Well,  I've got nothing left.  I watched that game and after three years of hoping that we would take the world by storm, I'm now just hoping that we'll win one more game.  I can't even believe it.

I know many of you are in exactly the same boat.  I like to tell my friends that at least understand sports that before 2008, the last time Michigan missed a bowl, I wasn't born.  I hope they understand that losing just wasn't part of my DNA, particularly when it comes to my college team.  Now it's been just about 3 years since we actually had a post season.  I don't know how I'd endure another absence.  I'm sure you've said something similar to your friends.

Don't you just want to punch the folks who don't think this is a big deal?  Or who decide they're going to be a fair weather fan so they can irk you?  I've got a bet with someone like that (yeah, I guess I asked for it) and I am not looking forward to paying it off because after 2 years of pain, I was hoping for a little redemption - I guess not.

So, back to present, it's hard for me not to think that the confidence of the team is now gone.  I'm glad they battled back, but I don't know how this will go.  I fear an implosion will lead to a loss of recruits, which leads to another 3 years of frustration.  Can we survive a coaching change without a "lost generation?"  Could this really go on 6 years?  is it possible that we won't beat OSU for a decade?  Is there any other option than to make a change after going 4-16 in conference?  I just want to be sick.

And I'm just some fan.  I can't imagine what it is like for a player.  To be somewhere between 18 and 22 and to have your heart stomped after being so close so many times.

I just want Michigan to win - it's all I want.  If I could go out and play to help them win, I would.  But I'm too old, slow, fat, weak to do that.  All I can do is cheer.  I guess that is what I want you to do - just cheer them on.  Make sure you do what you can so we have 5 more games instead of 4.  After that, the situation will take care of itself.

Thanks for hearing my rant.  I hope that, in some small way, it makes you feel better that you're not the only one wrecked over this football team.  Keep that hope alive - Go Blue.

Ed-M: Bumped due to info/graphic awesome.

Diarist Note: The Pick-4 contest is up and running at the JCB. We have an assortment of good football and soccer coverage over there to set you up for the weekend. I’ll have weekend picks up later, so you’ll know exactly which teams to fade while I try to gamble my way out last week’s slump.

In a season of transition for both programs, Penn State and Michigan meet in Happy Valley tomorrow night in what could prove to be a signature game for the winner. Neither club has any Big 10 Title aspirations, but critical bowl positioning and perhaps even the inside track to the Gator Bowl, will be on the line when the ball finally kicks off in anger in primetime.

This week’s Big 10 slate is highlighted by the showdown in Iowa City between the Hawkeyes and Spartans, but this contest has implications that loom as large, just in a different venue. What happens to the loser of this game? For Penn State, it means they probably will do no better than a 6-6 record. Or worse. Will the cries for Joe Pa’s head reach the levels of 2003 and 2004 if the Nits revert to their losing ways from the early portion of that decade?

And speaking of cries for heads, how about Rich Rodriguez. There isn't a coach in the country taking more heat for a 5-2 record than Rodriguez, the remaining residue from his 8-16 mark during his first two seasons. A third loss in a row and November might end up being more kind to turkeys than the Wolverines current head coach.

5-2 by year three is just unacceptable, dear.

Everyone here knows all those storylines, so I wont bloviate on and on there. Tomorrow night’s game should be a blast and it will help define what sort of final month either club will have. Here are some of the keys to the game, as I see it through the MGo Over/Under Board. Place your bets accordingly.

First, however, it should be noted that with the conference breaking into two divisions and Michigan and Penn State being seated on different sides, this will be the last PSU/UM in at least a couple of years. Who knows when the Maize and Blue will be back in Happy Valley, so to honor the moment let’s go back in the Way Back Machine, courtesy of Wolverine Historian, and remember the Wolverines' first-ever visit to Beaver Stadium:

Ah, memories. You shall be missed, oh second-largest.

(The picks, after the jump.)

A video version of Losing Contain, Again Again and (More) Freshman DB Doom.

I love MGoBlog's Picture Pages posts, but I'm so obtuse that sometimes I can't follow them in still shots or even the unadorned play video. To overcome this, I created an annotated video companion to the two latest Picture Pages. I'll probably keep doing this for the rest of the year [Ed-M: Yes, please!] as making them really helped me figure out what Brian was talking about in the original posts (included text is with his permission, BTW).

Apologies in advance to those who have already seen part of this in the Iowa UFR Errata post, but there's new stuff here too.

Losing Contain, Again Again:

The sitch: Iowa has a 3rd and 3 from Michigan's 11 yard line, late in the 3rd quarter. They come out with an unbalanced I-form which they've used to little effect during the day, Michigan answers with a 4-4 with both cornerbacks lined up over the two receivers on the weakside. M blitzes the strongside safety (Kovacs), meaning Jonas Mouton is now the outside guy. He takes the inside shoulder of Iowa's tackle, meaning there's nobody left to contain outside. Iowa scores.

(More) Freshman DB Doom:

The sitch: Iowa has a 3rd and 10 from the Michigan 14, and M rolls Cover 2. Freshman nickelback Courtney Avery turns his head around and chases the inside vertical receiver way too far, abandoning his zone and turning the underneath drag into a wide-open path to the endzone. Iowa scores.

Hopefully these will make the plays make more sense to the more video-inclined.

Abbreviated Version: As expected, after a bye week, most of the data did not change. However, the computer analysis (Fremeau and Sagarin) did have significant changes – primarily due to strength of schedule adjustments. Michigan's SoS went from #52 to #77 in the FEI and from #49 to #64 for Sagarin. At the same time, PSU beat lowly Minnesota and their SoS improved slightly from #40 to #36 for the FEI but declined from #45 to #47 for Sagarin. The SoS adjustments have more to do with how all of your opponents did that week rather than whether you win or lose. This significantly changed the rankings and game predictions (see below). Thus, my prediction that the computer analysis would not change very much after the bye week was absolutely wrong!

Synopsis: After 7 games and a bye week, Michigan is currently ranked #17 in scoring offense and #80 in scoring defense (wooo hooo, the defense improved by not playing). According to the FEI rankings at Football Outsiders, Michigan is ranked #93 in total defense (a significant drop from #83 prior to the bye week).

Due to the large swing in computer rankings during the bye week, FEI has Michigan favored by 7 points over Penn State (an initial rough estimate showed M favored by 16 prior to the bye week). Using the Sagarin Predictor, PSU is now favored by 1.5 points (before the bye week M was favored by 2.8 points). Sagarin Elo-Chess has M favored by 3.1 and the Sagarin Overall ranking has M by 0.7 points. (Vegas Odds now have M favored by 3).

I am confused this week why Sagarin has PSU favored and FEI as the game relatively close. Unless M implodes with TOs, IMO this should be a big win.

DETAILS: Here are the FEI numbers ( FEI Forecasts and Football Outsiders FEI ). FEI is a weighted and opponent adjusted season efficiency and is expressed as a percentage as compared with an average FBS team. The average team will have an index of approximately 0.00. Teams below average have negative index values.

Note that FEI completely excludes all non-FBS data (the W-L record is only for FBS games, etc.). Therefore, you need to add 1 to FBS-MW to get the final predicted wins for M this year. Or, if you use FBS-RMW, you need to add 1 to the current W-L record to get the final predicted wins for M this year. BTW, the difference between FBS-MW and FBS-RMW is the number of FBS games each team would have been expected to win to date.

The FEI is a drive based analysis considering each of the nearly 20,000 drives each year in college football. The data is filtered to eliminate garbage time (at the half or end of game) and is adjusted for opponent. A team is rewarded for playing well against good teams (win or lose) and is punished more severely for playing poorly against bad teams than it is rewarded for playing well against bad teams. I've included the GE basic data so you can see the impact of adjusting for opponent.  (See: Football Outsiders Our Basic College Stats )

Here are the Sagarin Ratings.

Sagarin uses two basic ratings: PREDICTOR (in which the score MARGIN is the only thing that matters) and ELO-CHESS (in which winning and losing only matters, the score margin is of no consequence). The overall rating is a synthesis of the two diametrical opposites, ELO-CHESS and PREDICTOR.

Per Sagarin: ELO-CHESS is “very politically correct. However, it is less accurate in its predictions for upcoming games than is PREDICTOR”.

I wanted to design a special edition Halloween wallpaper and we're playing Penn State this week, so a JoePa Halloween costume was the natural choice. All I had to do was add a plastic nose and some bushy eyebrows to the slightly more respectful 2010 Penn State game wallpaper that I released on Monday. In my first version of this wallpaper I completely replaced the real frames with a pair of joke glasses, but thought it was actually funnier to attach the gag accessories to the real frames.

The image below is a preview only. You can get this week's widescreen, 4:3, iPad and mobile wallpapers at The Art. The Art. The Art!.

All of the 2010 Schedule Wallpapers

Season Wallpaper - Denard Robinson Action Figure

Game 1 Connecticut Wallpaper - Husky Puppy Piddles in Fear

Game 2 Notre Dame Wallpaper - Touchdown Jesus Says "No Good"

Game 3 Massachusetts Wallpaper - The $550,000 Cupcake

Game 4 Bowling Green Wallpaper - Wolverine vs. Falcon

Game 5 Indiana Wallpaper - Good at Basketball

Game 6 Michigan State Wallpaper - Sibling Rivalry

Game 7 Iowa Wallpaper - Maize is Blue

Game 8 Penn State Wallpaper - The Eyes Have It

Game 8 Penn State Wallpaper - JoePa Halloween Costume

Game 9 Illinois Wallpaper - We Be Illin'

Game 10 Purdue Wallpaper - I Think We Can! I Think We Can?

Game 11 Wisconsin Wallpaper - Cheesehead Cross Stitch