Playing for win #899 against Illinois
October 7th, 2012 at 8:23 PM ^
October 7th, 2012 at 9:27 PM ^
No team should be overlooked, however.
October 7th, 2012 at 10:25 PM ^
October 7th, 2012 at 10:33 PM ^
Dude... really?
App State?
October 7th, 2012 at 10:53 PM ^
October 7th, 2012 at 8:26 PM ^
Much better.
October 7th, 2012 at 8:28 PM ^
Opening Line: Michigan -21.
Prediction?
October 8th, 2012 at 9:34 AM ^
Pain.
October 7th, 2012 at 8:30 PM ^
And when, not if but when, we win and beat MSU, we will have won our 900th game and it will have come against MSU. Boom. Raback'd.
October 7th, 2012 at 8:30 PM ^
1. I know that they are not good at the whole football thing in Illinois, but I would be encouraged to see fitz go off for 150+. He needs to start to build some momentum. If he still struggles against this team, hoke needs to start getting rawls, hayes or Norfleet (!!!) some reps in preparation for MSU. We need rb production since msu tends to stifle denard's running.
2. Denard - hoping for another game where he works on the short stuff so that he can build some positive momentum going into msu. I would like to see another consistent game from him.
3. Funchess - I would like to see him get more involved in the offense (this is not on him) as we may need him as a real threat to open up the field for Denard.
4. Defense - more of the same.
October 7th, 2012 at 9:10 PM ^
I would like to see Fitz get going, the Devins create obvious mismatches, and the D-Line continue to improve.
October 7th, 2012 at 8:39 PM ^
October 7th, 2012 at 8:43 PM ^
I would really like to see us win by more than 21
October 7th, 2012 at 8:47 PM ^
Illinois is last in the Big Ten in the following:
- Pass Efficiency Defense (105 completions against 170 attempts, 8.01 yards per attempt average)
- Punt Returns (11 punts, 23 yards)
- Rushing Offense (218 carries, 759 net yards)
- Scoring Defense (170 points allowed)
- Scoring Offense (averaging 21.17 points per game)
- Lost Turnovers (16 lost)
They are next to last in the following:
- Fumbles Lost (7 lost)
- Kickoff Returns (19 returns, 303 yards)
- Total Offense (414 plays for 2033 yards)
- Tackles For Loss (30 total tackles for 125 yards)
My thoughts on this game are that we can very likely manage this one. We should win by a comfortable margin.
October 7th, 2012 at 8:48 PM ^
October 7th, 2012 at 8:53 PM ^
I respectfully disagree. Rawls runs well north-south. Many of the inverted veers we run (which make Denard so effective) require the RB to go east-west first. I'd rather have Fitz doing that than Rawls.
October 7th, 2012 at 8:56 PM ^
Rawls has seen garbage time (where he's looked decent) and some snaps in the Alabama game (where he did nothing). What makes anyone think he'll get the start? I mean, the staff is more comfortable running Smith up the middle than going with Rawls, yet parts of the board are obsessed with the dude for whatever reason.
October 8th, 2012 at 11:52 AM ^
From what I've heard of Rawls, he is like Tecmo Bowl Christian Okoye, only he breaks more tackles.
October 8th, 2012 at 2:55 PM ^
October 7th, 2012 at 8:51 PM ^
October 7th, 2012 at 10:23 PM ^
October 8th, 2012 at 8:56 AM ^
Thank you mister Spock.
October 7th, 2012 at 8:53 PM ^
Might be hard for the team to get motivated for this one otherwise
October 7th, 2012 at 8:53 PM ^
So what's the deal with these threads today?
October 7th, 2012 at 9:17 PM ^
I glanced at the first page of the board and got the joke. Well played sir.
October 7th, 2012 at 8:53 PM ^
This season has gone exactly like I predicted. Loss to Bama, ugly loss to ND that we should've won.
Now I have us running the table with @Nebraska being the only scare until the OSU game.
That puts us at 9-2 (#10-13 type team) going into the Ohio game.
It pains me, but preseason I had us losing. On the road, it's their bowl game, it's Meyer's first game vs. Michigan. AND we'll have a spot in the B1G Championship game already locked up.
I hope I'm wrong, but that puts us a 9-3. I had us beating Wisconsin, going to the Rose Bowl and winning to finish 11-3 with a B1G Championship and a Rose Bowl Championship (and likely top 10).
FWIW, I had us beating MSU by at least 2 touchdowns...and still do.
October 7th, 2012 at 8:55 PM ^
October 7th, 2012 at 9:00 PM ^
October 7th, 2012 at 9:12 PM ^
Remember what defenses-that-don't-suck do to a one-man Denard no matter hwo well he plays. See 2010. Now the B1G is admittedly light on DTDS but still...
October 7th, 2012 at 9:24 PM ^
October 7th, 2012 at 9:09 PM ^
I heard from a friend who is currently a student at Michigan that Dave Brandon was going to announce this week that the MSU-Michigan game will be a night game at the big house. i can see that he wants one night game a year. Does anyone know more about this or can anyone confirm/deny this?
October 7th, 2012 at 9:16 PM ^
DB is on the record as saying that night games against State or Ohio are off the table.
October 7th, 2012 at 9:19 PM ^
But it was supposed to be for "big games" IIRC. Which left exactly one choice. Will be interesting to see what they do for night games when that series ends.
October 7th, 2012 at 9:27 PM ^
October 7th, 2012 at 9:41 PM ^
2013: ND is the only reasonable option
2014: PSU, Utah, App State (please no)
2015: Oregon State, Wisconsin, or TBA Opponent (Arkansas?)
2016: Northwestern or TBA. Please no Colorado at night.
October 7th, 2012 at 9:26 PM ^
Besides DB saying no State for a night game, pretty much all the Michigan beat writers have said that the MSU games isn't gonna be at night
October 7th, 2012 at 9:26 PM ^
We would know. Last year after UTL, Brandon pretty much ruled out any possibility of a night game against OSU or MSU. I don't think you can keep something like a night game a secret until 12 days away from kickoff either.
October 7th, 2012 at 9:26 PM ^
October 7th, 2012 at 9:49 PM ^
That's what I thought in 1999 when Michigan was in the top 10 and Illinois had a bunch of scrubs like Rocky Harvey.
October 7th, 2012 at 10:39 PM ^
Illinois is 2-4 and has scored 21 points in the last 2 weeks. They're not good. If we lose to Illinois I'll eat my hat.
October 7th, 2012 at 10:19 PM ^
October 7th, 2012 at 9:58 PM ^
Unless Illinois has been hiding a 500-foot-tall robot in their roster, I think we win.
October 7th, 2012 at 10:18 PM ^
October 7th, 2012 at 10:20 PM ^
October 7th, 2012 at 10:30 PM ^
I also know DB basically crushed all discussions of an MSU night game this year, but it is still a little odd that the time is still TBA less than 2 weeks away from the game....
October 7th, 2012 at 10:36 PM ^
Big recruiting weekend, big significant potential win #, our in state rival...Let's beat em at night.
October 8th, 2012 at 12:18 AM ^
October 8th, 2012 at 1:43 AM ^
Could you imagine a night game against Moo U... all those drunk inbreds from StAEE tearing A2 up?!?!?! No thanks!
October 8th, 2012 at 10:19 AM ^
TBD games are typically announced 2 Mondays prior to the game. There is a stipulation in the TV deal that once or maybe twice a season ESPN/ABC can invoke the 1 week clause, where they can wait until the monday prior to announce times to get the "best" game at 3:30.
October 7th, 2012 at 11:10 PM ^