SportsMonday, September 25, 2006 - The Michigan Daily - 5B MAIZE GAUGE The Michigan Daily football writers break down the weekend's stats that don't show up in the box- score. The defense-o-meter measures the intensity of the defense, the Carr-o-meter judges Lloyd Carr's demeanor following the game and the hypemeter measures the fans' game performance. ig DEFENSE-O-METER 4 It's incredible that last year's defense - with virtu- / ally the same players - was Michigan's Achilles' heel. After one sketchy drive to begin the game, LaMarr the Wolverines gave Wisconsin next to nothing. Woodleys CARR-O-METER 3 When a reporter's cell phone rang, Lloyd Carr asked to /4 speak to the caller. Clearly, Carr wasn't too worried about his team's slow start. He wasn't as elated as last week, Lloyd but he was quite satisfied with his defense's dominant day. carrs HYPEMETER 3/4 As always, Michigan students strolled in right near kick- off, but clearly brought their cheering voices once they arrived. And the Maize Out worked better than anyone Student could have imagined - the Big House never looked better. T-shirts STAFF PICKS Predictions against the spread for Sept. 16 Kevin. Stephani No. 24 renn State (+17) at No.:L Unio state Unio state Buffalo (+42) at No. 2 Auburn Auburn No. 3 Southern Cal (-23) at Arizona Southern Cal No. 4 West Virginia (-21.5) at East Carolina West Virginia Kentucky (+24) at No. 5 Florida Florida Iowa State (+26) at No. 7 Texas Texas No. 8 Louisville (-14.5) at Kansas State Louisville Colorado (+28) at No. 9 Georgia Georgia Tulane (+37) at No. 10 Louisiana State Tulane Cincinnati (+28)at No. 11 Virginia Tech Cincinnati No. 12 Notre Dame (-3.5) at Michigan State Notre Dame No. 14 Iowa (-21) at Illinois Iowa Marshall (+22) at No. 15 Tennessee Tennessee Middle Tennessee Stat (+28.5) at No.17 Oklahoma Oklahoma Rice (+31) at No. 18 Florida State Rice North Carolina (+17) at No. 19 Clemson Clemson No. 20 Boston College (-7) at North Carolina State Boston College No. 22 Arizona State (+7.5) at No. 21 Califomia Arizona State Troy (+23.5) at No. 23 Nebraska Troy Hawaii (+15) at N. 25 Boise State Boise State Best Bet West Virginia Record 6-14-1( 1) Overall 29-25-3 (2-1) Micnigan Penn State Buffalo Arizona West Virginia Florida Iowa State Louisville Colorado Tulane Cincinnati Notre Dame Iowa Tennessee Oklahoma Florida State North Carolina Boston College Arizona State Troy Hawaii Iowa 10-10-1 (0-1) 2&26-3 (0-3) Kevin Wright Michigan Penn State Auburn Southern Cal West Virginia Florida Iowa State Louisville Georgia Louisiana State Virginia Tech Notre Dame Iowa Tennessee Oklahoma Florida State Clemson Boston College Califomia Troy Boise State Califomnia 812-1(10) 28-26-3 (2-1) Stephanie Wright Michigan Penn State Buffalo Southern Cal West Virginia Florida Texas Louisville Georgia Louisiana State Virginia Tech Notre Dame Iowa Tennessee Oklahoma Rice Clemson Boston College Arizona State Troy Boise State Boston College -1441( 1) 25-29-3 (2-1) Fielding H. Yost 1ll Michigan Penn State Buffalo Southern Cal West Virginia Kentucky Iowa State Louisville Georgia Tulane Cincinnati Michigan State Iowa Tennessee Oklahoma Rice Clemson Boston College Califomia Nebraska Hawaii Michigan 12-8-1(0-0-1) 34-1&3 (1-1-1) YostfNrules day as writers lay egg On a weekend where only Matt Singer, self-proclaimed "laughingstock" of staff picks, finished .500 for the Daily football writers, the celebrities opened up quite a dominat- ing lead. Fielding H. Yost, III - the grandson of legendary Michigan football coach Fielding Yost and member of the Save the Big House campaign - didn't think he knew enough about college football to pick against the spread, but he proved he had a leg up on the Daily prognosticators. BELL Continued from page 1B longer combating opposing defenses or understanding all of his routes. That's cake. Manningham's biggest obstacle on Saturday came when he had to face the media about his success. Ever caught five touchdowns in two games? "No, no sir, no I've never (done) that," Manningham sheepishly replies during Saturday's post-game press con- ference. It's the first time he's had to appear at the dreaded podium in front of the media following a home game. He looks behind him to see if he can leave yet. Sorry, the torture has just begun. Did you hear it a lot around cam- pus about the Notre Dame game? "No, not really. I wear a hat around, so ..." Manningham drifts off. Nice try, you're not off the hook yet. Is that by design that you wear a hat? Are you trying to hide? "No, I just wear a hat," Manning- ham says matter-of-factly. "It's been raining this week." Makes sense. Affected by rain, you say? Maybe he is human, after all. One last question: Would you rath- er just lay low and have others take the spotlight? "As long as we're winning, it don't even matter," Manningham says. "As long as we're winning, I don't care if I get the ball once, eight times, two times. It don't matter to me." Well, it matters to Michigan. Something tells me there might be a correlation between Manningham touching the ball and the Wolverines winning. Don't believe me? Let's look at some of Michigan's big games since Manningham's arrival. Penn State enters the Big House undefeated with national cham- pionship aspirations. Yawn. Manningham's game-winning-no- time-remaining-just-another-day-at- the-office grab sealed the Nittany Lions' fate there. Notre Dame? All Manningham did there was end a school's national title hopes (again), a quarterback's Heis- man Trophy aspirations and his own school's 12-year drought of wins in South Bend. And then Saturday's game against Wisconsin: Seven catches, 113 yards, two touchdowns and about 2,000 people coming up to him today on campus asking him when he'll wear No. 1. Sorry, Mario, but I've got a feeling you'll be back at that podium. Again and again. We'll actually save you a spot at the podium for the next two- plus years for convenience sake. I think your quarterback agrees. "I think he'll get used to it," said quarterback Chad Henne after replac- ing his teammate in front of the podi- um following Saturday's game. "With a young guy like that, everyone's nervous their first time coming in. But he'll get used to it, especially if he keeps making plays like this. He'll be in here a lot." Remember after Michigan's first two games when everyone was up in arms about the Wolverines' lack of a passing attack? I don't want to say that was an overreaction, but even Tom Cruise thinks you guys should switch to decaf. Over the past two weeks, Michigan hasn't just beaten two good football teams. The Wolverines have helped themselves by filling in the biggest perceived hole in their game. Consider the passing game hole (if there ever was one to begin with) filled in, covered, cemented in with a cement truck - however you want to look at it, it's gone. Gone should also be the questions about the passing game for the rest of the season, because the solution is right in front of our eyes. He'll be the guy walking down the Diag with his hat on and his head down - rain or shine. - Bell can be reached at scotteb@umich.edu. THE MICHIGAN DAILY TOP 10 POLL Michigan Daily Top 10 has 6. Michigan: Even though the Wolverines handily :a fers will fill out ballots, defeated Wisconsin, they moved down a spot in the Ioints, second-place polls. Henne and his receivers are finally starting to ery Monday, the results _ click, and thedefense has remained dominant, allowing otes in parentheses. just12 net yards rushing against the Badgers. or about57 minutes.Ohio State < 8. Texas: Despiterunning alloverIowa State,Texas dropped a spot in the polls. The Longhorns have steadily improvedeahweek, b stthe gsod't1fshion heatingOhimState putontheminAustin still remains the strongest image sf this team in the votens'uinds. 3. Southern Cal: How's this for a change - the Trojans won alow-scoring game. Beating Arizona 20-3 is nothing special,butthe SouthernCal defense deserves some props for taking over a game. Here's to Pete Carroll,defensive mastermind. yr- 10. Virginia Tech: The Hokies move into the Daily Top 10 for the first time this year. Frank Beamer's squad has Slown under the radar this season, going 4-0.sMaybe it's because the Hokies do' hae nvsx ffers o tetam 5. Florida: The Gators fit the theme of the week well. They let a subpar Kentucky team hang around for a bit, but pulled away before things got really scary. Florida's good, but a hellish upcoming schedule might knock the squad off this list. BADGERS Continued from page 1B just got back in our groove and played good defense." Defensive end LaMarr Woodley said Michigan (1-0 Big Ten, 4-0 overall) was overrunning the ball on the first drive, giving Hill open running lanes. Once the Wolverines adjusted, they shut down Wisconsin's run game and forced the Badgers to throw the ball, something they rarely do. Wisconsin quarterback John Stocco fin- ished with 236 yards and one touchdown on 22-of-42 passing. But Stocco had to deal with Michigan defenders in his face for much of the afternoon. The Wolverines notched four sacks in the contest, giving them 16 on the season, the nation's third- highest total. Three of the sacks came from defensive linemen (Branch,Woodley and defensive end Tim Jamison). "It's nice to see those kind of numbers on the rushing yardage, but I think the key thing is that we brought a lot of four-man pressures today" Stripling said. "We were able to get some pressure on the quarter- back by just bringing four guys." Michigan's stout defensive play made up for an offensive attack that showed only glimpses oflast week's electrifying display against Notre Dame. Manningham caught seven balls for 113 yards, including two touchdown passes, giving him five touch- downs in the last two games. Receiver Adrian Arrington broke out with 79 yards on four receptions. Wisconsin (0-1, 3-1) stopped Hart's streak of 100-yard rushing games at three; the junior gained 91 yards on 23 carries but did score his fifth touchdown of the season. The Wolverines' balanced offense ben- efited from great field position throughout the game, thanks to the defense mak- ing quick work of the Badgers and Steve Breaston's stellar day returning punts. Butin the endthis victory couldn't start until the run was stopped. "I think we took a major step today because you're not going to find a bigger offensive line," Michigan coach Lloyd Carr said. "I thought our defense was out- standing. I don't know if you'd call ita per- sonality; I just call it Michigan defense." I A 4 A A