What they're saying before Michigan football takes on Michigan State

Michigan Wolverines football and in-state rival Michigan State will do battle Saturday night at The Big House. Here’s a look around the internet at what they’re saying before kickoff.

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Bob Wojnowski, The Detroit News: Wojo’s Pigskin Picks: Michigan-MSU rivalry is taking a bizarre turn(over)

After years of sparring and spitting, squabbling and wobbling, the Wolverines and Spartans finally have arrived at common ground. It took a while to get there, with Michigan making a slight detour to a national championship and MSU making an ill-fated visit to a seedy Tuck Stop, but here we are.

Despite all their historic differences, our favorite siblings are eerily similar, piling up turnovers and sniffing .500. Both have head coaches in their first seasons. Both have first-time starting quarterbacks. Both have 4-3 records and again are chasing traditional Big Ten powers Indiana and Oregon. Neither team is ranked, the first time they’ve met unranked since 2008.

Naturally, the Spartans are ecstatic to be here. Naturally, the Wolverines are embarrassed to be here.

But where, exactly, is here? That’s one thing that’ll be determined Saturday night in the Big House, when they renew a glorious rivalry that doesn’t always end up in a back-alley tunnel brawl. Actually, it was one unfortunate incident two years ago and it’ll never happen again now that Michigan made extensive alterations, removing seats and widening the tunnel by approximately 2.5 inches.

Graham Couch, Lansing State Journal: Couch: MSU-Michigan football rivalry marked by memorable games and fierce emotions – and, for 20 years, being dead even

Given the recent trajectories of both programs, it’s remarkable that the last four games have been split 2-2 — though it’s fitting of what this rivalry has become.

This season marks the beginning of yet another iteration of the rivalry. Two new head coaches. Two 4-3 teams. Two programs coming from different places, trying to find their footing. Memorable games undoubtedly on their way, perhaps this Saturday.

Because memorable games have marked the time in this rivalry, long before the last 20 years, but in the last 20 years especially.
Twenty years ago, Braylon Edwards and Michigan rallied from 17 points down in the second half to break the Spartans’ hearts in triple-overtime.

Three years later, the “little brother” game.

In 2008, MSU’s revenge at the Big House. In 2012, Michigan’s exhale at the Big House. In 2013, “fourth-and-48”. In 2014, Joe Bolden’s bold tent stake. In 2015, “trouble with the snap.” In 2018, the Devin Bush pregame collision. In 2020, Rocky Lombardi, Ricky White and the pandemic game. In 2021, the Kenneth Walker game. In 2022, the tunnel. In 2023, 49-0.

These games can all be summed up and remembered in a few words.

Maybe this one will, too.

Austin Meek, The Athletic: Big Ten football mailbag: Can anyone stop Oregon? Realignment regret for USC?

If Michigan’s championship season played out exactly as it did, except Jim Harbaugh wasn’t suspended for the last three regular-season games, is Sherrone Moore still the coach? — Will M.

Yes, most likely. Moore was mentioned as a potential successor when Harbaugh flirted with the NFL after the 2022 season, and even before Harbaugh’s suspension, there were signs that he would be next in line. Michigan likes promoting from within, as it did with Gary Moeller and Lloyd Carr after Bo Schembechler retired. The program went off track in replacing Carr with Rich Rodriguez, and the whole Harbaugh era was a way of correcting that mistake. It would have taken a really compelling candidate to make Michigan look outside the family when Harbaugh left.

That being said, if Moore hadn’t gotten the three-game test run in November, there would have been more pressure on Michigan to conduct a full search rather than the abbreviated process that led to Moore’s promotion. Perhaps that process would have revealed a candidate who made Michigan think twice about promoting Moore. Based on who was available at that time, I’m guessing Moore would have gotten the job either way. But those wins against Penn State and Ohio State made it a much easier call.

Tony Garcia, The Detroit Free Press: This 2024 Michigan vs. Michigan State football game has more juice than you think

This is U-M’s swing game: A win would eliminate the “sky is falling” sense in Ann Arbor, and put the Wolverines one win from bowl eligibility. Next week’s game vs. No. 1 Oregon would get a lot of added juice. A victory would keep Paul Bunyan in Schembechler Hall for a third consecutive season for the first time since U-M won six straight rivalry games from 2002-07. However, should MSU come to Ann Arbor and triumph, not only would Smith become only the third MSU coach to win his first game in the rivalry (Saban in 1995, Mel Tucker in 2020), but U-M would have gone all of October without a win — an unthinkable possibility in the summer. U-M is likely to be favored in only one of its final four games — at home vs. Northwestern — meaning it would need at least one upset just to make a bowl. A loss could put the Wolverines on trajectory to be the worst BCS or CFP defending champion (dating to 1999). The difference with a win or loss feels monumental.

Scott Dochterman, The Athletic: Checking in on Big Ten’s first coast-to-coast season: Does conference have concerns?

Last fall, the Big Ten announced opponent rotation through the 2028 season. Next fall, there are several high-profile matchups between the Big Ten newcomers and the holdovers. Among them include Michigan at USC, Oregon at Penn State, Washington at Michigan, Ohio State at Washington, Oregon at Iowa, Indiana at Oregon, USC at Nebraska and USC at Illinois.

Some of the other non-permanent rivalry games expected to attract attention include Penn State at Ohio State, Michigan at Nebraska, Penn State at Iowa, Penn State at Michigan State, Wisconsin at Michigan and Ohio State at Wisconsin. Of course, there’s always Ohio State at Michigan.

For the second consecutive year, the 2025 schedule consists of 14 weeks with two byes. The first weekend opens Aug. 30 and concludes Nov. 29.

“The placement of the byes relative to home-and-road games, Friday games, especially as conference play started up, we’re able to kind of track on what works better for schools than maybe what they originally thought and vice versa,” Kenny said.

“It’ll be a little bit of real-time feedback for the ’25 schedule — not setting a specific date to when that’ll be done — just to make sure that we are being comprehensive in how we look at that for next year.”