Graham Couch

Lansing State Journal

EAST LANSING — Brady Hoke's calendar is blank beyond Oct. 25, ending with a simple note on the bottom of next Saturday's itinerary:

"Continue with hope in Ann Arbor, or figure out the rest of my life."

Hoke isn't done as Michigan's football coach. Not as long as Michigan State and Ohio State remain as possibilities, long shots for a magical revival.

There has never been so much at stake in the MSU / U-M rivalry that isn't pleasant.

One man is coaching for a job everyone assumes he's lost. This is his Hail Mary.

On the other side, the ramifications of defeat are cause for nausea. For MSU, losing Saturday at home would inject a bitterness into this season that even a Big Ten title couldn't extinguish.

It's not just about the college football playoff — any loss the rest of the way kills those dreams. It's about being at the pinnacle of your existence, holding dominion over a program at its lowest point in a half-century, a program that once smugly pushed you around. Defeat doesn't work here. It doesn't jibe with MSU's story arc. It would set back years of therapy, and make everything suddenly seem a bit fragile.

There is a pressure on MSU this season and in this rivalry it's never known before. The 6-1 Spartans are expected to dominate the 3-4 Wolverines — they're early 15-point favorites, in fact — though should gladly accept victory in any form.

There is less to gain than there is to lose, which is a strange place to be for MSU facing Michigan. The matchup with national teeth is two weeks later against Ohio State.

But at least Saturday has no bearing on Mark Dantonio's job.

For Hoke, it's win or sell your house and bike rack, and kiss goodbye your skinny jeans and raised-bed garden full of kale. Life in Ann Arbor is over.

Michigan's fourth-year coach needs to beat both MSU and the Buckeyes for an improbable return in 2015, and do so in East Lansing and Columbus. The odds of success are miniscule. But there is nothing else to hold on to.

In his daydreams, Hoke must surmise, "If we beat the Spartans and Buckeyes, and we get to seven or eight wins, it'll be hard to get rid of me."

He's right. He'd have to be brought back. Can you imagine that? Maybe not. Hoke is probably the only one who does.

The frenzy and turmoil at Michigan began so early this season, and peaked with so much of the season left, it created an odd dynamic — an opportunity for reprieve, however unlikely.

This is it. Hoke will be coaching from a place of desperation. MSU will be playing to avoid despair.