Tom Izzo gave Michigan State football team motivational speech before Michigan upset

The Michigan State football team had a special guest speaker in the week leading up to Saturday’s upset win, and it clearly seems to have helped.

Spartans football coach Mel Tucker revealed after Saturday’s win over Michigan that basketball coach Tom Izzo had spoken to the team this week, via Colton Pouncy of The Athletic. Tucker added that Izzo’s message fired the team up.

It is no secret that Izzo loves football. He is close friends with former coach Mark Dantonio and even spoke at Tucker’s introductory press conference.

Whatever Izzo said clearly worked. The Spartans were 25-point underdogs and ended up winning at Michigan Stadium. That doesn’t happen all that often. Admittedly, some would say they had some help from the officials on this key play.