Eric Thomas: Little Brother Got a Running Game
Michigan fans often shamed Michigan State fans with football. Michigan's storied football program long overshadowed the Spartans, with far more Big Ten titles and national championships.
Bo, Mo, and Lloyd were gods in the mitten while the others have just been pretenders on their way to better jobs. Every time Michigan beat Michigan State, it was the expected outcome. If State somehow pulled it off, it must have been the result of Sparty Bob meddling or Jeff Smoker miracles. Michigan is better and the sun also rises in the east.
Sorry Michigan fans that is not the case anymore. You are not the dominant program in the state. The fact that you even attempt to debate it proves you have trouble accepting reality. You sound like an Al Bundy, pathetically warbling on about past glories after time has rendered them meaningless.
You are not the champion, and haven't been for a while. You have no claim to the belt, so stop acting like you do. Football has no birthright. You gotta earn it, and the Spartans have earned it. The Paul Bunyan trophy is safe in East Lansing, getting coffee on Grand River Ave., and picking up girls at The Riv. They have beaten you in three straight contests. Once is a fluke, two is a trend and three is a dynasty. It's not like Michigan State has squeaked out a victory in the last three meetings, either. They were all thrashings and two were at your house.
Michigan State has bested Michigan by every metric in the past three years. The Spartans had not won back-to-back games since Bubba Smith until Rich Rod came to town. Deservedly, much of the credit goes to Mark Dantonio, but honorable mention goes to the Michigan Wolverine fan base.
I know it's been three years, but I still submit that the most arrogant and detestable move in the history of Michigan sports was running Lloyd Carr out of town for losing to Appalachian State and Oregon. It stands as one of the most despicable acts in the history of college sports.
Coaches who have won a national title don't get fired for one bad season, but for some reason, in this case, it happened. Only Michigan would take the tact of "he only won one national title, and it was shared," and that attitude is garbage. By the end of the season Lloyd had the whole "spread offense" thing figured out in the Orange Bowl. Perhaps the biggest irony of the Rich Rod era was his personality perfectly reflected the attitude that brought him: Arrogant, misguided and feckless.
I know I am opening a wound for Michigan fans here, but it's the truth. You can't stomp around, crowing about how dominant you are until you beat Michigan State. Remember, Lloyd was bounced for "losing to Ohio State", and Rich Rod responded by losing to Ohio State AND Michigan State three straight times.
If you are a Michigan fan and these words anger you, and then do something about it. Perhaps if Brady Hoke loses a fluke game to a Cinderella team you will take it for the anomaly it is and not scream and yell until your coach leaves town. The last three years were brutal, but I think it was a teachable moment. I hope Michigan fans have absorbed that teachable moment before they become Notre Dame.
Fortunately for Michigan fans, you have a chance to settle the score. You have a chance to redeem yourself. Who is the best football school in the state? The good news is we get to settle it once a year. This is the argument, and to the victor goes the spoils. Put up or shut up. No one cares about Fielding Yost or Biggie Munn got. Who is the best football school in Michigan today? Not tomorrow, today.
If you want to be the man......... you've got to beat the man. So who's the man?
