Michigan State hadn’t won a Big Ten game all season. It hadn’t beaten Michigan since 2021.
But on Saturday night in Ann Arbor, it did both, grinding out a 15-6 win at Michigan Stadium to take the Paul Bunyan Trophy back to East Lansing.
However, the first thing Pat Fitzgerald wanted to talk about after the game wasn’t the defense or how their kicker had the game of his life.
Instead, it was the handshake line.
“Go over and shake their hands and handle it the right way,” Fitzgerald said after the game, describing what he had told his team. “I did see, when I looked over to the left, that some guys didn’t do that.”
Fitzgerald didn’t name the players. He did make it clear the moment won’t get lost in the glow of an important rivalry win.
“That will be addressed tomorrow or Monday when we get together,” Fitzgerald said. “Because that’s kind of the whole point that I’m trying to make. It’s not what you do some of the time. It’s what you do all the time.”
He tied it to the standard he’s trying to build in his first year in East Lansing.
“We wanted to act like we’ve been here before and treat the rivalry with the respect it deserved,” Fitzgerald said. “We want to be the most disciplined football team in the Big Ten. We’re just not there yet. There were some things tonight that were unacceptable from our behavior. But we’re learning, and we’re growing, and we’re maturing.”
The win came from on the heels of a defense that has been decimated with injuries, and the steady leg of their kicker. Michigan State never punched on in the end zone, and Liam Boyd made five field goals.
Defensive coordinator Joe Rossi and the Spartan defense forced four turnovers, had five sacks and held Kyle Whittingham’s Michigan offense to 192 total yards. On the offensive side of things, quarterback Alessio Milivojevic was listed as questionable for the game, and ended up playing through a broken thumb.
The victory snapped a four-game losing streak to Michigan and a six-game skid overall. Michigan State is now 3-6, and 1-5 in Big Ten play.
Fitzgerald used his biggest win in East Lansing to make a point about the program's new standards. Any coach who has had to deal with immature behavior after a big win can learn from that.
The habits you tolerate on your best night are the ones that show up on your worst.
Stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.
Pat Fitzgerald said that he called a timeout with a minute to go to remind his players how he wanted them to finish the game. It didn't happen exactly how he wanted it to, and he's going to address it. pic.twitter.com/xEpnYadAKT
— David Harns (@DavidHarns) November 8, 2026