Last year after losing to Michigan, first-year Michigan State football coach Jonathan Smith admitted that he didn’t quite know how intense “this sucker” was.
Smith talked about how he wanted to win “that thing” but that he wasn’t truly aware of how intense it was until he coached in it, and how much it meant to the fans and former players. To him, this was prepared for as slightly more than just another game, but the reason Mark Dantonio had so much success against the Wolverines was because he treated it like the game.