Local Sports

Michigan, Wisconsin earn Big Ten victories

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Colton Joseph threw for three touchdowns and rushed for another score to lead Wisconsin to a 31-3 win against Michigan State on Saturday.

Jacob Harris rushed for two scores for the Badgers (4-1, 2-0 Big Ten), who have won four consecutive games.

Harris caught a 20-yard pass from Joseph during the game’s first series. The Badgers shaved 8:16 off the clock, going 75 yards in 15 plays, on their first-quarter scoring drive. The Badgers were 4 of 4 on third-down conversions on the opening drive.

Joseph and Harris revisited their connection for a second week, following a 72-yard score with 1:13 left that rallied Wisconsin to a 24-20 win at then-No. 13 Penn State.

Joseph, a former Old Dominion quarterback, went 9-of-20 passing for 145 yards. He had 10 rushing attempts for a season-high 130 yards, making him the first Badgers QB to rush for at least 100 yards in a game since Tanner McEvoy ran for 158 yards against Bowling Green in 2014.

Gavin Lahm’s 30-yard field goal with 3:56 remaining in the first half pushed Wisconsin to a 17-0 lead.

Liam Boyd kicked a 31-yard field goal with 9 seconds remaining in the first half to put Michigan State (2-3, 0-2) on the scoreboard at 17-3.

Joseph continued his strong performance, slipping past defenders and sprinting 47 yards for a TD that put Wisconsin ahead 24-3 at 10:36 of the third.

The Badgers put the game out of reach when Malachi Coleman caught a 46-yard Joseph pass for a score and a 31-3 lead with 7:56 left in the game.

Three quarterbacks played for Michigan State. Alessio Milivojevic, the starter, was 15-for-32 passing for 103 yards.

Jaziun Patterson was the Spartans’ rushing leader with 18 attempts for 62 yards.

The Spartans failed to capitalize on a handful of Badgers’ penalties. Wisconsin accrued six penalties for 67 yards.

Michigan State has lost three straight games.

The Badgers are on the brink of the Top 25 -- they collected the most votes of any unranked team.

The takeaway

Michigan State: The Spartans finished 1 of 6 on fourth-down attempts.

Wisconsin: Tight end Jacob Harris is making an impact this season. Harris, a Bowling Green transfer, became the first Wisconsin tight end to catch touchdowns in back-to-back games since Jake Ferguson in 2018.

Up next

Michigan State: Hosts Illinois next Saturday.

Wisconsin: At No. 23 UCLA on Oct. 17.

Michigan 20,

Minnesota 14

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Drake Lindsey threw the go-ahead touchdown pass to Darius Taylor early in the fourth quarter after two costly first-half interceptions, and Minnesota’s defense overwhelmed quarterback Bryce Underwood to beat Michigan 20-14 on Saturday for the first time since 2014.

Aydan West and Zack Harden set up scores with interceptions in the second half to help the Gophers (4-1, 2-0 Big Ten) hoist the Little Brown Jug trophy in front of their home crowd for the first time in 49 years and revel in the swarm of fans on the field afterward.

The Wolverines (3-2, 0-2) had won 35 of their last 38 games in the 134-year-old series since the No. 1 team in the Associated Press poll on Oct. 22, 1977, lost 16-0 at Memorial Stadium.

Underwood went just 10 for 21 for 101 yards and ran 10 times for 20 yards for the Wolverines (3-2, 0-2), who have failed to reach the 20-point mark in four of their five games under new coach Kyle Whittingham.

One of Michigan’s touchdowns came on a 79-yard interception return by Minnesota native Nathaniel Staehling -- a North Dakota State transfer -- to give the Wolverines a 14-7 lead with 2:48 left before halftime.

The pressure generated by Wolverines linebackers was by far their best asset. Smith Snowden picked off Lindsey’s off-balance heave with Troy Bowles in his face in the first quarter, giving Michigan the ball at the Minnesota 34 to set up a touchdown run by Jordan Marshall.

The start time was 11 hours earlier for the Gophers and their body clocks than last week, when they won 27-24 at Washington for their first road win since Nov. 29, 2024, at Wisconsin.

Fox sent its “Big Noon Kickoff” pregame show for the first time to Minnesota, where Huntington Bank Stadium was striped out with fans wearing maroon and gold alternating by section. Gophers coach P.J. Fleck crowd-surfed from the studio stage into a sea of students in front of the hockey arena across the street.

Michigan’s late collapse in a 20-19 loss to Iowa last week took some luster off this nationally televised matchup, which now occurs only two or three times in every five-year cycle in the Big Ten’s schedule format for the recently expanded 18-team league.

The takeaway

Michigan: The Wolverines had just 24 plays for 82 yards in the second half, with Underwood’s fourth-and-5 throw from midfield with 37 seconds left that sailed out of bounds marking a fitting end to a frustrating afternoon. Special teams weren’t exempt from the blame, either: Andrew Marsh muffed a punt return and the Gophers recovered at the 17 to set up the first of two short field goals.

Minnesota: The Gophers are unbeaten in Big Ten play by winning on the margins. Luke Drzewiecki, a transfer from New Mexico, has not missed a field goal or an extra point. The Gophers had only one penalty for 5 yards.

Up next

Minnesota plays at Purdue on Oct. 10.

Michigan has next week off and hosts Penn State on Oct. 17.