Washington and Michigan State had different emotional experiences last week and likely will be in different states of mind when they collide Saturday in East Lansing, Mich.
Michigan State earned a win that felt like 10 victories when it posted a 15-6 triumph at Michigan, snapping a four-game losing streak in the rivalry.
The win galvanized a fan base that has seen the Spartans (3-6, 1-5 Big Ten) go through a rough four seasons, and Michigan State hopes to ride that momentum to success in the last three games this season.
Alessio Milivojevic (188 passing yards) and Brandon Tullis (86 rushing yards) fueled the Spartans’ offense, but Liam Boyd was the hero by making all five of his field-goal attempts.
Michigan State coach Pat Fitzgerald said it’s important to move on from that win and focus on Washington.
“It’s rat poison if you allow it to be,” he said. “We moved on. The guys were great (Monday) morning. We had a really focused workout.”
Michigan State is looking for its first home conference win of the season after falling in its stadium to Nebraska, Illinois and Northwestern.
“It’s a new life lesson of being able to let go of success, understand why that happened, and then moving forward and getting ready for a very good Washington football team,” Fitzgerald said.
Washington won’t be riding a positive wave like Michigan State, given the Huskies are coming off a 28-25 home loss to Penn State last week. The Huskies fell behind 28-6 at halftime before seeing a second-half rally fall short.
If there is a silver lining for the Huskies, it’s that they will be on the road. While Washington has lost three home games in Big Ten play this year, it is 2-1 away from Seattle in league play with wins at Purdue and Nebraska.
“Another Big Ten team that’s big and physical,” Washington coach Jedd Fisch said of Michigan State. “They play good defense and played really good defense this past week against Michigan. We’ll have our work cut out for us.”
Demond Williams Jr. made his first start at quarterback since Oct. 9 after recovering from a rib injury and threw for 172 yards and two touchdowns with one interception against Penn State.
–Field Level Media
