With two new head coaches on the sidelines for this year’s Michigan-Michigan rivalry, there was a general belief that much of the toxicity that plagued this annual state meet would dissipate in 2024.

For the most part, that was true during the Wolverines’ 24-17 win over the Spartans on Saturday night, but 59 minutes and 30 seconds of good, hard-hitting football was marred in the final 30 seconds of the game. After Michigan knelt for the final time, 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 Michigan Stadium field.

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

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

“Yes, a little bit, I saw it from the other side of the field. It’s an emotional game. And yes, you don’t like to finish it that way. Especially before the football match itself, I thought it was like that was.” “I think the boys played really hard and I thought it was a pretty clean game, so it’s hard to finish that way.”

This latest postgame incident adds to a growing list of clashes between these two programs in recent years, including the now infamous tunnel incident in 2022, the last time Michigan hosted Michigan State in the Big House. The Wolverines and Spartans will have to wait another 365 days before renewing their rivalry in East Lansing next season, but hopefully Moore and Smith will be able to turn around the woes of this series in the coming year.

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