The temperature may be dropping and the holiday season may be creeping closer, but in Ann Arbor, the focus is locked on one thing: Michigan and Michigan State, and the 74th meeting for the trophy named after Paul Bunyan.
This is rivalry week, and the voices coming out of the Wolverines’ building make it clear the stakes don’t need any extra dressing up. For the players and coaches who are about to step into it, the message is simple: this one matters differently.
Hogan Hansen put it plainly when he talked about the weight of the matchup.
“Just think of the history, and really the magnitude of importance of this game,” Hansen said. “I think everybody in this building thinks that up until this point of the season, this is our biggest game, the state championship.
So I mean, it’s not really much that needs to be said for that motivation. Everyone knows what we need to do Saturday.”
Hansen has lived through this rivalry before, even if he hasn’t yet gotten on the field for it. He was part of the team for both the 2024 and 2025 games, and now he’s hoping his first chance to play in it comes with a win.
Eli Owens sees the matchup in the same hard-edged way.
“This is a game you have to win from both sides,” Owens said. “Like this is a game they have to win, but this is a game that we are going to win, and that’s just the mindset that we have, and that’s the mindset that they have as well.
And I think that is what makes this great football. When you have two teams that have a rivalry like we have with State, it’s memories and great games like they have been.
I can’t remember a Michigan-Michigan State football game that hasn’t been good.”
Owens was on the roster when Michigan took Paul Bunyan out of East Lansing last year, though he didn’t play in the game. This season, after already earning a couple starts in 2026, he’s looking for a different kind of role in the rivalry.
Evan Link said the game didn’t fully register for him until he actually took a snap in it.
“I think it didn’t really hit me until I had that first snap out there,” Link said. “As soon as that happened, I was like, ‘Oh, so this is how this works.’ And so I think guys will kind of start to feel it, and you’ll hear it from guys that have been in it.”
Link started at right tackle against Michigan State in 2024 and played snaps in 2025, so this will be his third straight appearance in the series.
On the defensive side, Trey Pierce is heading into his fourth straight year playing for Paul Bunyan, and his second straight as a starter. He had two tackles in last year’s game, and he’s eager for another crack at it.
“I’m excited,” Pierce said. “Rivalry game, and it’s a good opportunity for our team to go out there and show we can do something on a big stage.
Then there was Koy Detmer Jr., who didn’t bother softening the edge of the whole thing.
“I want to beat the hell out of them,” Detmer Jr. said.
That line captures the mood around this matchup as well as anything else. This is not a gentle rivalry, and the history between the two sides has only sharpened that feeling. The recent postgame skirmishes have made the point even clearer.
Michigan and Michigan State may both be dealing with disappointing seasons, but none of that changes what Saturday is about. For both teams, the mission is the same: beat the hell out of them.
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Michigan State Faces One Last Chance To Flip This Rivalry Mood
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For the Spartans, the timing could hardly be more delicate. They have dropped six straight and are still sorting through the status of their starting quarterback because of injury, which leaves a lot riding on how they respond in a game that means more than the standings suggest. Both programs and both coaches know the rivalry can reset a seasons conversation in a hurry, and Michigan State still has one last chance to change the tone before this one is over. [Read more 🡒]