You could feel it walking into Michigan Stadium a couple hours before the game Saturday afternoon, zigging and zagging through the maize-and-blue crowd. No one was worried.
It felt like old times in Ann Arbor, and that everyone knew Michigan State was no longer good enough to compete.
Not this year. Maybe not for a while.
Whatever else we say about the 44-10 drubbing Michigan football handed to MSU — the worst beatdown since 2002 — we can say that the dynamic of the rivalry is shifting.