First Impressions for Michigan V Mississippi State.
My first impression is that I can’t wait for our offense to take on a sec defense and see how it stacks up. At first glance this should be an interesting match up. Since MSU’s D only gave up 17 to Auburn our offense can’t make the kind of mistakes with drops and turnovers we have been prone to in big games this year. If we cut down on those kind of mistakes this should be a great game. I have heard that MSU’s O is suspect and I was very impressed with the way our D started out against OSU. IF our D can give that for four quarters we win this game easy.
December 6th, 2010 at 10:00 AM ^
Healthy team (some what) and a glimpse of how special we will be in 2011 under RR!
December 6th, 2010 at 10:22 AM ^
Also all the Pahokee/FL kids in warm weather. I would have preferred Gators or TN from purely the prestiege however this will be interesting to watch.
December 6th, 2010 at 10:28 AM ^
We're going to be getting the following six guys back from injury:
Hemingway, Junior Head
Gallon, Jeremy
Martin, Mike
Roh, Craig
Smith, Vince
Stonum, Darryl
Plus, Denard will be well rested and free of any lingering injuries that don't get included on the IR.
Martin will finally have time to heal his sprained ankles and Denard will look like he did against ND.
Yipeeee!
December 6th, 2010 at 10:45 AM ^
of Odoms? Any chance he's back in time to get some PT?
December 6th, 2010 at 11:27 AM ^
Per RR at the presser...Odoms will not be able to play.
December 6th, 2010 at 3:33 PM ^
Most of those guys weren't out in the first place - almost all played against OSU. They'll be healthier against MS ST, though.
December 6th, 2010 at 11:09 AM ^
+100000, if i could that is....I have been saying this all year that our Florida boys just need to get into warm weather for the bowl season and we will be fine. Its very difficult for southern kids to play in strong, cold winds.
December 6th, 2010 at 11:29 AM ^
No problem getting the boys back home, but entire playing in the cold issue needs to be put to bed considering there are no teams in the B10 with domes now that Minny has gone open air. If it is only warm weather they need, I expect a dominating offensive performance.
December 6th, 2010 at 10:05 AM ^
178.6 passing yards per game!!
December 6th, 2010 at 10:07 AM ^
The intitials "M.S.U." suck.
/mgoboard'd
December 6th, 2010 at 10:11 AM ^
The Mississippi did what with the who now? Bulldogs? Georgia? Wait what team is this?
December 6th, 2010 at 10:16 AM ^
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
December 6th, 2010 at 10:19 AM ^
I see what your saying there it being a early game and Auburn not realy rolling yet. But the reason I brought it up is because of the Cam Newton Denard comparison. To be fair Denard misses one to two series on average a game due to bumps and bruises as well.
December 6th, 2010 at 11:08 AM ^
It's still not really the right comparison. Auburn played Newton very conservatively in that game. There is really almost no comparison between how Auburn's offense operated in that game and how Auburn operated its offense, especially the use of Newton, later in the season. People are going to get hung up on the "OMG MSU contained Newton so it will definitely be a challenge for Denard" idea, but if you (not you, anyone who says this) watched the game you'd know that's not really accurate. I've watched several MSU games this year. They are a good team, but to win this game they are going to have to do more than "contain" Denard.
December 6th, 2010 at 12:05 PM ^
Thanks, I'm glad to hear your reasoned opinion on this. I had watched the game, but really forgotten much about it over the past few months. Forgotten as well how conservative Newton was that day.
December 6th, 2010 at 12:54 PM ^
Yeah, it's one of those situations where just looking at the stats like some people tend to do isn't helpful. That was a totally different Auburn team. They also lost their best offensive lineman in that game, which definitely didn't help.
One thing that I'm really looking to see emerge from this game, especially among those who think the SEC is "OMG the bestest!!" is for Michigan to show and just play their game on both sides of the ball, which will be more than good enough to win this game. Both sides of the ball had rough spots this year (the defense, obviously more than the offense), but the thing that tends to get lost in the shuffle is just how hard of a schedule Michigan ended up playing this year.
December 6th, 2010 at 11:58 AM ^
I was thinking the same thing. Mississippi State played Auburn back during the second week of September. If they played right now, Auburn would kill them.
December 6th, 2010 at 10:24 AM ^
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.
December 6th, 2010 at 10:33 AM ^
I look forward to you providing counterpoints to all our arguments about how we should win big in this game.
That's not sarcasm whatsoever. It's great to hear about things from the other side's point of view, as long as that other side isn't Ohio State.
December 6th, 2010 at 10:37 AM ^
... I might hate Ohio State more than you. And that's not a lie. How many blow-outs does Ohio State have to sustain from SEC schools to not be ranked #2 pre-season every year? Give me a break.
December 6th, 2010 at 10:59 AM ^
"... I might hate Ohio State more than you."
No. You don't.
December 6th, 2010 at 11:00 AM ^
December 6th, 2010 at 11:29 AM ^
Oops. Strike one... :)
December 6th, 2010 at 11:43 AM ^
...literally, impossible. Silly SEC fan.
December 6th, 2010 at 12:07 PM ^
........is not only improbable, but impossible. In fact, given the SEC's recent success over tOSU during the past couple decades, the probability of ANY SEC fan actually hating tOSU approaches ZERO since the desire of an SEC team seeing a matchup of their team against tOSU during bowl season is nearly equal to that of being invited to a Victoria's Secret photoshoot.
December 6th, 2010 at 12:15 PM ^
Why would an SEC fan hate Ohio State? Other teams from your conference, National Championship teams, have beaten Ohio State recently so you hate them?
You clearly have no concept of real hate.
December 6th, 2010 at 12:30 PM ^
Until you refuse to own any red clothing and loathe gray days just because it's the color gray, you have no idea what it means to hate Ohio State
December 6th, 2010 at 1:15 PM ^
I nearly didn't buy the truck I own because it is red. Thankfully, I only have to live with it for a little while longer.
December 6th, 2010 at 10:35 AM ^
Thanks for the info. Mississippi State looks like a good team and frankly would probably be the best win for Michigan this year if the Wolverines can pull it off. I think MSU's rushing attack will give Michigan problems and the D will probably give up at least 25-30 points so it really comes down to whether the Michigan O can put up over 30 points on the board.
December 6th, 2010 at 10:25 AM ^
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.
December 6th, 2010 at 10:41 AM ^
ya, to say they beat anyone spectacular is reaching.. While florida's D is fairly solid, the offense is terrible.. if that is the best win they had, then it is tough to judge them.
December 6th, 2010 at 11:02 AM ^
Florida's D until after the point in which we played led all of FBS in interceptions, so we ran the ball. Their D is more than fairly solid, and while their offense is 'terrible', they have the 2nd fastest person in the United States on their team and one of the nation's best dual threat QB's in Trey Burton. As a whole they had some miscues this season, but their offense is still a train.
To boot, it was in the Swamp in front of 90,000+ of their fans. It's considered one of the top 5 hardest places to play in college football, whether they're good or not. They sold out every game despite losing Tebow.
You could say we don't have any marquee wins, but our only 4 loses are to three top 10 teams and #16 Alabama (again, at their place). Out of those, we played Auburn their closest game of the year, only allowed one offensive TD against LSU (5 turnovers, starting QB was injured), and we took Arkansas to 2 OT's (it was our own fault we didn't win the game).
Outside of those 4 losses, Kentucky, while 6-6, has the most efficient quarterback in the SEC and easily one of the best overall football players in the country in Randall Cobb and was held to their 2nd lowest score all season at 17 points (33 PPG/average). The same can be said with Georgia, but instead of offense it's defense.
You can look at the records, but that doesn't always give you the full story. Do a little research in to those teams. Kentucky, Georgia, even Ole Miss would have won ~8+ games in any other conference this year.
A side note: as far as scouting, Ole Miss's quarterback is former Oregon QB Jeremiah Masoli. Auburn was early in the season, and while Masoli isn't Newton, our game plan was similar and had similar results. I can almost assure anyone on this message board that the defensive strategy will be similar to the Ole Miss game.
December 6th, 2010 at 11:17 AM ^
Although I have enjoyed your posts on MSU, how about a little objectivity. You have not given one negative point about an 8-4 football team in a down SEC.
Good Luck Jan 1st
December 6th, 2010 at 11:38 AM ^
Trey Burton is not one of the top dual threat QB's in the nation, unless you redefine "top" to include 20 or so quarterbacks.
December 6th, 2010 at 1:06 PM ^
To be fair, he did say Burton was the SECOND fastest.
December 9th, 2010 at 10:29 AM ^
I think he's referring to Demps with the second fastest comment.
December 6th, 2010 at 10:47 AM ^
We're in a similar situation. Our marquee win is over Notre Dame (7-5) and our victories come over teams with a combined record of 38-45 (0.458) - including a 6-5 UMass team. This should be a very competitive game matching teams on the rise and looking for some Mo' for 2011.
December 6th, 2010 at 11:11 AM ^
I don't know, I consider the marquee win to be UConn...
December 6th, 2010 at 12:02 PM ^
Could be... Flip a coin, both are in the "just okay" column. ND was on the road, though, so I give that W the nod.
December 6th, 2010 at 10:27 AM ^
my training is in psychiatry.
boom! airplane 2'd!
December 6th, 2010 at 10:40 AM ^
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!
December 6th, 2010 at 11:05 AM ^
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.
December 6th, 2010 at 11:14 AM ^
this game will come down to whether we continue to stop ourselves.
This is right on the money.
December 6th, 2010 at 11:11 AM ^
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!
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December 6th, 2010 at 11:18 AM ^
I do not think that is true at all
December 6th, 2010 at 12:29 PM ^
I also believe there is zero truth to that statement. Even if he could play in the bowl and have it count for his 2011 football campaign, you waste his eligibility for next year's bowl game.
This would also mean that any 5th year seniors could not play since the game is in 2011 and would be part of a "sixth" year of eligibility. I won't believe this until I see some Bylaws on it.
December 6th, 2010 at 11:26 AM ^
"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.
December 6th, 2010 at 11:29 AM ^
"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 :)
December 6th, 2010 at 12:07 PM ^
So your hoping for no improvement over the bowl practice and the d plays like crap? I for one have heard enough about how bad the d is. Is it young? Yes. Has it played very well for a entire game. No. But this is bowl season and I choose to hope that the D that started the game against OSU will be the one that shows up at the bowl game. Is this realistic probably not. But untill they come out and suck I will hope for a good defensive performance.
December 6th, 2010 at 1:41 PM ^
Fair. But luckily, Miss St. doesn't have an offense anywhere near OSU or Wisconsin. We've played some very tough offenses this year, so although our defense hasn't been good, they've played a high level of competition. Miss St. is about as good as Iowa (pre-implosion), in comparison to teams we've faced. If we put together a complete game, and avoid key players being injured, I like our chances.