By James Herold
On Oct. 21, 7-0 and No. 2 ranked University of Michigan traveled to East Lansing to face their biggest in-state rival, unranked 2-4 Michigan State University in a college football matchup at Spartan Stadium. Going into the game, Michigan was favored to win by 25 points, but the Wolverines ended up doubling the point spread and completely eliminated Spartan scoring opportunities, winning the game 49-0.
In the first quarter, with 8:50 left, Michigan running back Blake Corum found the end zone with a one-yard run. Michigan took the early 7-0 lead after the extra point kick.
Later in the first, Michigan struck again, this time a 25-yard pass from quarterback JJ McCarthy to wide receiver Roman Wilson. It was 14-0 Michigan after the extra point kick.
In the second quarter, Michigan tight end Colston Loveland found the end zone on a 22-yard pass from McCarthy, pushing the score to 21-0 Michigan after the extra point kick.
Later in the second, McCarthy and Loveland found the end zone once again on a 22-yard pass leaving some Spartans fans to leave early as the scoreboard displayed 28-0 Michigan after the extra point kick.
In the third, Michigan defensive back Mike Sainristil found the end zone on a 72-yard interception return. At this point Michigan led 35-0 after the extra point kick, sealing the game on offense and defense.
Later in the third, Michigan backup tight end AJ Barner would tack on more points for Michigan with a 11-yard passing touchdown from McCarthy, pushing the score to 42-0 Michigan after the extra point kick.
In the fourth, instead of kneeling in order to run out the clock, Michigan back-up quarterback Alex Orji had a six yard rushing touchdown giving Michigan the 48-0 lead with 8 seconds left. Michigan tacked on the extra point, later winning the game 49-0 in a huge shutout rout of Michigan State.
After the game, The Paul Bunyan Trophy was presented to the winning team, the Michigan Wolverines. This was a hard game for MSU to win given the strength on the Wolverine offense and weak Spartan defense complicated by the off the field distraction of Mel Tucker being fired over sexual harassment allegations.
This game was also wrapped in controversy for Michigan as the team was accused of stealing the in-game play signs of their previous opponents in a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) investigation. According to an article by ESPN, “People don’t like to see people be successful,” Michigan Head Coach Jim Harbaugh said. “There’s a target, yeah. Everybody has pointed that out from the beginning of the season, but our guys are very focused.”
In a postgame press conference, Michigan players met with the media to discuss their thoughts on the game. In response to whether they saw this as a complete game given the shutout, “We are not even close to our peak yet,” said Michigan Quarterback JJ McCarthy, adding “so many ways we can grow, so (much) more stuff on film I’m sure we going to see and learn from, so definitely not our complete game yet, but it’s coming.”
After a bye week, (a week off playing), now 8-0, No. 2 Michigan will face unranked 2-5 Purdue University in Ann Arbor on Nov 4. Game time is to be determined.
For unranked and 2-5 Michigan State next week, they will face unranked 4-3 University of Minnesota on Oct. 28, in Minneapolis. The game is scheduled for 3:30 p.m.
