This Saturday is the renewal of one of the best rivalries in college football: Michigan vs Michigan State. It will be the 113th meeting between the two schools, and while the two teams appear to be on different paths this season, the hatred for one another will be at an all time high. Michigan enters this game ranked 13th in the country coming off an impressive 49-24 win over Minnesota last weekend. Meanwhile, Michigan State is coming off an embarrassing  38-27 loss to Rutgers, where the Spartans committed 7 turnovers to a Rutgers team that hadn’t won a conference game since 2017.

While Michigan enters the game as a heavy favorite with the spread currently at -24.5, it wouldn’t be out character for the Spartans to play spoiler. Since 1990 Michigan State has upset the Wolverines 7  times, including the “no call” on Desmond Howard in 1990, and in 2015 when Michigan punter Blake O’Neill had trouble with the snap. This year is also the first time the Wolverines will be without their biggest home advantage: the fans. Due to the new safety measures put in place by the Big Ten, only family of the players will be allowed inside the stadium for all Big Ten teams, but this especially hurts teams like Michigan who is used to packing over 100,000 people inside the Big House every Saturday. The odds are still against the Spartans especially since only one head coach has beaten Michigan in their first game, and that was Mel Tucker’s mentor, Nick Saban in 1995. The Wolverines probably have more talent than Michigan State at every position, but that hasn’t stopped them before. This game is everything for the Spartans this season, while Michigan has bigger and better things ahead like Ohio State. So don’t be surprised if the Spartans give Michigan a scare on Halloween, and give them a result that could haunt their season.