Understanding The MSU/U-M Rivalry

Oct. 14, 2015

By Steve Grinczel, MSUSpartans.com Online Columnist | @GrinzOnGreen

EAST LANSING, Mich. â€" With the possible exception of a Bullough, Michigan State football players aren't necessarily born with a visceral reaction to "blue and maize," the color scheme of the Spartans' chief rival as described by middle linebacker Riley Bullough.

But even if they have absolutely no knowledge of the time Michigan quarterback Tommy Hughitt ran 20 yards out of his way to land with both knees on Blake Miller's neck, knocking the Michigan Agricultural College star unconscious for three hours, it comes.

They may not understand why the ambivalence and acrimony that bonds the two schools is rooted in the Michigan-led opposition to Michigan State joining the Big Ten in the 1920s, '30s and '40s, but those ancient sentiments take hold instinctually.

Today's fifth-year Spartan seniors might even question what the fuss about MSU-Michigan is all about? After all, they're taking a 3-1 personal record into Saturday's game road game against the Wolverines. But they know, just as the 10th-graders who aspire to wear green and white because those are the colors worn by the team that has dominated the in-state rivalry since they started liking football at the age of 8 or 9, will as well.

It's the big and little things added up over time that turned the MSU-Michigan rivalry into an annual war of two distinct worlds located roughly 60 miles apart.

It's Hughitt not getting so much as a stern look from the referee. It's Michigan convincing its conference allies Michigan State shouldn't be admitted to the league because it would be a "weak sister" and a Wolverine running back referring to the Spartans as "little brother" after a fortuitous Michigan win six decades later.

It's dropping from No. 2 in the nation to No. 7 despite a 6-0 record, and being listed as an underdog to a 5-1 team that has risen from the unranked to No. 12, as happens to be the respective cases of MSU and U-M.

Bullough, a red-shirt junior, has his bloodlines to thank for his natural feelings for the Wolverines.

His grandfather, Henry, played on those so-called undeserving Michigan State teams after its membership in the Big Ten was ratified in 1949. He was sophomore on the Spartans' last team that played as an independent, winning a second-straight National Championship with a second-consecutive undefeated record in '52. As a two-way standout in Michigan State's first season of Big Ten play, Henry helped the No. 4 Spartans defeat Michigan, 14-6, win a share of the 1953 Big Ten Championship and beat UCLA in the Rose Bowl.

Bullough's father, Shane, faced U-M four times as a linebacker from 1983-86 and in '84 watched unheralded recruit Bobby Morse shock the world with an 87-yard punt return that broke open a 19-7 victory against the Wolverines. Riley Bullough's uncle Chuck, also a middle linebacker, helped the unranked and unheralded Spartans beat Michigan, 28-27, in the battle of "No One vs. No. 1" en route to the 1990 Big Ten title. And older brother Max improved to 3-1 against the Wolverines with a 29-6 victory during a senior season in 2013 that culminated with Big Ten and Rose Bowl Championships.

All told, the Bulloughs are 9-8 against Michigan.

"You know, growing up, it's kinda crazy in this state, especially for my family," said Riley Bullough, a native of Traverse City. "It's not you're a Michigan or Michigan State fan, you literally identify yourself as part of the blue and maize or the green and white. That's your identity, that's your everything. Some people don't really understand that, (who) aren't from around here, but I certainly do.

"I think the guys on our team start to understand that as they play in this game. So, you know, it's important, and I think we're going to lay it down on the line this week."

Not that it would be any different if both teams were winless, or if one were chasing championships and the other limping through another mediocre season.

However, this year's matchup features an added dimension rarely seen â€" both teams are good at the same time.

Michigan State is in pursuit of another double-digit win total to add to the four it has achieved in the last five seasons under ninth-year head coach Mark Dantonio, while Michigan is out to prove its resurgence under first-year coach Jim Harbaugh is legit.

Injuries, which have plagued MSU since preseason camp, and the possibility of an overinflated sense of worth, which Michigan will learn soon enough if has or doesn't have, will not be accepted as an excuse from the loser â€" not that alibis haven't been proffered in the past. Michigan State fifth-year senior quarterback Connor Cook said a player realizes there's something markedly different about the game the instant he enters the arena and becomes a part of it.

"Coach usually says you don't have to say anything about it," Cook said. "As soon as you are out there for warm-ups, you kinda feel it. The attitude, the emotion, there is just something in the air that you get, that you feel playing against Michigan.

"It's very intense. There is a lot of emotion, there is a lot of heart that goes into this game, and just starting out and going out there and feeling it, smelling the air, all that stuff, it runs through your body, runs through your veins and you just get more pumped up than you would for any other opponent."

Midway through the season, Dantonio is still looking for the Spartans to play their best game. He's seen flashes of what they capable of doing, but if anyone can get it out of them on a consistent basis, it's the Wolverines.

"We've played well, but then something happens," he said. "We've been ahead, and then something happens, and they catch up, or whatever the case. So we have not played perfect football games, but we have the ability to do that.

"What we have to do is go down there and play well. We have to play well. Sometimes mistakes get magnified when you lose or mistakes get magnified when you are expected to win by a bigger score. So you've just got to figure it out and play."

As he prepares for his first visit to Michigan Stadium as MSU's starting quarterback, Cook is "visualizing" successful plays in what he knows will be a hostile environment. A player can be defined by this game, and something about him, good or bad, can be revealed.

"There are just things that happen in a game like that where it wouldn't usually happen in a regular game," Cook said. "There is more hype, more energy, the crowd is more into it, and guys start to unveil talent that they usually wouldn't unveil in certain situations. And guys â€" certain guys â€" rise to the occasion and more guys can emerge in situations like this.

"Everyone raises their playing level, and you start making plays that you usually wouldn't make in just a normal game."

Fifth-year senior offensive lineman Donavon Clark made his first career start for the Spartans as a red-shirt freshman at Michigan in 2012. MSU lost, 12-10, despite not allowing a touchdown, but the game provided a turning point in his career.

"Once you get out there for your first time, it's like a different atmosphere that you feel," Clark said. "It's a different type of game.

"I remember that Thursday before we left on that Friday, (offensive line coach Mark Staten) told me before the meeting started, he pulled me out and said, ‘Donavon, you're about to get your first start,' and everything," Clark said. "So I was a little nervous at first, but at the same time, I did what I had to do and ever since then I've been able to just develop on and off the field."

What the Spartans don't find different is way the two teams are being perceived going into the game.

"It happens every year," Clark said. "They get talked about a lot, but I mean, that doesn't really matter. We have to make sure we go out there and play our game."

In 1913, MAC lost its best player to an injury after he gained 8 yards on a fake punt against the Wolverines in Ann Arbor just before halftime. When Blake Miller finally awoke in the hospital from the blow delivered by U-M's Tommy Hughitt, he found out that his brother, Hewitt, scored the decisive touchdown on a 46-yard fumble return early in the third quarter. Then, in the game's waning seconds, Hewitt secured the 12-7 victory by knocking the ball out of Michigan receiver's hands with a bone-crushing hit at the goal line.

It was Michigan State's first win against the Wolverines, and the rivalry has been the same ever since.