Aftermath of a Michigan win in Happy Valley on Saturday.

Submitted by Blue-Ray on October 16th, 2019 at 9:25 PM

This is actually that first season defining big game. Not for what the win will do for our season, program, and recruiting, but for what the loss will do to PSU's.

A rare Michigan Top 10 - Away - Win Saturday will just pause a narrative and propel us to the next big showdown in the Big House against Notre Dame. 

For #6 PSU though... that loss will be a catastrophic letdown in front of their super hype home crowd, Game Day, and the college football world. Not to mention against a well-documented bad road team aka Michigan...(making them 1-4 against Harbaugh). This one will sting for years. 

Franklin will then go on the road to face Dantonio and a downtrodden MSU team coming off of a Bye, who PSU is also an overlooked 1-3 against (only win was MSU's 3-9 season in '16). The losing coach of this game will have a pretty interesting and tense press conference after the game filled with some "dumb ass questions", no matter what happens in our game against PSU. 

If PSU loses that MSU game, they go into a bye, only to come out to try and rebound from those 2 losses. First against a overflowing with confidence Fleck at Minn, next home against a never easy Indiana squad, then off to Columbus to face first year seasoned vet Day and the Buckeyes... (with Franklin hoping to not go 0-3 against the B1G East "Top 3" two years in a row) [They lucked up yet another year and dodged Wiscy during the regular season]

If MSU loses, no one cares, and the game against us in the Big House will no doubt be their Super Bowl and still a definite must win for us. 

 

**Saturday is the last big road game of the season. The rest ND, MSU, and OSU are in the Big House where we can go and support them in person.

It's great to see most fans realizing this and showing how much they're behind the team as they head into a rabid, highly hostile environment. 

][v][akes me as proud as ever to say Go Blue!!

 

Gulogulo37

October 16th, 2019 at 10:49 PM ^

I don't think it's an inside joke really. I think he's just trying not to be confrontational about it. But it must be on message boards or something. It's not a secret. I just don't know where it's coming from. In the UFR comments, someone mentioned an ex-coach, but I have no idea if they're just saying that or they know who it is.

vanarbor

October 16th, 2019 at 9:30 PM ^

One good thing about this game is that no one really expects anything from Michigan. The narrative is that we always lose big games and the early loss vs Wisconsin shows that nothing has changed. Penn State meanwhile is a top team in the country as perceived by many.

Let's fucking shock the country.

chunkums

October 17th, 2019 at 12:45 AM ^

Hopefully I don't have to eat my words, but I still think their offense probably isn't all that great. They put up gaudy stats against one of the worst FCS teams in the country, a wounded and demoralized Purdue squad, and a reeling Maryland team that just got slaughtered by Purdue. Against the two teams with a pulse on the schedule, they've looked kind of crappy on offense. In particular, Iowa totally shut them down and the only reason they scored more than once was because of short fields from turnovers. They had scoring drives of 85, 1, and 35 yards. This team is very beatable. 

ReverendBlueJeans

October 17th, 2019 at 3:26 AM ^

1) Mobile quarterback

2) Speedy (in much more space than ours) receivers, presumably running crossing routes 

Their offense might not be that great, but when an offense has 1 & 2 above, we make them look like world beaters. Add in Harbaugh's abysmal record against teams in PSU's position (home, top ten, etc) and I don't understand why anyone would have any semblance of confidence entering this game. 

From my perspective, the chances are better this game is a 2017 repeat than we come out victorious. I pray I'm wrong but I highly doubt I will be.