Mike Valenti Issues Warning To U-M Fans: 'Don't Be There' When Spartans Host Wolverines
The annual rivalry game between Michigan State and Michigan reached a boiling point last season when a scrum involving multiple players occurred inside the Michigan Stadium tunnel.
While this game is always circled on the calendar when a new season approaches, the 2023 rendition of the Battle for Paul Bunyan might as well have neon lights and flashing signs attached to it. The disdain between the two programs, and the two fanbases, has never burned hotter than it does right now.
Adding to the hype, anticipation, and perhaps apprehension surrounding this year's game is the fact that alcohol can now be served inside Spartan Stadium, and the game will take place at night with a 7:30 p.m. kickoff after a long day of tailgating by both fanbases.
Radio talk show host and Michigan State alum Mike Valenti of 97.1 The Ticket, one of the most well-known voices across the state, had a strong opinion on this game being played at night in East Lansing. Valenti issued a warning to Michigan fans considering attending the game in person.
"Friendly advice if you're a Michigan fan — don't be there," Valenti said. "Don't be there. Don't bring the women and children. Don't show up in your egregious butter-themed T-shirt garb. Don't be there. It's the equivalent of playing stupid games and winning stupid prizes. That is going to be arguably the most hostile environment this rivalry's ever had — ever. It will be a tinder box.
"Don't be there. Find something else to do, somewhere other than East Lansing. I would never, if I were a Michigan fan, be at that game. Because, there's decent odds you'll be eating a battery. I don't condone it, I'm not telling people to behave that way, but I know what Spartan fans are feeling and how that's going to go down after what happened last year and how MSU got railroaded. That is not a place to be. Don't bring the kids."
This week at Big Ten Media Days, MSU head coach Mel Tucker was asked if there was a way to 'rein in' the rivalry and qualm some of the hostility that occurred in recent years.
“What do you mean reined in? How do you rein it in? I don’t know how you do that," Tucker said. "There’s not a day that’s gone by that I haven’t heard something about that game. I mean, every day of my life I hear about that game. So, I don’t know how you rein that in. It just is what it is.”
While Tucker called the events which occurred in the tunnel last year "unacceptable" at the time, and issued immediate suspensions to eight MSU players involved, the incident which occurred will not impact the Spartans' approach to the rivalry game.
“From the day I got here, in my initial press conference, I’m not shying away from the challenge of the rivalry," Tucker said. "It’s the biggest game of the year for us. And it’s always going to be like that as long as I’m the coach here.”
Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh was called for "mutual respect" between the two rivals at Big Ten Media Days following the events of the season prior.
“We have that for Michigan State, mutual respect,” Harbaugh said. “And it is great competition.”
Asked whether or not he believes the Spartans reciprocated mutual respect to the Wolverines, Harbaugh replied: "That's unknowable for me to know that." Harbaugh said he and Tucker have not spoken since the tunnel incident last October.
While the scrum inside the tunnel was the first major dustup between the programs since Tucker was hired by MSU, another incident occurred between the rivals under Harbaugh and former Spartan head coach Mark Dantonio in 2018. That year, Michigan linebacker Devin Bush and a handful of other Wolverines got caught up in the middle of MSU's traditional pregame march on the field at Spartan Stadium.
After words were exchanged between Bush and a few Spartans, the Wolverine linebacker went to midfield and cleated up Michigan State's logo at midfield, which then needed repair by MSU's ground crew.
"It's going to be really, really ugly," Valenti continued on his radio broadcast discussing this year's game. "You know what going to that game is the equivalent of if you're a Michigan fan? Doing dirt-cheap coke. You run into some fentanyl, that's on you. Don't be there. There's going to be fights, there's going to be nastiness, there's going to be stuff you don't want your kid around or your wife around."
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