With a dominating win Saturday, I was curious about the history of huge wins in the State series—meaning huge in terms of points, not significance.

Wins by 30 or more

Saturday was the 19th game Michigan has won by 30 or more points. By contrast, 1967 was the only game State has won by that many. The previous huge win was the 2002 game that ended Bobby Williams’ career at State. Before that, you have to go back to 1983 and 1985, at the start of George Perles’ coaching tenure. Bo had two additional huge wins over State, in 1973 and 1976. Only 1976 was actually in Ann Arbor, the other three are the only three huge wins in the series that happened in East Lansing.

Wins by 40 and up

Michigan has won 10 games by 40 or more (and none for State), though 1983 and 2002 are the only games since the 1940s. Michigan has only won four games by 50 or more, with none after the 1940s reaching that margin. Michigan has also won two games by 60 or more, and just Yost’s 1902 point-a-minute squad won by 100 or more, with a final score of 119-0.

Wins by 20 or more

Wins by 20 or more are more even, with Michigan winning 28 of those games and State winning 9. However, since Bo started, Michigan has only lost by that margin just twice, both under Brady Hoke (lest we forget how far Harbaugh has brought us).

Relation to State Coaching Changes

With the 2002 game decisively ending Bobby Williams’ time at State, and this year's game intensifying calls for Dantonio’s departure, I was curious about 30-point wins during a State coach’s final year and in turns out it’s not that common. Before 2002, it happened only in 1920, 1922, and 1946 (I didn’t look before 1920 because there was so much churn in coaches it was fairly meaningless, even the early 20s are borderline). What is more common is handing a first-year State coach with a huge loss, which happened in 1921, 1923, 1947, 1973, 1976, and 1983.

 

A very random side-note that I hadn’t known before today: Harry Kipke was the head coach for State in 1928, and for Michigan for 1929-37. He lost in the rivalry as State’s head coach and had a 3-4-2 record against State as Michigan’s coach.