Michigan State and head coach Mark Dantonio are responsible for 40 percent of Urban Meyer’s losses at Ohio State.
It’s become somewhat of a thing, this annual battle between the Spartans and Buckeyes, for Big Ten supremacy. Each has had a tendency to ruin something for the other every time they meet on the field.
This season, it’s only Ohio State that has something to lose, however. Michigan State is 3-7 and just picked up its first Big Ten win of the season while the Buckeyes sit at 9-1 and still have aspirations of a Big Ten championship and a College Football Playoff berth.
On paper, Ohio State should win in a landslide. But Dantonio is the one coach in the Big Ten to give Meyer’s team fits his first four seasons, so despite a massive talent gap, Saturday’s matchup in East Lansing is intriguing.
“We’re not the only ones they’ve given problems to,” Meyer said Monday during his weekly press conference. “They’ve won a lot of games, what is it, our fifth year here?”
With Michigan looming next weekend, Ohio State must not overlook the team that’s given it the most trouble these last few years in favor of its bigger rivalry game. The Buckeyes say that won’t be an issue as all that need said are the two words ‘Michigan State’ and you have their attention.
“All focus and laser lights are on a team that we know very well, have a lot of respect for, excellent players, great coaches,” Meyer said. “We’re going to do our very best to perform well on the road.”
It’s been a fun new-age rivalry in the Big Ten, Ohio State and Michigan State. What follows is a breakdown of the four previous matchups between the Buckeyes and Spartans in the Meyer–Dantonio era.
2012 – Ohio State 17, Michigan State 16
It was Meyer’s first season in Columbus and Ohio State traveled north with a 4-0 record, but the Buckeyes were a three-point underdog against the Spartans.
Behind 315 total yards — 179 passing, 136 rushing — from quarterback Braxton Miller, Ohio State earned its first signature Big Ten win under Meyer. Miller hooked up with Devin Smith for a 63-yard touchdown in the third quarter to put the Buckeyes ahead 17-13 and the Spartans could not mount a comeback.
Ohio State, of course, went on to finish the season 12-0 but could not play for the Big Ten or national championship due to sanctions stemming from the Jim Tressel era. Michigan State finished the season just 7-6.
2013 B1G Title game – Michigan State 34, Ohio State 24
The following year, the two teams met with something much larger on the line: a Big Ten championship.
In Indianapolis, 10th-ranked Michigan State stunned No. 2-ranked Ohio State as it jumped out to an early 17-0 advantage before the Buckeyes stormed back to take a 24-17 lead with 5 minutes, 36 seconds left in the third quarter on a 6-yard run by Miller.
But the Spartans scored the game’s final 17 points, and with a 27-24 lead and just over two minutes to play, Jeremy Langford scored the backbreaking touchdown for Michigan State on a 26-yard run. The win sent the Spartans to the Rose Bowl where they knocked off Stanford.
Ohio State had its 24-game winning streak snapped and its national championship dreams dashed that night by Michigan State. The Buckeyes settled for an Orange Bowl bid as Florida State played Auburn for the national title. Ohio State fell to Clemson in Miami, 40-35.
2014 – Ohio State 49, Michigan State 37
The Buckeyes would get their revenge the following season in East Lansing as, once again, they traveled north as underdogs to face the eighth-ranked Spartans. J.T. Barrett had his national coming out party and No. 14 Ohio State vaulted itself back into the College Football Playoff conversation after a Week 2 loss to Virginia Tech.
Barrett threw for 300 yards, accounted for five touchdowns and the Buckeyes racked up 568 yards of total offense against a Michigan State defense that entered the game as one of the best in all of college football. Ohio State scored at will and led 49-31 at one point late in the fourth quarter before the Spartans added a meaningless touchdown to make the final score look closer than it was.
We all know what happened after that. The Buckeyes indeed went on to win the Big Ten title and qualify for the College Football Playoff. Victories there over Alabama and Oregon gave Ohio State its first national championship since 2002.
Michigan State bounced back strong to finish the season 11-2. The Spartans beat Baylor in the Cotton Bowl, 42-41.
2015 – Michigan State 17, Ohio State 14
It was the Spartans who got their own version of revenge one year later. Michigan State stunned Ohio State on a cold, damp evening in Columbus and it did so without star quarterback Connor Cook.
The Spartans did not lead the entire game until Michael Geiger connected on a 41-yard field goal as time expired. The Ohio Stadium crowd fell silent and then Geiger celebrated with the windmill heard around the world.
Once again, Ohio State’s national championship dreams were dashed by the Spartans for the second time in three seasons. Michigan State, not Ohio State, went on to play for — and win — the Big Ten championship and it was the Spartans who made the College Football Playoff. Alabama rolled Michigan State, however, by a final score of 38-0. Ohio State settled for a 44-28 victory over Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl.
So yeah, there’s a bit of history between these two teams in the Meyer-Dantonio era. It has been a battle in every one of the four prior meetings with the underdog winning each time.
Ohio State is a 22.5-point favorite Saturday against this particular Michigan State team, which sits at an uncharacteristic 3-7 on the season and just 1-6 in the Big Ten. But don’t tell Meyer that. He’s expecting another championship-type game.
“We just look at how Michigan State is and how they have been in the past and we’ve got a lot of respect for them,” Meyer said Tuesday. “That’s how we’re going to practice this week.”
