Wolverine Digest

Michigan's Sherrone Moore, MSU's Jonathan Smith react to postgame skirmish

The Wolverines and Spartans played a mostly clean rivalry game on Saturday, but that was marred by an ugly finish on the final play...

Matt Lounsberry

Michigan Wolverines and Michigan State Spartans players fight after the game at Michigan Stadium.
Michigan Wolverines and Michigan State Spartans players fight after the game at Michigan Stadium. / Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images
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With two new head coaches on the sidelines for this year's Michigan-Michigan State rivalry game, there was a general belief that much of the toxicity that has plagued this annual in-state meeting would dissipate in 2024.

For the most part that was true during the Wolverines' 24-17 victory over the Spartans on Saturday night, but 59 minutes and 30 seconds of good, hard-nosed football was marred in the final 30 seconds of the contest. After Michigan's final kneel down, Wolverine tight end Colston Loveland and MSU defensive lineman Anthony Jones shared some pushing and shoving, and verbal barbs before a full-on physical altercation ensued on the field at Michigan Stadium.

At their respective postgame press conferences, Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore and Michigan State head coach Jonathan Smith reacted to the skirmish to end the game:

U-M's Sherrone Moore:

"I told the team it’s unacceptable, regardless of what happened and how it started. There’s guys chirping at us and us responding. And the guy headbutted Colston at the end, and our job is to represent this university, not to respond to that. It's to let the refs handle that. So something that we’ll handle internally and make sure we take care of. But that’s not Michigan football. That’s not who we are."

MSU's Jonathan Smith:

"Yeah, a little bit, I saw it on the other side of the field. It’s emotional game. And, yeah, you don’t love finishing it kind of that way. Especially, I thought for the football game itself, it was physical. I think guys were playing really hard, and I thought it was a pretty clean game, so it’s tough to finish that way."

This latest postgame incident adds to what has been a growing list of run-ins between these two programs in recent years, including the now-infamous tunnel incident in 2022 the last time Michigan hosted Michigan State at the Big House. The Wolverines and Spartans will have to wait another 365 days before they renew the rivalry in East Lansing next season, but hopefully Moore and Smith will be successful in dialing back the nastiness of this series in the year's to come.

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Matt Lounsberry
MATT LOUNSBERRY

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