EAST LANSING — At that school down the road, which is never mentioned by name inside the Michigan State football sanctum, a sly, cheeky smile spread across Zak Zinter’s face. A reporter at Schembechler Hall just asked him to react to claims made by rival programs elsewhere — and MSU in particular — that they had beefed up their defensive fronts.
The implied motive for doing so, which seems obvious, was matching Michigan football’s might in the trenches after the Wolverines spent each of the past two seasons steamrolling the Big Ten with the most fearsome rushing attack in the conference.