As the days count down towards the beginning of the Pat Fitzgerald era for Michigan State football, kickoff times will slowly start to be announced. One of the most anticipated matchups of the season occurs in week three for the Spartans, as Fitzgerald\u2019s crew travels down to South Bend, Indiana, to renew a rivalry with Notre Dame. On Thursday, NBC announced that the game will be in primetime, with a 7:30 p.m. EST kickoff on September 19.<\/p>\n
The last time Michigan State football was in South Bend was a decade ago, where the Spartans defeated the Fighting Irish in primetime. It was a bright spot in an otherwise forgettable season, as the Spartans toppled from the 2015 College Football Playoff to a 3-9 season that turned into a tumultuous offseason.<\/p>\n
That win would be the Spartans\u2019 most recent in the series, as they lost the return matchup in 2017 by a score of 38-18 before the series was over.<\/p>\n
The \u201cBattle for the Megaphone\u201d has led to some historic moments in Michigan State football history, with the initial \u201cGame of the Century\u201d occurring in November 1966. With that 10-10 tie set to hit the 60-year anniversary, the Spartans and Irish are renewing their rivalry.<\/p>\n
In more recent years, the Spartans have won via \u201cLittle Giants,\u201d a fake field goal touchdown pass in overtime, along with Notre Dame\u2019s 2013 win being the sole loss in Michigan State\u2019s 2013-2014 season that saw them win the Rose Bowl. That game result has since been vacated by Notre Dame.<\/p>\n
The Irish lead the all-time series 47-29-1, taking out two vacated Notre Dame wins. Notre Dame enters the 2026 season looking for vengeance after the College Football Playoff committee bumped them down one spot to miss the playoffs, with National Championship runner-up Miami (Fl.) taking their spot.<\/p>\n
There will be a Notre Dame return date to East Lansing, with that game slotted for September 18, 2027.<\/p>\n
The Spartans have added former Notre Dame linebacker coach (and 2013 Michigan State linebacker and football captain) Max Bullough to the coaching staff this offseason, along with wideout KK Smith transferring into Fitzgerald\u2019s program.<\/p>\n
For Bullough, this is a personal game, as his ties to both programs are deep. The Co-Defensive Coordinator is a third-generation Spartan, with one grandfather and his father and brothers all wearing the green and white. Meanwhile, his other grandfather and uncle both suited up for Notre Dame during their playing careers.<\/p>\n
This will be Fitzgerald\u2019s first true test as MSU\u2019s head coach, with the season opening against two Mid-American Conference teams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As the days count down towards the beginning of the Pat Fitzgerald era for Michigan State football, kickoff times will slowly start to be announced. One of the most anticipated matchups of the season occurs in week three for the Spartans, as Fitzgerald\u2019s crew travels down to South Bend, Indiana, to renew a rivalry with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":24207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[985,59,450,191,189,504,984],"class_list":["post-24235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","tag-battle-for-the-megaphone","tag-featured","tag-max-bullough","tag-michigan-state-football","tag-michigan-state-spartans","tag-news","tag-notre-dame-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}