First Impressions for Michigan V Mississippi State.

Healthy team (some what) and a glimpse of how special we will be in 2011 under RR!

178.6 passing yards per game!!

The intitials "M.S.U." suck.

/mgoboard'd

The Mississippi did what with the who now? Bulldogs? Georgia? Wait what team is this?

MSU played Auburn tough, yes, but some intresting facts about that game.

Was the second game of the season for Auburn and the teams first road game.

They had two huge turnovers on MSU's side of the field.

Cam Newton missed a series or two with a minor injury.

Cam Newtons stats for the game  11-19 passing 136 yds, 2 TD and 1 INT.  Rushing 18 att for 70 yards with no TDs

MSU is certainly a tough team, but If they played Auburn today it would be a blow out . Expect Michigan to beat up on them as well

Go Blue

If you think our O is suspect, think again. We're an oppurtune offense, if something works we stick to it. But with our high caliber offensive line and solid group of running backs, we usually go there first.

Florida's secondary is considered one of the best in the SEC, and until mid season led all of FBS in interceptions, so we ran the ball the entire second half despite them loading the box every play.

Against Ole Miss and Arkansas (considered some of the worst secondaries in the SEC this year), we threw the ball for 250-300 yards, still compiling over 200 yards rushing.

Mullen is one of the top targets for head coaching positions around the country because of his adaptability. He took over a program with 0% passing game and the SEC's leading rusher and made it work in 2009. Now he added a passing game.

For those of you who are actually doing some research on Mississippi State, look in Tyler Russell, redshirt freshman, specifically his game against Memphis (I say this because Memphis and Michigan's secondary are considered almost equal in the NCAA standings). Relf is the starting QB, but is a dual threat, but Russell is a prolific passer and has come in all season when we need a passing threat.

It appears that MSU has had a pretty successful year. However, upon further review it seems that there biggest win was over *mighty* Florida by a score of 10-7. There other wins include Memphis, Georgia (without their best receiver), Alcorn state, Houston, UAB, Kentucky, and Mississippi.

The combined records of the teams MSU beat this year are: 38 -57 (0.400)

While it may be a moot point, those are not great victories.

my training is in psychiatry.

boom! airplane 2'd!

My initial thoughts are simple...I'm happy that we're playing on New Year's Day and think we've got a beatable opponent.  Good times!

A lot has been made of how the Bulldogs held Cam Newton to 17 points, but Newton hadn't exploded yet.  If that game were played today, the results would be much different.  Case in point -- look at what Auburn did against South Carolina in the SEC championship game and compare it to their first matchup.  Auburn also barely beat a crappy Clemson team at home in that same time frame.  Their defense is legit but this game will come down to whether we continue to stop ourselves. 

Also, I've been told that it's possible to play in a new years day (or later) game and not lose eligibility for the previous redshirted year. Meaning that Troy, if healthy, could play and still play next year as the bowl game is in 2011!

"Mississippi State will be without its top receiver in its upcoming bowl game. Sophomore receiver Chad Bumphis broke his collarbone Saturday."

http://www.clarionledger.com/article/201011300100/SPORTS030102/11300322?odyssey=mod_related_topix

Never good to see a kid injured, and hope he comes back strong next year, but for practical purposes, that should be a small benefit (hopefully) for our poor pass defense.

"If our d plays like it did the first two drives of OSU." Ya and if it plays like it did that one drive against Wisconsin and that other one against Illinois....well props for being optimistic :)

and RR can't. This is crap match up from that perspective considering how this fact will get spun like a top in the local papers.

I thought I would come see what you guys were thinking about this game.  While State has not beaten anyone spectactular, neither has Michigan.  Their record against opoenents that they beat this year was 42-41, which is a little better than state's.  Both teams played some good teams this year and fell short.  State played Auburn and Arkansas very close and had the opportunity to win both in the final seconds.  Michigan never played any of the top teams down to the wire like we did.  The Auburn game was early in the season though.  I look for Michigan to load the box and try to force Relf to pass.  Ole Miss tried this in our last game and Relf torched them with short passing.  Then we started running the ball and they couldn't stop us.  Our offensive line is one of the best units in the country.  With Michigan's defensive struggles, I expect us to dominate up front offensively, protect the ball, and sustain some very long drives, keeping the ball out of Robinson's hands.  This has basically been our game plan every game.  To win this game, Michigan will have to take advantage every time they get the ball because they will only have it for a small percentage of the game.  I think you guys will need us to turn the ball over a time or two, which is something we don't do a lot of.  Our defense will be one of the better defenses that you guys have seen this year.  That has been our strongest part this season, but if you can get some protection, our secondary is a little shaky.  Robinson will have to have a decent game passing to give Michigan a chance.  Our new DC Manny Diaz will be prepared for Robinson.  The only thing I am really concerned with is how we will play after taking this much time off.  We played terrible at Alabama after our bye week and Mullen blamed it on the time off.  We'll see.  I have a lot of respect for Michigan.  I expect Michigan to pop off a couple big plays during the game.  It should be a fun match up but I feel good about us winning.  Mullen has won every game that he was supposed to this year.  Hopefully that continues.