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RRAMOLENGRAFF/Dly Penn State 43, Michigan 40
Ryan (left) played in his first game since an ACLtear. Michigan coach Brady Hoke (right) blamed a late penalty on himself.
A team searching 5 Things We Learned: Penn State
for an identity
STATE
COLLEGE -
he
ball
danced
through the
night air and
up into a blur
of white and ZACH
a glare of HELFAND
lights. Fresh-
man corner-
back Channing Stribling waited
for it to come down near the
one-yard line and so did Penn
State's Allen Robinson.
It emerged from the glow, a
loud and charging object close
enough for Michigan to grab and
put away, just like Penn State
had been.
Stribling jumped first but too
quickly. As he came down, the
ball slipping above his fingers,
Robinson jumped and snatched
it away. The crowd turned rap-
See HELFAND, Page 3B
By EVERETT COOK
DailySports Editor
1. Michigan badly needs some
help on the offensive line.
The problems on the offensive
line were supposed to be fixed
when redshirt sophomore guard
Chris Bryant replaced redshirt
sophomore center Jack Miller in
the starting lineup against Min-
nesota two weeks ago. Bryant
is bigger, and the move allowed
Graham Glasgow to move from
guard to center, which was
seemingly a better fit for the red-
shirt sophomore.
The switch in the offen-
sive line also allowed for some
stacked formations, where fifth-
year senior tackles Taylor Lewan
and Michael Schofield - Michi-
gan's best offensive linemen -
would line up on the same side of
the ball. .
This was supposed to be the
big, nasty Wolverine offensive
line.
Instead, Michigan was blown
off the ball against Penn State.
The stacked offensive line was
sniffed out and rendered use-
less almost immediately. Bryant
was replaced at one point, while
Lewan left the game at halftime
and never returned due to an
apparent head injury, though
Michigan coach Brady Hoke said
Monday that the injury had more
to do with his hip than anything
else.
Make no mistake, Michigan
lost this game because of its
inability to move the Nittany
Lions off the line of scrimmage.
The run game never got going,
which completely halted the
passing game.
Hoke said that Lewan will
play against Indiana next week,
but if the undisclosed symp-
toms of the apparent head injury
don't fix themselves shortly, the
already struggling offensive line
is going to be in a world of hurt.
2. Michigan's offense isn't
anything without a running game.
This, too, ties into the strug-
gles of the offensive line, because
if the holes were bigger, the
running game would be much
improved.
But without halfback produc-
tion, Michigan's offense is going
to be difficult to watch the rest of
the year.
Penn State came into the game
See LEARNED, Page 3B
Behind depth of offense, the Wolverines hold off late barrage by RIT
By GREG GARNO The Tigers ultimately scored in
Daily Sports Writer. overtime to upset Michigan and
kick off one of the roughest sea-
ROCHESTER, NY - The sons in recent memory.
Michigan hockey team had been Fast forward one year, and
here before - just last season, in Michigan was staring at the same
fact. scenario after it surrendered a
With a 3-1 lead a year ago, the four-goal lead to RIT in the sec-
Wolverines allowed the Roches- ond period on Saturday.
ter Institute of Technology back But rather than succumb to the
into the game to force overtime. surge this time, the 11th-ranked
Wolverines responded thanks to
freshman forward Even Allen,
whose goal late in the period
proved to be the game winner.
Michigan closed the third period
with two more goals to win 7-4
and remain unbeaten two games
into the season.
"I like the start of the game
and I liked the end of the game,
but I didn't like the middle part,
obviously," said Michigan coach
Red Berenson. "You could see
this coming."
Junior forward Phil Di
Giuseppe had two goals while
,junior forward Alex Guptill had a
pair of assists to lead the Wolver-
ines in front of a crowd of more
than 10,000.
The score, though, didn't indi-
cate the lopsided shot total, as
Michigan was out-shot 46-27.
"We weren't playing as hard,
and as smart and as defensive as
we should have," Berenson said.
"Pretty much everything hap-
pened in our zone."
Allen's goal, which swung the
momentum back in Michigan's
favor, looked like more of an acci-
dent than a shot attempt. Tiger
goaltender Jordan Ruby, in the
midst of repositioning himself,
misplayed the shot from outside
the left circle and never saw the
puck slide behind him.
Michigan kicked off the scor-
ing less than three minutes into
the first period, when Guptill
slid through the right circle and
glided the puck to an untouched
Di Giuseppe, who was waiting in
See DEPTH, Page 3B
200 MILES NORTH
As the Michigan football team was los-
ing it in Penn State, the hockey team was
figuring it out against RIT. SportsMonday
column: Page 2B
UPSET TUESDAY
Freshman Lars Eckenrode picked a
good time for his first collegiate goal in
Michigan's first win over a ranked oppo-
nent this year. Page 2B
C #
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