Wolverines, Spartans clash on field

Two years after the tunnel fight, Michigan football and Michigan State football ended their latest rivalry game with a fight on the field after Michigan quarterback Davis Warren took a knee to complete a 24-17 win.

It’s unclear who started the fight, but things broke out when Michigan tight end Colston Loveland headbutted Michigan State defensive lineman Anthony Jones.

After that, Jones grabbed Loveland by the helmet.

“Little bro stay doing little bro things,” Loveland told Big Ten Network. “MSU, the little bro. They can do whatever they want. We knew it was going to get chippy. Everything within the confines of the game, we do right, and then after the game, they want to get busy, we’ll get busy.”

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Michigan outscored Michigan State in the second, third and fourth quarters to secure the victory at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor in the 117th matchup between in-state rivals. The Wolverines beat the Spartans for the third season in a row.

“It’s an emotional game,” Michigan State head coach Jonathan Smith told reporters. “You don’t love finishing kind of that way. I thought, for the football game itself, it was physical, I think guys were playing really hard, and I thought it was a pretty clean game. It was tough to finish that way.”

The game was relatively clean from start to finish, with the Spartans receiving six penalties for 35 yards and the Wolverines not responsible for any penalties, but emotions from both sides bubbled up after the final whistle.

Michigan running back Kalel Mullings jumped on Jones in an attempt to protect Loveland, which led to chaos. Before that, the fight was isolated to Loveland and Jones.

A large group of Michigan players left the bench to join the fight on the field.

“Not really sure what happened,” Michigan State running back Nate Carter told reporters. “It’s an emotional game.”

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Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore spoke about the fight immediately after the game in his on-field postgame interview. The first-year head coach wasn’t pleased with the way his players acted on the field.

“That’s disappointing,” Moore told Big Ten Network. “That’s not what Michigan football is all about. That’s not how we represent our program and this university. That’s uncalled for. That’ll be dealt with and handled, but that’s just very disappointing that our football team was a part of that.”

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.