What can I say about the Penn State game? It reinforced several things that we already knew about Michigan, in addition to some other stuff:

• The offense isn’t simply bad, it’s inconsistent. It can be very bad much of the time, and it can also produce effective drives some of the time. The lack of experience is resulting in the evil side of the offense being apparent more than the good side.
• Nick Sheridan is not very good at the footballs. By all accounts he’s a good kid, but he’s not Division-I material.
• I had forgotten how bad Penn State fans were. They vault back up to #2 in my “biggest assholes in the conference” unofficial rankings, surpassing Wisconsin.
• Minor looked pretty good, and I think that he’s likely your primary starter for the short-term future, as a strong runner is necessary when the standard running play is “go into the teeth of the defense with only nominal assistance from your offensive line.”
• The defense still needs to step up. The big play has become something of a habit. I know Penn State is far and away the best team we’ve seen so far this year, but the defense has to be able to at least slow them down.
• That said, I’m not huge on all this Shafer hate that is going around. I think Shafer is hamstrung by some of the personnel, and maybe even the position coaches he has to work with.
• Not sure when I’ll get around to making an FNL. Hopefully tonight, though.

And on to Michigan State:

• In case you missed it (since I accidentally posted it at midnight), here is the post I wrote about the previous times Rodriguez and Dantonio have faced off. Obviously, neither team is the same, but it’s at least interesting to see.
• Steve Threet and Brian Hoyer are both supposed to start this weekend. God help us if Threet can’t play.
• I see Michigan State as a Wisconsin analogue more than anything. Wisconsin is the only team we’ve beaten so far this year, so at least there’s hope.

Posted under Football
Tags: Football, penn state hate, postview

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