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In 2022, the Michigan Wolverines and Michigan State Spartans got into a massive brawl in the tunnel of Michigan Stadium that led to a criminal investigation.
Two years later, the teams were back at each other’s throats after the Wolverines’ 24-17 victory Saturday night in the battle for the Paul Bunyan Trophy.
As the Wolverines were kneeling out the clock, a Spartans player grabbed Michigan star tight end Colston Loveland by the helmet. Michigan running back Kalel Mullings responded with a shove to the face, leading to both benches emptying.
Michigan State lost the game and wanted to pick a fight with Michigan
— Unnecessary Roughness (@UnnecRoughness) October 27, 2024
Both Head Coaches Denounce Michigan-Michigan State Brawl
After the game, Loveland chalked up the incident to “lil’ bro stay doing lil’ bro things.”
“That’s disappointing,” Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore said of the altercation on the NBC broadcast. “That’s not what Michigan football is all about. That’s not how we represent our program, this university. That’s uncalled for. That will be dealt with and handled. But that’s just very disappointing that our football team was a part of that.”
But he didn’t let it overshadow the victory, which his team dearly needed.
“It means a lot,” Moore said. “This rivalry is huge in this state. You talk about 365 days a year you think about this rivalry. So to watch these guys go out there and fight. Started slow on offense, and I thought our defense responded a lot throughout the game. But I thought these guys fought their tails off.”
Spartans’ head coach Jonathan Smith had a similar view of things.
“I experienced this rivalry, it’s passionate, neither side likes each other, it’s frustrating,” he said.
The win moves Michigan to 5-3 in Moore’s debut season. The first-year head coach took over after spending the previous three seasons as the Wolverines’ offensive coordinator under head coach Jim Harbaugh.