Michigan fans may be eager to see the Wolverines kick off their season on Saturday against East Carolina, but the entertainment of the 2023 college football season actually started on Friday night.
That's because rival Michigan State gave the Wolverines plenty of reason to laugh out loud as they struggled against Central Michigan.
MSU managed a field goal in the first 28 minutes of play in the first half, then fell behind 7-3 as Central Michigan scored with 1:51 remaining before the break. That seemed to spur the Spartans out of the stupor because they salvaged things just slightly with a quick strike touchdown drive of their own to make it 10-7.
With their rivals holding an unimpressive lead at halftime, Michigan fans had fun trolling the whole of East Lansing on Twitter.
Best memes and tweets as Michigan fans trolled Michigan State vs. Central Michigan
Howās Central Michigan and Michigan State going you ask??? Well just look at the expressions of each Head Coach. pic.twitter.com/ICGmGTctd8
ā Sickos Committee (@SickosCommittee) September 1, 2023
Mel Tucker and the Michigan State Spartans š pic.twitter.com/nKdAofzDfu
ā THE RED RANGER (@THEREDRANGER3) September 1, 2023
There are some Michigan high school teams playing better than Michigan State right now
ā Swanky Wolverine (@swankywolverine) September 2, 2023
Is This The Team Msu Has Spent All Off Season Hyping Up? Come On Now šš³
ā Will Johnson Enjoyer ć½ļø (@WillJEnjoyer) September 1, 2023
Mel Tuckerās 10-year contract extension cost roughly the same amount of money as Terminator 2. Michigan State could have made Terminator 2 instead of doing this
ā Patrick Mayhorn (@patrick_mayhorn) September 2, 2023
Michigan state is going to end up covering and state fans are going to say they dominated a MAC school again.
ā Matt Blunk (@Matt_Blunk10) September 2, 2023
Turnabout is fair play. There's no question Michigan State fans will be having a field day if Michigan struggles with any of the lesser opposition they start the season against. But on Friday night, Mel Tucker and his team took a beating on social media.
To be fair, they deserved it. There were bad drops, missed throws, failed fourth-down attempts and special teams miscues to go along with costly penalties. It just wasn't a pretty performance.
The Spartans are coming off a disappointing 5-7 season and Friday's performance will make them feel even further away from 2021's 11-win showing.
With a $76 million buyout for the head coach, Michigan State is pretty much stuck with what they've got now. So the Spartans have to hope Tucker can get things rolling or else the Wolverines will continue to cackle loudly at the fate of their rivals.
Michigan opens their season on Saturday at 12:00 p.m. ET against East Carolina on Peacock. While Michigan State has questions about their head coach, the Wolverines won't have theirs on the sideline in Week 1. Jim Harbaugh is serving a self-imposed three-game suspension to begin the campaign because of recruiting violations.