CHICAGO – And now, Michigan State is back to being Cooper Manning.

View photos Mark Dantonio's Spartans are exuding a quiet confidence. (AP) More

There are three Manning brothers – Peyton, Eli, and, oh yeah, Cooper. You don’t hear much about him, the oldest. Cooper is the one who played wide receiver, the one who never became a superstar, Super Bowl-winning, commercial-making quarterback.

The Spartans know how it feels to be the third wheel. That’s been their historic station (at best) in the Big Ten.

They’ve had a whirlwind media romance over the past couple of seasons, rising out of the shadow of Ohio State and Michigan to produce a pair of top-five seasons and a pair of thrilling bowl victories. But the love never seems to last in East Lansing. Even now, with Michigan State poised to produce a third straight excellent season, you can feel it fading.

Why? Because Ohio State is the defending national champion and absolutely loaded for a repeat bid. And because Jim Harbaugh rode into Ann Arbor on a white horse to save Michigan from itself.

Ohio State great. Michigan back. Those two storylines will always sell in the Big Ten, and resonate nationally.

Michigan State’s more quiet quest? You can almost feel the apathetic response to that one. Eh. Wait and see.

Except that’s not a fair reaction. Fact is, Michigan State is poised to be the stiffest challenge Ohio State faces all season. It also figures to be solidly favored to hand hated Michigan a third straight loss, and seventh in the last eight meetings.

The Spartans are really good. They bring back a star quarterback, Connor Cook. They bring back a star defensive end, Shilique Calhoun.

The problem for those guys: Ohio State has two quarterbacks who are more celebrated than Cook in J.T. Barrett and Cardale Jones. (Three if you count QB-turned-wide reciever Braxton Miller). And the Buckeyes have a defensive end who is more celebrated than Calhoun in Joey Bosa.

And then there is coach Mark Dantonio’s plight. He’s 6-2 against the Wolverines – five of those wins by two touchdowns or more – but his ESPN visit this week devolved into a Q&A about Harbaugh in less than 2 ½ minutes.

Such is life at Michigan State.

“Since I’ve been there people have always talked about Michigan, they’ve always talked about Ohio State,” Cook said at Big Ten media days last week. “So it’s nothing new for me.”

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