Four? For the love of cool unis

Could it really be? Could a group of football players graduate from the University of Michigan without beating their in-state rivals even once?

Well, unless there's a red shirt or med school involved, the answer is an unfortunate "yes".

Yesterday the Wolverines tasted defeat for the first time, in the most hospitable of confines, smoke-stack-less Spartan Stadium. Under-rated and under-appreciated #23 Michigan State used two key mistakes to turn a stalemate into check mate and ink a fourth straight "L" into the Wolverine record books with a 28-14 win over 11th-ranked Michigan.

For the second straight season the Spartans did what few defenses have been able to do even once: make laceless quarterback Denard Robinson look like a typical quarterback. The junior blur was held to just 165 yards of total offense, barely more than half his season average of 308. Michigan State nearly equalled Robinson's numbers in penalties alone, getting flagged 13 times for 124 yards--including an alarming six personal fouls.

But what did in the white-on-white Wolverines, who wore white pants for the first time in 36 years (see photo of freshman Rick Leach, who also spent an afternoon eluding Spartan defenders during Michigan's 16-6 win in 1975) were two costly errors at two key moments in the contest. First, an ill-executed and questionable fourth down play inside the MSU 10-yard line. And second, a play in which quarterback Denard Robinson succeeded to make something happen, just not for the maize and blue. And white.

In Mistake #1, the Wolverines trailed 14-7 early in the fourth quarter and faced fourth and 1 from inside the Spartan 10-yard line. Michigan State cornerback Johnny Adams blew up the play, first timing the snap, then seeing through Robinson's fake handoff and dropping Michigan's signal-caller for a 10-yard sack, one of seven for 62 yards on the day.

As deflating as that was, Mistake #2 was downright demoralizing.

With less than five minutes remaining and the Wolverines within seven, a scrambling Robinson was met by Allen and his sophomore counterpart, linebacker Max Bullough. Just beforehand, he dished the ball into the awaiting arms of Spartan safety Isaiah Lewis, who never broke stride as he sprinted 39 yards for what would become the final point os the day.

Spartan stalwart Edwin Baker was the star on this sunny afternoon, blasting for 167 yards on 20 carries as once again, the school with the advantage on the ground (MSU, 213-82) emerged victorious. enior quarterback Kirk Cousins (see my pic) outperformed his modest statistics with touchdown passes on third downs, the second a 13-yard strike to wideout Keshawn Martin to grow the MSU lead to 21-7.

On a day where the most visible clash was Nike Combat versus Adidas Classic Throwback, the school in the strange green, gold and black unis took care of the school in the all-white, blue and yellow striped unis. Underneath it all, unfortunately, the result on the field wasn't all that unfamiliar. From where I sat in the stands, I could swear the wooden likeness of Paul Bunyan is even wearing combat green.