September 18th, 2011 at 10:52 AM ^
SD State is a good squad... i kind of anticipate this game to be tougher than the Minn game.
September 18th, 2011 at 11:55 AM ^
Well considering Minnesota should be our easiest win in the B1G, good point....
September 18th, 2011 at 5:55 PM ^
Purdue (lolol Danny Hope) should be the easiest.
September 18th, 2011 at 10:56 AM ^
I would be more worried about this game if it wasn't for the greatest scouting report ever.
September 18th, 2011 at 11:15 AM ^
Michigan 35 SDSU 17
September 18th, 2011 at 11:27 AM ^
Not so sure. I would have fully expected them to beat us last season. I think the only major loss they've had is at WR. They are a good team and could give us a run for our money if they are on next weekend.
September 18th, 2011 at 12:21 PM ^
They barely beat army, gave up 21 to Cal Poly, and were very close to losing to Washington State until the 4th quarter. Plus, we will know exactly what they run on both sides of the ball (they hired a west coast OC to essentially run the exact same offense), and they wont have nearly the same scouting report on us.
On top of all of that, I think this matchup favors us. Our CBs have looked good (!) so far this year, and they lost their top 2 WRs. We should be able to match up well man to man against them, allowing us to bring another man into the box to help against the run (i.e. have 2 LBs against a 4 WR set), and blitz a bit more. I'm not too worried.
September 18th, 2011 at 12:43 PM ^
I agree with you about their WR vs our CB's. I just don't think it will be a cake walk like some are thinking. If they get out to a fast start we could be in trouble. I just don't want to see a flamewar when it's a one possession game in the 4th quarter.
September 18th, 2011 at 5:59 PM ^
To add to that, they lost those two wide receivers after they lost last years top two in the draft. Their leading returning WR coming into the season had like six catches in his career.
September 18th, 2011 at 12:23 PM ^
...but it's not "last season" anymore. But since you mentioned it first, I would have expected Michigan to win last year or this year. It just won't be a walk in the park like EMU was. 35-24 sounds about right.
September 18th, 2011 at 12:40 PM ^
This is the same team that took it to TCU last year, and we all know how tough they were. Mizzou and Utah were also 4 point games for them. I don't think UM from last year hangs with that crowd. Sorry, we just weren't that good.
September 18th, 2011 at 1:12 PM ^
It's not quite the same team. It had some key losses, including its top two WRs. Perhaps more significantly, its coach is gone, too.
September 18th, 2011 at 5:15 PM ^
Last year SDSU finished the season ranked #34 by Sagarin, while Mich finished #60.
In large, bold type, Sagarin disclaims his current 2011 rankings, stating that the lack of data/games forces him to use beginning assumptions/results from last year.
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin/fbt11.htm
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For the first few weeks of the season, the starting ratings have weight
in the process(BAYESIAN), but once the teams are all WELL CONNECTED, then the starting ratings are no longer used and all teams are started equal and the RATING, ELO-CHESS, and PURE POINTS (PREDICTOR) are then done in an UNBIASED manner from that point on.
The teams are now UN-CONNECTED and so all three ratings are BAYESIAN.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
September 18th, 2011 at 1:53 PM ^
Until Denard starts hitting wide open receivers consistently, I fear that word my apply to us. Ubtil he does that, he'll continue having to carry too much and risk getting beaten up.
September 18th, 2011 at 11:19 AM ^
SDSU has a good QB, a great RB and extreme motivation. This game is terrifying.
September 18th, 2011 at 11:26 AM ^
And Kyle Turley chucking helmets around on the sidelines.
September 18th, 2011 at 11:27 AM ^
I'd guess around 5 or 6.
Not the usual cup-cake .. they are a bit of a tricky fixture. Though I'd expect Hoke and Borges to know the team inside out.
I'd predict 28-17 to Michigan
September 18th, 2011 at 11:35 AM ^
They struggled mightily with Army and Washington State, yes? With the dude who recruited them all, I'm not THAT worried. At least more than I am baseline terrified of all teams considering our defense/Denard's accuracy issues thus far.
September 18th, 2011 at 11:42 AM ^
I honestly will be terrified before every game we play from now on.
September 18th, 2011 at 11:46 AM ^
September 18th, 2011 at 11:59 AM ^
Hoke would have said the same thing regardless of how good SDSU is. He's not looking forward to facing his former players and coaches. It's a very unusual situation.
SDSU is probably a good team, but they have struggled a bit. They were tied with WSU after 3 quarters. WSU is a BCS school, but they won a total of 5 games over last 3 seasons.
September 18th, 2011 at 12:11 PM ^
Wazzu has been putrid over the last several years, but is at least giving the impression that it has a pulse this year. I watched a good chunk of the WSU/SDSU game last night---reasonably well-played. I didn't stay up late enough to watch SDSU pull away though.
I'm guessing this will be a very competitive game next weekend.
September 18th, 2011 at 12:39 PM ^
I watched most of the big ten games yesterday and it's clear that Michigan's performance was around No.5 in the big 10. Best was Wisconsin, then Illinois, then Michigan State, then Nebraska, then Michigan. I think SDSU will be a close game until the late 3rd/4th quarter.
September 18th, 2011 at 12:46 PM ^
How do you put Michigan State's performance ahead of ours? They were terrible.
September 18th, 2011 at 1:17 PM ^
It is true that they could not maintain a steady drive due to their lack of Denard (they couldn't run the ball at all, as a result) and their receivers are, as a whole, far less skilled than our group. But, their performance was, for the most part, due to the dominance of ND's defense and not because of bad play.
Their defense also held ND to under 300 yards which is, quite frankly, amazing.
Playing Michigan is a whole different monster because they will be able to rack up quite a few yards on stretch plays and counters and through the air on slants (unless our front 4 can play like they did against Eastern). But their defense will have their hands full with Hemingway and Gallon.
September 18th, 2011 at 1:33 PM ^
Are you evaluating MSU going forward, or evaluating their performance yesterday? Your post suggested the latter.
September 18th, 2011 at 2:20 PM ^
Well, considering that ND had 2 drives taken away from them (one by kickoff return, one by fumbled punt) I would say that MSU's defense didn't perform nearly as well as the numbers suggest.
September 18th, 2011 at 3:33 PM ^
You're drunk already?
September 18th, 2011 at 12:47 PM ^
MSU #3? What?
September 18th, 2011 at 1:57 PM ^
was horrible yesterday.
September 18th, 2011 at 12:41 PM ^
had 191 yards vs. Washington State. Yes, WSU is not good, but they are a D1 school. QB also had 275 yards, but 2 turnovers.
We have some serious work to do on the run defense, thankfully, Hoke knows these kids well and how to stop them.
This game might be closer than we think.
September 18th, 2011 at 12:53 PM ^
Does someone have it or the capability to get a copy as that would be great to see what we will be going up against this coming weekend?!
September 18th, 2011 at 1:44 PM ^
I'm sure a torrent is out there somewhere, but If you have MTN, they are replaying the game a few times this week. They are on DirecTV's sports tier, and should be on most others.
September 18th, 2011 at 1:46 PM ^
SDSU's 4 losses last year were by a combined 15 points, including playing TCU. They have to be funamentally sound, even if injured and even if we have Hoke and they don't
September 18th, 2011 at 2:54 PM ^
Michigan 38 SDSU 17
September 18th, 2011 at 3:39 PM ^
I think we should just forfeit the game. SDSU would beat any NFL team by 50. The SDSU QB will be the number 1 pick in the draft and the RB will be number 2. I'm not sure what we were thinking scheduling an unbeatable team. The AD really fucked up.
September 18th, 2011 at 5:55 PM ^
They will score points on our defense. Hopefully DROB will have a good game passing and the offense will score more points in the first half.
UM 41 SDSU 34
September 18th, 2011 at 6:32 PM ^
September 19th, 2011 at 8:00 AM ^
Anyone else approaching this as a test for the coaching staff? With the level of familiarity, we should win easily. They are a good team, but coaching SHOULD matter.
We know how well hoke manages the program and recruits. Time to sure the skills in game preparation.
September 19th, 2011 at 8:00 AM ^
Anyone else approaching this as a test for the coaching staff? With the level of familiarity, we should win easily. They are a good team, but coaching SHOULD matter.
We know how well hoke manages the program and recruits. Time to sure the skills in game preparation.
September 19th, 2011 at 8:00 AM ^
Anyone else approaching this as a test for the coaching staff? With the level of familiarity, we should win easily. They are a good team, but coaching SHOULD matter.
We know how well hoke manages the program and recruits. Time to sure the skills in game preparation.
September 19th, 2011 at 8:20 PM ^
Great comments on here gentlemen. I wish we (SDSU) had a reason to hate Hoke. But, you can't hate a straight-talking, no BS Coach that expects, and gets, results. Which for some reason has been especially difficult here in the preceeding years. Look forward to being there. Aztecs have everything to gain, big M has everything to lose. Hoping the football team can take a lesson from our basketball team and step up. ONE TIME! AZTECS! Charlie brown needs to kick lucy in the head, then pick up the ball and punt it himself for once. then kick her again while she's down there for pulling the ball everytime he got close... i'm just sayin.