No doubt some will view this as a naive exercise in denial of the inevitable, but on any given Saturday, blah blah blah. Sparty's going down, and here's why.
- The guy on the right here is pretty darn good, and keeps getting better each week. The coaching staff seems to be recognizing this, and Mario's becoming a bigger part of the gameplan. And the Ranchero Crew assigned him a theme song. 'Nuff said.
- Lamarr Woodley has one and only one purpose on Saturday: to break each and every one of Drew Stanton's ribs. At least twice in the first half, look for Jim Herrmann to call the infamous Sawin "fire drill" blitz, with all 11 guys rushing upfield (finally, a play that Shawn Crable can understand). If Stanton is once again taken out to the Woodleyshed, good things will follow.
- The run defense has improved somewhat since the season opener, and none of MSU's tailbacks are as good as Brian Calhoun.
- Even if Stanton stays healthy, I'd like to think that the UM defense has a better handle on defending rushing QBs than last fall. Much has been made of Michigan's inability to defend QBs with scrambling ability, and for good reason. It's similar to the '98 season and our inability to defend the option: It sucked, but Herrmann and the defense finally figured it out. That will be the case here as well, and hopefully it will start to materialize here on Saturday as opposed to much later.
- Ryan Mundy will not play.
- Michigan will have better athletes on the field. Period. Argue about mental toughness and poor coaching all you want, but you can't dispute this fact.
- Michael Hart is reported to be back in action. No negative rushes + no fumbles + pressure off Henne = less ulcers for Michigan fans. You've got to wonder how much the hamstring injury has contributed to Henne's regression.
- Intangibles. How will each of the teams respond to media expectations for this showdown? MSU showed us something by not suffering a let-down last week after a great victory for their program. What happens when you now find yourself heavily favored over your biggest rival? From the other side of I-96, we get to see how well the UM program (not just the team) responds to adversity. This game will be the turning point that either leads to 9-3 or 6-6.
- Unless Henne is denser than dense, he's got to realize that his grip on the starting job is loosening pass by underthrown pass. Gutierrez has looked decent in limited action thus far, and coaches and teammates have consistently raved about his understanding of the game. If this doesn't light a fire under Chad, I'm not sure what will.
- I think it would make a cool birthday present for Sven if Lloyd & co. pull this off. After he's done walking around southeastern Ann Arbor Saturday afternoon, hopefully he can return home with a really nifty gift waiting on the TiVo.
