Michigan's talent, precision are rare. Michigan State hopes this season's rare, too.

EAST LANSING — It won’t always be this way. That’s the sunny view if you’re a Michigan State Spartan and you care about football. Frankly, it’s the only view, not just the necessary one.

Because things can change in a hurry.

That’s what you have to tell yourself in a season like this, after a night like Saturday, when your rival storms into your stadium and ends the game in the first quarter. That it can't get any worse.

By the second quarter, the only tension left was guessing the final margin: U-M won, 49-0 — doubling the spread offered by sportsbooks for much of the week.

As for the rival?

They've got a chip on their shoulder — a target on their back, they will tell you. There have been, head coach Jim Harbaugh said, "attempts to diminish the program."

Conspiracy or not, Harbaugh's right about this: His program has its detractors, and not just because of news last week that the NCAA is — again — investigating. This time for banned advance scouting and possible sign-stealing.

Harbaugh addressed his team Thursday when the news broke. He told them the same thing he said in his public statement: that he had no knowledge of any wrongdoing. Then he told his players not to get distracted.

They didn't on Saturday night in East Lansing. They remain in the moment, mostly because they know what they have in the locker room.

"We know this is a special group," said J.J. McCarthy, who continues to show why he's a special quarterback.

The truth is, teams don't come along like this all the time, nor do quarterbacks.

Think of it this way, Michigan football fans: This is Harbaugh’s ninth season as U-M's head coach and McCarthy is, by far, his best quarterback. And quarterbacks this good tend to skip their final year of eligibility.

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Which means the junior could be gone after this season, along with at least a dozen of his teammates, and maybe more. Some 20 contributors to these Wolverines could jump to the NFL next season. That would be a record. Harbaugh would love to set it.

As for McCarthy?

"A-plus, plus," Harbaugh said. "The way he was throwin' the ball? Talk about lasers. It's a double-edged sword with J.J. McCarthy. He can beat you in so many ways."

Replacing him will be difficult, and not likely. Yet he isn't the only difference-maker who will go. That's a lot of reloading, even for a place such as U-M, and a coach such as Harbaugh — as good as he has been the past three years, his program still doesn’t quite recruit like Alabama or Georgia or even Ohio State.

(Speaking of the Buckeyes, look at ‘em: Undefeated, yes, victors over Penn State, true, but without the best quarterback they had in a decade — maybe more. They aren’t the same offensive force. Maybe they’ll knock off U-M in Ann Arbor next month, get a little revenge, find a way to win with defense. But that's getting ahead of ourselves.)

Right now, these Wolverines look like the best team in the Big Ten, and it doesn’t look close. Credit McCarthy, who threw 27 times in less than three quarters. He completed 21 of them (four for touchdowns) in finishing with 287 yards.

Yes, the Spartans’ defense is pedestrian — and that's being kind — and while the unit was missing a couple of its best players, the defense wasn't stopping folks — we see you, Washington — with them, either.

Besides, on the few times that McCarthy did feel a bit of pressure in the pocket, he showed uncommon elusiveness. It's the trait that sets him apart, though; like on the night’s first drive, when he felt the pocket collapse, he slipped out to his right, kept his eyes down the field and hit AJ Barner for 21 yards.

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It was third down. The Wolverines needed 14.

They got it like it was nothing. It got easier from there.

"A buzzsaw," said Harbaugh. "Most complete game of the season."

Not a surprise considering the talent difference and the rivalry and the tunnel incident from a year ago and the allegations from earlier last week. U-M was hyper-focused. Also because the players who were here two years ago remember what happened after halftime, when they blew an 18-point lead in a 37-33 loss.

"Leave no doubt," Harbaugh told them in the locker room.

A metaphor for another round of unfavorable news cycles? Perhaps. But mostly just a coach wanting to crush a rival — he didn't have his team take a knee at the end of the game when it could've, instead choosing to run a play that scored a touchdown with 8 seconds left.

By that time, McCarthy had long done his damage. Shoot, on U-M's second drive, he found Roman Wilson running toward the back pylon in the end zone, and threw a dime while leaking out of the pocket again.

At some point, U-M will play a defense that stresses its receivers and tight ends, that forces McCarthy out of the pocket even more than he’s comfortable, and when that happens, he’ll have these kinds of plays to pull from his memory.

He has made them almost every game all season, and in a season in which U-M's running game isn’t quite what it was last year, his legs — and eyes and arm — are the separators.

Where would U-M be without him?

That’s the larger point, I suppose. They wouldn’t be near the same, and although it’s possible they find a reasonable facsimile next season, that quarterback almost certainly won’t be this good, this soon.

And so, Michigan fan, savor this team and this run. Enjoy this quarterback, this defense, this roster of future pros (a roster that Harbaugh has called his best). It’s not often that your team travels to East Lansing and wins by 49 points. Or beats MSU by nearly that much, anywhere — not since the early 1980s, in fact.

It has been a long time since these programs were this far apart in talent. The Spartans have, at best, a couple of possible NFL draft picks. Yet these rosters will be a lot different next year. The Spartans will have a new coach, some transfers, a quarterback with more experience.

It’s a safe bet the programs won’t be 49 points apart 12 months from now. That’s the hope, anyway, if you bleed green and white; that what unfolded at Spartan Stadium isn’t the beginning of a decade run of dominance, or even a five-year run.

That it was but a single game.

One that pitted a team as good as it has been in two decades against a team that's just about at rock bottom —understandably in flux, without its head coach, without much long-term direction, none of which is the fault of the players.

Now, more than ever, things shift in a second in college football, and between even the most heated rivals. One moment, alums can’t wait for your departure, the next they’re raising millions to keep you. (Or maybe vice versa.)

Harbaugh can relate — not that he’s worried about that or accusations of sign-stealing or early recruiting or anything but his team. He has the makings of a historic squad and he knows it.

Saturday night's demolition of MSU is the latest reminder.

Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him @shawnwindsor.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football continues unparalleled run vs. lowly Michigan State