As it took hold poetically on time alongside 57 degrees, it seemed to say that fall had come (never mind the calendar), that the state of Michigan had beefed up its college football relevance, that 186,177 spectators would attend two momentous games on one Saturday, that the 10th-most-populous state would serve as the first-most-central for this Saturday.
Without saying a word, it said that the relentlessly gritty Jim Harbaugh had just debuted as head coach in Michigan Stadium by day, and it promised that later, in the big-boy game, Michigan State would conduct the premier non-conference game of September by night.
By 1:20 p.m., Harbaugh had his first magnificent home-game tirade, over a roughing-the-punter flag.
It went with the decor of the angry sky.
By midnight, Michigan State had very real College Football Playoff hopes.
It went with their recent excellence.
Back at noon, you almost could hear what the bruises to come through the day. A Michigan running back would field a question about his style and say, "Uh, power." (De'Veon Smith gained 126 yards.) A Michigan State defense would face the gaudy Oregon offense for third and fourth downs at the 1-yard line in the second quarter, and so Riley Burrough would stop Royce Freeman on third down, and Jon Reschke and Lawrence Thomas would team to stop Freeman on fourth down. A Michigan defense would harden to allow Oregon State only 59 yards after the first possession. A Michigan State defense, called to rescue its team with 2:13 left and near midnight, chased down frightening Oregon quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. for an humongous third-down sack, Thomas and Chris Frey doing the dragging.
Some 76,256 would boom at Spartan Stadium — even louder, as usual, than the 109,651 at Michigan Stadium. "I just think this was the place to be, in this state, today," Michigan State Coach Mark Dantonio said.
In the daytime match of those trying to rise from the 5-7 mire of 2014, Michigan (1-1) would win by 35-7 over Oregon State. In the nighttime match of the Nos. 5 and 7 teams in the country, Michigan State (2-0) would cling with all its knowhow to a 31-28 win over Oregon.
The state of Michigan would matter, even as the center of college football has relocated to the Midwest thanks to No. 1 Ohio State. Michigan's 50,000-strong university (Michigan State) and its 43,000-strong university (Michigan) would move on toward Oct. 17, when they will play each other, testily, in Ann Arbor.
"Definitely, you feel his love," Joe Bolden said.
Bolden plays linebacker for Michigan, he's a senior, and he referred to Harbaugh's love for football, which by itself has altered Ann Arbor just so. When Harbaugh spoke enthusiastically about the importance of "low and quick" movement, you can see how players would want to get low and quick as lowly and quickly as possible.
He said, "Our guys played harder, played faster, reacted faster" than in their opener at Utah, and he extolled the fine drudgery of practices on last Monday, Wednesday, Thursday. He extolled the apparently robust scout team. He spotted "more precision." He said, "Hopefully it shows our team that these games, a good part of them, can be won during the week, how you prepare and how you practice."
The Michigan man who won an Orange Bowl at Stanford and went to three straight NFC Championship games with San Francisco wondered why everybody keeps wondering about his feelings, when football is so widely collaborative and so bloody hard. He said, "We're going to move on from this one with humble hearts because there's still a lot of work to do." He confessed to no particular feelings in the pre-game tunnel.
Back outside, the sky kept an excellent gloom.
Further north in East Lansing were two sides with eyes on Greater Phoenix, the site of the College Football Playoff National Championship Game in January. Oregon is just off a runner-up role in the first such game. Michigan State is just off two seasons that rang up to 24-3, as well as six victories in the last seven against Michigan. It has had to sit with its accomplishments and its dominance of the Wolverines through an off-season in which the clamor found its way, yet again, somehow, to Michigan, because of one very loud coaching hire.
Well, hard, strong football — Michigan State's 197 rushing yards to 192 passing — edged out gorgeous football, which Oregon plays routinely. The Ducks streamed down the field right away, averaging a snap every 17 seconds, faster than any average in the country from 2014, but Michigan State has learned very much about winning. It kept its head through a 41-21 deficit to Baylor in the last Cotton Bowl and won that, and it kept its head here.
It showed a great knack for rebounding — from Oregon's dizzying opening drive, from Bralon Addison's 81-yard punt return for Oregon early in the third quarter. "After a big punt return, to go down and score right after that was huge, "Dantonio said. It showed a strong nerve on two fourth-down conversions, including a fourth-and-6 on the go-ahead drive in the third quarter. "Our offensive line is relentless," center Jack Allen said. "We weren't going to not get it."
The Spartans coolly would make marches of 75, 59 and 65 yards. They would make din in the stadium when L.J. Scott took off 38 yards to the right corner of the end zone for the touchdown that made it 31-21. And they would still have that defense, to hold off the scary Oregon, when it took over late near midfield. It would have that momentous sack. It would have what Dantonio called "a steppingstone game" and "a game that pays dividends at the end of the season."
The masses would go off happily into the midnight, the same way they had walked in hours earlier, in flocks of green down the sidewalks, the setting sun squarely in their eyes, the air almost warm and the sky mostly cleared.
In a Michigan football autumn, that was the only real disappointment.
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