of rest.”

The battle for the Paul Bunyan Trophy is set to begin on Saturday at noon EST in Ann Arbor. The game will be broadcast nationally on FOX.

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What Jim Harbaugh, Michigan expects from MSU matchup on Saturday

What the Wolverines head coach expects from the in-state rival on Saturday.

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — If you were to look at the recent records of both Michigan and in-state rival MSU, you wouldn’t necessarily put much stock into the Spartans coming into Saturday’s contest.

However, as Jim Harbaugh notes, that would be foolish.

The Wolverines head coach knows the type of game the battle for the Paul Bunyan Trophy is annually, and while the record is lopsided towards the maize and blue, there have certainly been years where a seemingly overmatched Spartans team has come in and gotten the best of their in-state rivals.

But when you especially look at how much MSU head coach Mark Dantonio truly loathes all things Michigan, you can expect a little extra in this game. Some extra hitting, extra game-planning, extra motivation from the current 4-5 team in East Lansing.

“On high alert for everything,” Harbaugh said. “Specifically, yeah, we understand that Coach Dantonio is a master motivator. There could be trick plays. Special teams, the punt fakes, field goal fakes. Everything needs to be alerted and prepared and readied for.”

Calling the annual matchup ‘very competitive and intense,’ Harbaugh notes that the team doesn’t usually spend as much time doing extra legwork to make sure they’re not caught with possible trickery.

But such is the nature of this particular matchup, given the bag of hammers Dantonio tends to pull from when these two teams meet up.

“I would say it’s more than most games, because they’ve done more with those types of plays, with fakes,” Harbaugh said. “Out of necessity, spending more time on it than normal.”

The national discussion surrounding MSU is less about its downfall — it was 7-6 a year ago — but has more to do with its offense.

Ranked 96th in total offense (yards-per-game) and 106th in rushing offense, the Spartans are in their second-straight year of fielding what looks like a moribund attack on that side of the ball. But that’s not how Harbaugh looks at it.

There are times when MSU can seemingly pull it all together, and it would make sense that it would do everything in its power to do just that against its biggest rival.

We’ve seen games where the Spartans haven’t been bad, or inept, in that regard. Despite the overall numbers, MSU had the best offensive game that Ohio State has seen to this point, and put up big yardage numbers in the win over Western Michigan earlier in the year, and again in the loss this past Saturday against Illinois.

So when Harbaugh looks at that side of the ball, and the team as a whole, he sees something more dangerous than the general public might.

“Well, they put up over 500 yards of offense this past week,” Harbaugh said. “Defense is one of the best in the country. Special teams, year-in and year-out, is consistently good, solid, explosive. Prone to trickery, as well. Everything in our preparation is gonna have to be at its highest level. We’re excited – we were excited to get started, we already got started. We’re already in the midst of our preparations.”

Regardless, the spectre of the rivalry will certainly take ahold, at least once both teams hit the field — and it might not wait until the game actually begins.

Last year, as well-noted, there was the pregame incident with the Spartans’ traditional field walk, which the Big Ten deemed to come too late before the game, per the conference’s review. Subsequently, Devin Bush Jr. took cleats to the Spartans logo at midfield, proving that the Spartans had Michigan’s attention this time around.

Harbaugh doesn’t expect any pregame shenanigans this time around, but again, harkened back to what took place in East Lansing a little more than a year ago.

“That’s been addressed pretty thoroughly,” Harbaugh said. “There’s a rule that two hours before the game, players cannot be on the field before two hours. So if there are any pregame traditions, then those take place before the two hour mark, when both teams, in two hours, are allowed to be on the field and share the field. One team cannot supersede that. It’s been addressed.”

So, come Saturday, regardless of the directions each team seems to be moving in, expect the unexpected.

Jim Harbaugh and the maize and blue certainly are. While you are what your record says you are, when it comes to this particular matchup, Harbaugh goes straight to an old, but perhaps true, idiom.

“As I said, high alert,” Harbaugh said. “This is an important game for both teams. Throw out the records – that’s an old cliché you can use – when you play this type of game.”

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Michigan on ‘high alert’ for MSU’s ‘Super Bowl’

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Let the back-and-forth begin. It’s hate week in Ann Arbor, with in-state rival Michigan State coming to town on Saturday. The Spartans come in reeling, while the Wolverines are flying high, with the former having just melted down, …

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Let the back-and-forth begin.

It’s hate week in Ann Arbor, with in-state rival Michigan State coming to town on Saturday. The Spartans come in reeling, while the Wolverines are flying high, with the former having just melted down, having surrendered 27 points in the fourth quarter to Illinois to fall to 4-5 on the season, while the latter is just now putting it all together at 7-2.

But, that doesn’t mean that the Wolverines are expecting to cruise to an easy victory.

It is a rivalry, after all, and as Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh says, there’s no letting up, regardless if it seems that the two teams are moving in different directions.

“On high alert for everything,” Harbaugh said. “Specifically, yeah — we understand that Coach Dantonio is a master motivator. There could be trick plays. Special teams, punt fakes, field goal fakes. Everything needs to be alerted and prepared and ready for.”

But coaches coach in games, and players play in them. So getting the players’ perspective is key.

For the local Michigan products, this game means a little bit more, because they grew up playing with and against a lot of the players on the other side of the ball. Such is true for former Detroit (MI) King standout Ambry Thomas, who played alongside MSU LB Tyriq Thompson and against WR Cody White while in high school.

While there’s chirping back and forth the week of the game, Thomas says he understands what this game means, especially for the reeling Spartans.

“You can’t let them get a heads up,” Thomas said. “You’ve gotta step on their throat and stay there all game. We know they’re going to treat this game like their Super Bowl. We’ve gotta be prepared and just attack them, like they’re gonna try to attack us.”

Of course, talk and the action borne thereof fuels this rivalry.

Last year, it started with the pregame stunt by MSU, as they were late doing their traditional field walk, meaning Michigan was already on the field warming up. The Wolverines refused to vacate, so the Spartans walked through, refusing to unlink for some — like Devin Bush — while others like Khaleke Hudson didn’t make physical contact. After that incident, Bush famously tore up the Spartans logo with his cleats, and after the game, then-defensive end Chase Winovich spoke on FOX about MSU being ‘little brother,’ harkening back to the words spoken by Mike Hart after the 2007 contest.

Those words continue to be spoken in regards to the rivalry, including on Monday, in terms of how both teams treat it.

“Right now, it’s the most important game on our schedule,” Thomas said. “It’s about who’s the big brother, who’s the little sister in this state. That’s what it’s really about. We plan to give it our all, just like they plan to give us their all.

“You come to Michigan to play in this game right here and that team down there in Ohio. But you come to Michigan to play in these two games and these are must wins for us.”

The Spartans may be reeling, especially on the offensive side of the ball, but that’s not the team that the Wolverines see.

Perhaps it’s an added respect given, knowing that the two teams can prove it on the field this Saturday. But MSU’s offense has been nothing short of erratic, with the Spartans gaining 526 yards in the loss to Illinois, but struggling to get much of anything going against the Wisconsins, Penn States and Ohio States of the world.

Still, Thomas sees an offense that could be tough to stop, should everything come together.

“I see a team with a lot of talent, honestly – they just haven’t figured it out yet,” Thomas said. “They have a lot of talent. We know we just have to show up, ball out, do what we do.”

Michigan hosts MSU at The Big House with kickoff set for noon EST on FOX.

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