The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Friday, November 21, 2008 - 9
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Friday, November 21, 2008 - 9
FOOTBALL
Breakdown:
Ohio State has
all-around edge
Senior quartet selected as
permanent captains for 'M'
By COURTNEY RATKOWIAK
and NATE SANDALS
Daily Sports Editors
MICHIGAN RUSHING
OFFENSE VS. OHIO STATE
RUSHING DEFENSE
Junior running back Brandon
Minor said Monday he would play
regardless of his injuries. With
Minor in the backfield and junior
running back Carlos Brown coming
* off a good game against Northwest-
ern, the Wolverines appear to be in
good position -until the Ohio State
defense is accounted for.
The Buckeyes held Michigan
State running back Javon Ringer
to just 67 yards in a win earlier
this season. Ohio State lineback-
ers James Laurinaitis and Marcus
Freeman have dominated all year,
and that won't change Saturday.
Edge: Ohio State
MICHIGAN PASSING
OFFENSE VS. OHIO STATE
PASSING DEFENSE
It's only fitting that Michigan's
quarterback situation will end the
season as precariously as it started.
Redshirt sophomore Nick Sheri-
dan will start, but freshman Justin
Feagin and injured redshirt fresh-
man Steven Threet could also play.
Sheridan played well against Min-
nesota, but poorly against North-
western, and he'll be coming into
an extremely hostile road environ-
ment.
The Ohio State secondary is led
by cornerback Malcolm Jenkins,
a Thorpe Award semifinalist. Last
week, Jenkins blocked an Illinois
punt for a safety and had three
pass breakups and two tackles. The
Buckeye passing defense is ranked
13th in the nation.
Edge: Ohio State
OHIO STATE RUSHING
OFFENSE VS. MICHIGAN
RUSHING DEFENSE
Let's put the obvious out there
from the start: Beanie Wells is a
beast. The Ohio State junior is the
best running back Michigan has
faced this season, and his combi-
nation of size and speed present a
huge challenge for the Wolverines'
front seven. Wells has rushed for
more than 140 yards in each of his
last two games and is 43 yards away
from 1,000 for the season. He'll
probably crash through that mark
in the first half Saturday.
Michigan's run defense has held
opponents under 100 yards the past
two weeks, following a miserable
three-game stretch against Penn
State, Michigan State and Purdue
in which it allowed 218 yards per
game. The Wolverines' veteran
front four will have an impact in
REDHAWKS
From Page 8
"I honestly think the attitude is
we take a loss, and everyone takes
it personal," Sauer said. "I don't
know why it takes us that loss.
It's probably just the feeling that
when we play lackadaisical on Fri-
day night and get that loss, and we
realize we've got to bear down on
Saturday."
This weekend Michigan will
need its offense to show up when
it plays No. 7 Miami (6-3-3 overall,
6-2-2-1 CCHA) in Oxford. The Red-
Hawks are currently the top teamin
the CCHA.
The atmosphere at Miami will be
electric. When the teams met last
year, they were the top two teams in
the country.
"They had kids camping out two
or three nights before the game (last
year)," sophomore forward Matt
Rust said. "The atmosphere was
great."
But this time, both the Wolver-
ines and RedHawks have lost some
tough games to teams they usually
what could be each of their last
games, but the Buckeyes will still
move the ball well, especially the
duo of Wells and freshman quarter-
back Terrelle Pryor.
Edge: Ohio State
OHIO STATE PASSING
OFFENSE VS. MICHIGAN
PASSINGDEFENSE
Pryor is a runner first and a pass-
er second, but he's shown he can
make the key throw when his team
needs it. Pryor went 6-for-10 with a
touchdown in the Buckeyes' 30-20
win over Illinois last Saturday. He
has thrown more than 20 passes
just once this season (a 13-6 loss to
Penn State last month), but Pryor is
still the most efficient passer in the
Big Ten.
Michigan's secondary was a
bright spot against Minnesota and
in the first half of the Northwest-
ern game, but it was victimized in
the final two quarters against the
Wildcats. Ohio State passes very
little unless it's behind in the game,
so the secondary's biggest impact
could be its ability to tackle runners
who break into the defensive back-
field. Michigan has struggled with
open-field tackling all season, and
it'll need to improve on that this
week.
Edge: Ohio State
SPECIAL TEAMS
Bothteamshave punterswho are
semifinalists for the Ray Guy award,
given to the best punter in college
football. Michigan redshirt junior
Zoltan Mesko had a tough time
last week against Northwestern,
but his performance the rest of the
season suggests last week's game
was an anomaly. Ohio State fifth-
year senior punter A.J. Trapasso is
averaging 41.7 yards per punt, and
Mesko averages 44.1 yards.
Michigan is still prone to fum-
blingonkickreturns, and the Buck-
eyes are a team that will capitalize
on those mistakes.
Edge: Ohio State
INTANGIBLES
Ohio State actually has some-
thing to play for Saturday. A win
gives the Buckeyes a share of the
Big Ten title. A win and a Penn
State loss sends Ohio State to the
Rose Bowl.
Michigan has already clinched
its most losses in program history
(that's 129 years, folks) and all it has
to play for is the abstract and over-
used term, "pride." Shouldn't the
team always be playing for pride?
It's unclear why that would make a
difference this week.
Edge: Ohio State
Ohio State will win 35-13.
beat, which has been a trend in the
CCHA this year. In fact, Michigan
has lost more games through 12
games than it did last year when it
played Miami through28 games.
Michigan left Oxford last year
with a win and a tie and beat the
RedHawks in Detroit to win the
CCHA Playoff Championship.
This weekend's series will be the
biggest so far for Michigan, and to
perform in two games instead of
just one, the Wolverinesawill have to
come out and give Sauer their best.
Michigan's series with Miami,
along with next weekend's College
Hockey Showcase against Minneso-
ta and Wisconsin, has the potential
to define the Wolverines' season. If
the offense, defense and goaltend-
ing don't come together, Michigan
could quickly find itself as a mid-
dling team in the CCHA.
"It will give us a better idea of
where we are," Michigan coach Red
Berenson said. "The last big series
we had was BU, and obviously we
failed that test. We've been trying to
bounce back since then, and I can't
tell you we're satisfied with where
we are."
By DAN FELDMAN
Daily Sports Editor
Senior nose tackle Terrance
Taylor was speaking with report-
ers Monday when fifth-year senior
defensive tackle Will Johnson
walked by.
"Nobody cares, Terrance,"
Johnson said.
"It's your 42-year-old birthday,
Will," Taylor said before turn-
ing back to the reporters. ""You
see he's losing his hair? You see
that?"
In the Michigan football team's
worst season in 129 years, the
seniors have grown especially
close. Their teammates reward-
ed that camaraderie in a Sunday
night vote for captains that was
announced to the team Thursday.
The Wolverines elected an all-
time-most four captains - Tay-
lor, Johnson, fifth-year senior
defensive end Tim Jamison and
fifth-year senior tight end Mike
Massey.
"These four men have provided
tremendous leadership and repre-
sented our program at the high-
est level throughout the season,"
Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez
said in a statement. "Their peers
have elected them captain, the
highest honor that a Michigan
football player can receive. Mike,
Tim, Will and Terrance are great
ambassadors for this program and
will be great alumni."
The quartet will serve as game
captains against Ohio State on
Saturday and will be listed as the
permanent captains for the sea-
son. Rodriguez didn't name cap-
tains before the season, which is
what the Wolverines had done in
the past.
Taylor, Johnson and Jamison
make up the first trio of captains
ond set of brothers to serve as
captains for Michigan. Mike Mal-
lory was a captain in 1984 and his
brother, Doug, was one in 1987.
Rodriguez has used the system
of picking captains at the end of the
season because it rewards those
who step up and lead most effec-
tively during the season. Voting at
the end of the season also allowed
Rodriguez to name all 15 seniors
game captains at least once.
"I like doing that because then
every senior - they put all the
work in throughout their career
- can say 'Hey, I was a captain for
Michigan,' " Rodriguez said this
summer. "I think that's a pretty
neat thing for them to talk about,
put on their resume, and they cer-
tainly deserve that."
Rodriguez also introduced a
system in the summer that identi-
fied leaders from each class, called
"apostles." The "apostle" system
ensured players of all ages had a
voice in team affairs.
"A freshman or sophomore
might see something I don't see,
and he can pull one guy to the side
and encourage him and get on him
hard," Jamison said. "If it was only
two (captains), you wouldn't see
everything on the team. I feel like
it's going to be great."
But it was the senior captain
Taylor who gave the Wolverines
their season-defining speech after
losing to Northwestern last Satur-
day. In the postgame locker room,
he told his teammates he loved
them and never to let a season like
this happen again.
"He's a resilient kid, and he's
always fighting," redshirt sopho-
more left guard John Ferrara
said. "You can tell by his words.
His words are very powerful, and
they'll stick with me for the rest of
my life."
CLIF REEDER, RODRIGO GAYA, RODRIGO GAYA, PETER SCHOTTENFELS/Daily
(From top left, clockwise) Fifth-year senior Will Johnson, senior Terrance Taylor,
fifth-year senior Tim Jamison and fifth-year senior Mike Massey.
who played in the same position
group.
"Will shows you on the field,"
Taylor said Monday. "I show you
on the field and I'm not scared to
say anything that's from my heart.
And JMo (Jamison) is somewhere
in the middle. It's just a group that
you have that's handling different
parts of the team. That's one of the
things that's really important.
"Put together, we're good lead-
ers - all three of us."
Apparently, Taylor's leader-
ship style rubbed off quite a bit on
Johnson.
"For some reason, Will's start-
ing to talk more," Taylor said. "I
think he's been hanging around
me too long. You see that little
outburst he just had? The old Will
wouldn't have did that."
Massey is the lone senior on
offense. He, along with his brother
Pat, a defensive tackle who was a
captain in 2005, became the sec-
FOOTBALL
A dozen bold predictions for Michigan's
game against the Buckeyes tomorrow
DAN FELDMAN:
Michigan will continue to
possess the ball far less than its
opponent. Michigan has had the
ball about 55 minutes less than
its opponents this year. Unless
the Wolverines have more than
a 16-minute advantage in time of
possession Saturday, they will set
the program record for worst dif-
ferential in that category.
Count on that record falling.
Michigan will fallibehind, and with
redshirt sophomore Nick Sheridan
passing a lotin a comeback attempt,
there will be plenty of incomple-
tions. Add on Ohio State running
back Chris "Beanie" Wells's ability
to grind out yards, and the Wolver-
ines' offense will spend most of the
game on the sideline.
Buckeye quarterback Ter-
relle Pryor will dominate. The
Wolverines have struggled against
mobile quarterbacks all season and,
with their recent success stopping
the run, this game will be in Pry-
or's hands. Look for the freshman
to surpass his career-high of 232
yards passing and rushing com-
bined, which he set in a loss against
Penn State.
Ohio State will win 50-14. The
Buckeyes are healthy and play-
ing their best football of the year.
Michigan is banged up, and plain
and simple, isn't a good team. But
don't forget what happened the
year after Ohio State beat the Wol-
verines by such a margin...
COURTNEYRATKOWIAK:
Pryor won't finish the game.
It's fifth-year senior Todd Boeck-
man's last regular-season game,
and though Pryor may getthe start,
Boeckman will finish. Especially if
the Buckeyes are leading by a large
margin at the end, Pryor will be on
the bench in the second half.
Terrance Taylor will have his
best game of the season. Though
the rest of the Michigan defense
will be shredded by the Buckeyes,
Taylor willbe lookingto back up all
his talk in his final college game. He
said Monday that one of the most
important reasons he didn't leave
for the NFL Draft after last season
was because he hadn't beaten Ohio
State. And with how this year has
turned out, he'll be trying to make
sure at least one of his goals will be
accomplished. Heart will take him
far.
Ohio State will win 41-14.
Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez
said after last Saturday's loss to
Northwestern that everyone would
be saying the Wolverines have no
chance tomorrow. And that's true
- they don't. They've already upset
one ranked Big Ten team, but don't
expect them to be so luckythistime
around.
IAN ROBINSON:
Wells will match Wells. In
Ohio State coach Jim Tressel's
first game against Michigan in
2001, Buckeye running back
Jonathan Wells ran for 129 yards
and three touchdowns. This year,
Chris Wells, though not related to
Jonathan, will put on a similarly
dominant performance against
the Wolverines.
Michigan will not success-
fully runa trick play. Rodriguez
has been apprehensive to look
in his bag of tricks this year. It's
probably because his players have
enough trouble executing their
standard offense that they haven't
had time for trick plays. Other
than two fake punts, nothing has
really been out of the ordinary.
Anything that Michigan tries this
weekend won't work against the
Buckeye defense.
Ohio State will win 35-10.
Rodriguez will become the first
Michigancoachsince HarryKipke
in 1929 to lose his first matchup
with the Buckeyes. Michigan is
completely outmatched in the
game. It will get ugly.
NATE SANDALS:
Michigan will lead the game
at some point. The Wolverines
will surprise a lot of people by
scoring a touchdown on their first
drive, giving them a 7-0 lead. Ohio
State's defense will dominate the
rest of the game, but Michigan
will come out of the locker room
fired up and stun the Buckeyes
early.
Justin Feagin will throw a
pass. Is "why not" enough of an
explanation? Probably not. Feagin
needs to play more than he did
against Northwestern last week.
In the last game of the season,
Feagin shouldn't be afraid to mix
things up a bit. One more caveat
though - Feagin won't complete a
pass.
Ohio State will win 34-13. A
dismalend to a dismal season. The
Buckeyes are better in all three
phases, so this should come as
no surprise. But that won't make
a fifth straight loss to Ohio State
hurt any less.
ACROSS THsE NATION
Top -five showdown could be year's best matchup
A JUST LIKE A SLAM
DUNK IN MADISON
SQUARE GARDEN.
JOIN DAILY SPORTS.
E-MAIL SANDALS@MICHIGANDAILY.COM.
By NICK COSTON in the Big 12 South for years, but
Daily Sports Writer the Red Raiders have taken firm
control this season, behind quar-
Last week, college football fans terback Graham Harrell and wide
across the country witnessed a receiver Michael Crabtree.
Saturday without monumental col- Meanwhile, Oklahoma quarter-
lapses or upsets for what seemed back Sam Bradford and his Soon-
like the first time all season. But ers might be the only offense in
any relief fromlast week's pedestri- the country that can match Texas
an slate of contests will be annihi- Tech. Oklahoma has delivered par-
lated this weekend. The conference titularly cruel defeats this season,
races are only getting more heated winning by an average margin of
as December approaches. 28 points. With three Heisman
candidates, a combined average of
NO.2 TEXAS TECH AT NO.5 more than 99 points per game, and
OKLAHOMA spots in the Big 12 Championship
The first-ever organized game and BCS Championship games on
of American football was between the line, this looks to be the game
Rutgers and Princeton in 1869. The of the year.
final score was 6-4. This Saturday,
Texas Tech and Oklahoma could
surpass that score within a minute.
These two juggernauts boast the NO.14 BRIGHAM YOUNG AT
most powerful and efficient offens- NO.7 UTAH
es inthe country. Ifitweren'tfor Texas Christian's
Texas Tech has been overlooked upset of Brigham Young on Oct. 16.
this game might
in the BCS Cht
But even with on
aren't just playin
teams have lit up
season. Brigham
back MaxHall h
for 28 touchdow:
while Utah's vers
produced 22 rus.
If the game t
tout, it's anyone
win. Utah's defe
not allowed mor
six weeks.
If the Utes c
Brigham Young
contained, Utah
ed its BCS quest
Arbor.
NO. 20 PITTSB
have meant a spot Dave Wannstedt would have his
ampionship game. Pittsburgh Panthers in contention
e loss, the Cougars for a Big East title this season,
ig spoiler. The two especially after an ugly loss in the
the scoreboard all home opener to Bowling Green.
Young's quarter- With underwhelming sea-
as already thrown sons from recent Big East powers
ns and 3,400 yards, West Virginia and Louisville, the
satile backfield has conference is up for grabs, and
hing touchdowns. these two unlikely leaders have
urns into a shoo- emerged.
's guess who will Thanks to the superb play of
nse, however, has sophomore running back LeSean
e than 16 points in McCoy, the Panthers have a legiti-
mate chance to represent the Big
an keep Hall and East in the Orange Bowl.
's aerial assault But they'll first have to get
will have complet- through like-minded Cincinnati.
that began in Ann These two teams are statisti-
cally unimpressive - they beat
their opponents by just six points
on average.
But it could make for a wild fin-
URGH AT NO.19 ish at Nippert Stadium.
CINCINNATI
Raise your hand if you thought
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