2B — Monday, October 22, 2018 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com SportsMonday Saturday shows why Michigan, Michigan State rivalry is great During his weekly teleconference Sunday night, more than 24 hours after it happened, Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio was asked about Saturday’s pregame fracas between his team and Michigan. “I’m not gonna bother commenting on it,” Dantonio said. “The whole thing to me was sort of juvenile to me.” You can call it juvenile. You can call it bush league. You can call it B.S. Those are the words Dantonio and Jim Harbaugh used when talking about the incident. I don’t care how anyone describes it. What happened yesterday was amazing. This is the best rivalry that both teams have going for them right now. With the exception of 2016, every game in the series’ current chapter — Harbaugh vs. Dantonio — has been incredible and incredibly weird, at the same time. It makes for high-quality television. It makes for outstanding football games, no matter how sloppy they may get. But the previous three games were missing something. They were missing exactly what Dantonio thought was “sort of juvenile.” Let’s go back and examine what happened. Around two hours before the noon kickoff, a group of Michigan players were on the field stretching. Michigan spokesperson Dave Ablauf said that the Wolverines thought the Spartans would arrive for the team’s traditional pre-game walk at 9:50; hence why Michigan was on the field at 10, for the warm-ups before the warm-ups. We don’t know whether there was a miscommunication, but Michigan State did not arrive at 9:50. The Spartans arrived at 10 and began walking down the field with their arms locked and helmets strapped on at 10:02. Michigan’s players didn’t want to move. Michigan State kept walking. Which meant everyone else got to watch both teams play a weird version of Red Rover. Fifth-year senior defensive tackle Lawrence Marshall got into it with several Spartans. Sophomore cornerback Lavert Hill’s pair of very nice black headphones were not-so-nicely ripped off. Junior linebacker Devin Bush Jr. was held back as he yelled at Michigan State. Then, minutes later, he dug his cleats into the ground and mangled the Spartan logo at midfield. Damn. I haven’t even gotten to the game itself yet — which was an absolute doozy. There was a long weather delay. There were improbable completions off deflected balls. The bad weather came back. Michigan State paid homage to Nick Foles and the Philly Special. There was a one-handed snag by a punter, who proceeded to rip one for 60 yards. One offense heated up down the stretch. The other stayed cold all game. When the game ended, Michigan rushed the field — as if it had won a national championship, said Michigan State play-by- play announcer George Blaha during the live radio broadcast — and Bush did several backflips to celebrate his team’s 21-7 victory. Later, Harbaugh sat at a podium and made his “bush league” comment. In the room next door, someone relayed Harbaugh’s comments to Dantonio, who said, “That’s B.S. You heard me. That’s B.S.” “You guys get your cameras out,” he continued. “It’s all on Fox. I’m not gonna go to that. Go ahead, next question.” A few seconds later: “Bush league? Mmmhmm.” Like I said, incredible. We are back to where this rivalry was 11 years ago, when former Michigan running back Mike Hart called Michigan State “little brother” after winning his fourth consecutive game against the Spartans. Dantonio, then in his first year coaching the Spartans, hit back. “I find a lot of the things they do amusing. They need to check themselves sometimes. Let’s just remember, pride comes before the fall,” he said. “They want to mock us, I’m telling them, it’s not over. They want to print that crap all over their locker room, it’s not over and it’ll never be over. It’s just starting.” Then he coached Michigan State to six wins in the ensuing seven years leading up to Harbaugh’s arrival. In 2014, former Michigan linebacker Joe Bolden drove a stake through midfield. But that gesture felt hollow. The Spartans trounced the Wolverines that day, 35-11, and former Michigan coach Brady Hoke later apologized for what Bolden did. The series has been much closer since then. Both teams are now 2-2 in the past four years. No one is apologizing for anything. Let’s hear from fifth-year senior defensive end Chase Winovich: “We knew that they couldn’t hang with us. We did what he had to do. Sometimes your little brother starts acting up, and you just gotta put them in place.” After the game, he tweeted, “I’d like to take this moment to apologize...FOR ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! Go Blue!” These two teams hate each other, they have always hated each other and now they’re not going to bother trying to conceal it. That’s great. That’s how it should be. One team is going to spend the next year thinking about what went wrong Saturday. The other team is going to remember what went right for a very long time. Next year, they’ll do it all over again. Can’t wait. Sang can be reached at otsang@umich.edu or on Twitter at @orion_sang. KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily The Wolverines notched a 21-7 win over Michigan State in East Lansing on Saturday, their first win on the road over a ranked opponent since the 2006 season. ORION SANG FOOTBALL Pre-game antics fire up ‘M’ defense EAST LANSING — There was a bit of a show before the Michigan football team’s 21-7 win over No. 24 Michigan State. The details of it, however, are unclear. The Spartans did their usual pregame tradition, the “Spartan Walk,” in which each member of the team links arms and walks the length of the field. Senior safety Tyree Kinnel said Michigan State was late, and that the Wolverines had been given the go-ahead to warmup on the field. So when the Spartans began their walk, they ran into fifth-year senior defensive tackle Lawrence Marshall, junior corner Lavert Hill and junior linebacker Devin Bush. Neither side backed down. Michigan says Marshall was clotheslined and Hill had his headphones ripped off. Coach Jim Harbaugh says Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio was walking behind the team, smiling. Dantonio says that’s not true. It all culminated in Bush, standing on the midfield logo at Spartan Stadium and stomping repeatedly on the log, leaving a large, noticable mark in the middle of it.. “I just heard about it, I didn’t see it,” Harbaugh said. “… Total bush league. Apparently, Coach Dantonio was five yards behind and all smiling, so, yeah, I think it’s bush league. That’s my impression of it. But our guys, they didn’t blink. They didn’t come here to back down or get intimidated by anybody.” Added Bush: “It was pure emotion. I did what I did, and, you know, I can’t take it back, so it is what it is.” However you want to describe the pregame antics, and however you want to describe how it affected the game, the results speak for themselves. The Wolverines involved in the skirmish were all defenders, and the defense showed out. Michigan held the Spartans to 94 total yards. Michigan State quarterback Brian Lewerke went 5-for-25, throwing for just 66 yards. The Spartans went 0-for-12 on third-down conversions. They averaged just 1.8 yards per play, and they possessed the ball for 18:57, compared to the Wolverines, who held it for 41:03. The list goes on and on. “Our defense was lights-out today,” Harbaugh added. “Holding an opponent to 91 yards of total offense, and they were 0-for-12 on third-down conversions. I mean, that’s the kind of statistics you dream, as a dream game.” The defense was needed, too. For much of the afternoon, Michigan could get nothing going on offense. It squandered opportunities, and in the second half, it turned the ball over. In fact, the only time Michigan State scored was after junior running back Chris Evans coughed up the ball and the Spartans recovered on the 7-yard line. The Wolverines did make things interesting for themselves at the end of the game, on what turned out to be Michigan State’s final drive. The possession began with 2:38 left, and on the first four plays of the drive, Michigan committed a penalty, giving the Spartans some life and, eventually, the ball on the Wolverines’ 24-yard line. The next play, Bush screamed through the offensive line and sacked Michigan State backup quarterback Rocky Lombardi. The play after that, junior defensive tackle Michael Dwumfour did the same. Just like that, any hopes the Spartans had of getting back into things were snuffed out, once and for all. When the game ended, Michigan grabbed the Paul Bunyan Trophy and paraded around the field. Bush did a few backflips. It culminated in the Wolverines jumping up and down, holding the trophy above their heads on the midfield logo, the same spot Bush made his statement just a few hours earlier. “I mean, we won,” Bush said. “So, I mean, we’re gonna celebrate our win. We’re taking Paul home, and we let everybody know that.” Peoples-Jones’ touchdown changes Michigan’s trajectory EAST LANSING — Nico Collins and Donovan Peoples-Jones talked earlier in the week about their touchdown celebrations if they scored at Michigan State. It’s practically a weekly ritual for the sophomore wide receivers. The duo, thrusted into the spotlight as the team’s premier pass catchers, knows opportunities to find paydirt are more frequent than last season. But in a rivalry game, the conversation was quick — mimic the stance on the Paul Bunyan Trophy, the one that belongs to them. And on the season’s most perfect throw at the most critical juncture of the No. 6 Michigan football team’s 21-7 victory, Peoples-Jones did exactly that. The Wolverines and 24th-ranked Spartans were tied, 7-7, with 2:35 left in the third quarter. Positioned at the Michigan 21-yard line, Peoples- Jones pushed off Michigan State’s Tre Person in man coverage, and had a step on him streaking down the right sideline. “We had Donovan in one-on-one coverage, good luck with that,” said junior quarterback Shea Patterson, who finished with 212 yards and two touchdowns. “Just threw it up to him and he made a hell of a play after the catch.” With all the time in the world, and with Sean McKeon and Zach Gentry blanketed on mirrored out routes, Patterson stepped up and hit Peoples-Jones in stride. Patterson lunged, and Peoples-Jones kicked out of his grip to stroll into a 79-yard touchdown and the Bunyan stance. “From the start, the line did a great job of giving Shea time to deliver, which I think was the most perfect pass that he’s delivered,” Peoples-Jones said of his touchdown. Added coach Jim Harbaugh: “That was the huge one, the one to Donovan. That throw was really right on the money. Donovan did a great job at the line of scrimmage against the press coverage and created some space, then created more space after the release. Made a fabulous over the shoulder catch. “… That was a great time for that play to happen in the ball game.” The Wolverines, muffled from over-conservative play-calling and insufficient execution, were initially writing a story for another arm- wrestle with the Spartans. But the connection between Patterson and Peoples-Jones — the first true deep shot of the game — represented more than commanding a lead. After a laborious game that, up to that point, featured 16 punts, three fumbles and momentum in Michigan State’s favor, the pass signified all the differences a year can make. Patterson read his progressions comfortably behind a confident offensive line — one that senior running back Karan Higdon called the “best in the country” for the second straight week. Behind that line, Patterson was a capable thrower who can place a football with pinpoint accuracy. The touchdown deflated Michigan State, which struggled wire-to-wire to generate any offense of its own. It’s No. 1 rush defense in the country surrendered almost triple its per game average, with 144 of the yards belonging to Higdon. “We were motivated from the start,” Higdon said. “They were talking trash all week, we stayed quiet, stayed in our space and we knew what it was gonna be when we got here and we just elevated our enthusiasm.” It was a dogfight clouded with the revelry that this historic rivalry possesses, but with a difference- making touchdown that redefined the image of 2018 Michigan football. Following resounding wins over Michigan State and Wisconsin in back-to-back weeks, the noise of a team that doesn’t show up in big games was muted. It’s a credit to an unwavering defense that has shined each year of the Harbaugh era. And now, it’s also a credit to the Patterson-led offense that can air out the ball when it needs it most and succeed. “That was one of the most gritty games I’ve been a part of,” Patterson said. “The defense put us in good situations, they were playing lights out. That gave us confidence to stay within ourselves, so that when we get that moment to break through we’re not gonna give it back.” And with PeopleS-Jones’ touchdown, the Wolverines never relented. The Paul Bunyan Trophy turned from celebration to hardware returning to Ann Arbor. MIKE PERSAK Managing Sports Editor ETHAN WOLFE Daily Sports Writer ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily Wide reciever Donovan Peoples-Jones scored a touchdown on Saturday. “The whole thing to me was sort of juvenile...” “Sometimes your little brother starts acting up...”