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4B - October 27, 2014

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

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THE MICHIGAN
DAILY TOP-10 POLL
Each week, Daily sports staffers fill out ballots, with
first-place votes receiving 10 points, second-place
votes receiving nine, and so on.
1. MISSISSIPPI STATE: "There are
never enough jokes to make about
incest in Mississippi." -Greg Garno,
Co-Managing Sports Editor. He's
on Twitter @G-Garno.
2. FLORIDA STATE: The Seminoles
didn't play, so Jameis Winston
spent the weekend humbly doing
some food shopping at Publix and
performingmisinterpreted slam
poetry on student-union tables.

S

3. AUBURN: The Tigers beat the
Cocks by ramming the ball down
the midddle effectively.
4. ALABAMA: Lane Kiffin
and Brady Hoke both had good
weekends, in that neither was
murdered upon his return to
Knoxville/Ann Arbor.
5. OREGON: The Ducks traveled to
Santa Clara and handled Cal easily,
then enjoyed a $384 Levi's Stadium
steak, courtesy of Phil Knight.
6. MISSISSIPPI: The Rebels tried
to conquer Louisiana, but then they
remembered it was in Confederate
territory already and gave up.

S7. MICHIGAN STATE: In the only
game that mattered, The Michigan
Daily trounced The State News for
the 10th consecutive year, 8-3. Alex
Taylor for Heisman.
8. NOTRE DAME: The Fighting Irish
had a bye week. Really, guys? Jesus
doesn't take bye weeks.
9. TEXAS CHRISTIAN: TCU
would be ranked eighth, but
they're Protestant, and here at The
Michigan Daily, we don't condone
divorce.
10. GEORGIA: Chubb got a hard-
earned week off. He "wood" have
played well, though.



FOOTBALL
Five things we learned:
Michigan's loss to MSU

The
demis
a 35-1
State.
The
thoro

By MAX COHEN the program.
Daily Sports Editor "To throw a stake down in our
back yard out here and coming
Michigan football team's out there like they are all that, it
e continued Saturday in got shoved the last minute and a
.1 loss to rival Michigan half. We weren't trying to get a
field goal, that wasn't the M.O.
Wolverines were If our guys could get it in, we
ughly outplayed by the were going to get it in."

Spartans and fell to 1-3 in the
Big Ten. An end to Michigan's
misery doesn't appear to be in
sight.

2. Bad things happen when
you can't run or stop the run

ALLISON FARRAND/Daily
The Wolverines' pregame ritual made Michigan State feel "like we needed to put a stake in them," per Mark Dantonio.

Here are fiv
learned from Satu
1. Michigan Stat
enjoy putting
Michii
For the secon
year, the Spartar
Wolverines in eve
game. They were
team offensively a
and proved it tI
game.
Though Mic
entered the gam
favorite and has
Michigan in th
recent years, the
fancy themselves
This year, Mi
linebacker Joe Bt
Michigan State
ammunition it
needed before
the game
even started,
spearing the
ground with a
tent stake after
the Wolverines
ran onto the
field.
Though
his teams
have defeated
Michigan in six
seven matchup
State coach Mark
felt the need to

e things we The Wolverines struggled
irday's loss, mightily to run the ball in
the loss. Michigan is without
e will always sophomore running back
ga stake in Derrick Green for the remainder
gan of the season after he broke his
clavicle, and his backups did
d consecutive little in his place.
ns bashed the Sophomore running back
try facet of the De'Veon Smith rushed for
e the superior 39yards on 11 carries, while
nd defensively redshirt junior Justice Hayes
hroughout the took nine handoffs for 27 yards.
As a team, the Wolverines
higan State rushed for 65 yards on 28
.e a 17.5-point carries, good for an average of
manhandled 2.3 yards per attempt. It was
e rivalry in a marked improvement from
Spartans still last year's minus-48 rushing
disrespected. yards against the Spartans,
chigan junior but it didn't even come close to
olden provided getting the job done.
all of the On the other side of the ball,
Michigan
State's
running game
"(It just felt obliterated
Michigan's
like we needed defensive
line. Langford
to put a stake bolted for
177 yards on
in them ." 3S carries,
consistently
moving the
ball for the
of their past Spartans and wearing down
s, Michigan the Wolverine defense by
Dantonio still preventing it from getting off
make a point the field.

him to catch everything thrown
his way in order to move the
ball.
Because Michigan struggles
on the ground and fifth-year
senior quarterback Devin
Gardner struggles with
accuracy, Funchess needs to
be the dependable player on
this offense. When he isn't, the
offense has no one else to turn
to.
4. The routine with the media
won't change this season
The patterns have existed
since Michigan's loss to Notre
Dame in the second week of
the season. Each week, the
Wolverines supposedly have
a great week of practice and
claim the team is working hard
and sticking together. Then the
team fails to eecute Saturday.
Drastic change is unlikely at
any point during this season.
Michigan coach Brady Hoke
will persist in saying his team
is working hard and competing
well enough to win in practice.
Gardner will remain the team's
quarterback the rest of this
season, fighting to evade the
pass rush that comes with a
porous offensive line.
It has become a pattern of
dread for Michigan fans, the
feeling that little good can come
each Saturday no matter what is
said during the week.
5. Bold prediction: The
Penn State win will be the
highlight of the season
Michigan's win over the
Nittany Lions before the
bye week is the team's only
Big Ten win to date. It had
the atmosphere that comes
with a night game and an
involved home crowd, and the
Wolverines' effort in the game
matched the environment.
It appears unlikely the
team will experience success
of that magnitude again. Few
of Michigan's struggles have
disappeared during the course
of the season. The problems that
existed in the Wolverines' loss
to Notre Dame in the second
week of this season remain.
It would take an enormous
upset at Ohio State to top the
Penn State victory. A win in that
game would take a dramatic
reversal of fortune, one that
doesn't seem to be around the
corner.
You've already seen the best
of this team, and it wasn't even
all that great.

Michigan's offense struggled all Saturday afternoon. It was outgained by Michigan State running back Jeremy Langford.
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Selection Committee Congratulates A1.( Gra .viani t'I(7lte
and welcomes their seven new scholarship Ein i 1)il l'ipp "
winners for the 2014-201 academic year: Juli \I r t irey
They will be joining the 31E Honor Society and our fourteen current scholarsfor the 2014-2015
academic year,
l' i 1. lig[i Ill IIihci Rynioldis
"iii \u l 111 Sylvi amico
All of these swhola'ship winners will be honored at the 83nd Annual Reunion Dinner of the class
of '31E which will be hold at the Four aints Sheraton Imna, Ann Arbor, Michigan on Friday evening,
October 31st, 2014 At 53(4m
Since the establishment of the 1EFScholarship sgrm in 1982,mor than 200 piring
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after the stake incident. He
wanted the Spartans to throttle
the Wolverines, and running
back Jeremy Langford scored
a touchdown with 28 seconds
left that had many thinking
Dantonio was running up the
score.
The coach didn't dispute the
notion after the game.
"(It) just feltlike we needed to
put a stake in them," Dantonio
said. "You might as well just
come out and say what you are
feeling at some point, because
you can only be diplomatic for
so long. The little brother stuff,
all the disrespect, they didn't
have to go in that direction. We
try to handle ourselves with
composure. It doesn't come
from the coach, it comes from

3. The offense needs
Funchess at his best
Throughout this season,
there have been flashes of
competence from Michigan's
offense. They have come when
junior wide receiver Devin
Funchess bails it out from
danger, making circus catches
like he did with his early
touchdown catch against Penn
State, one he snatched from the
hands of a defender.
But Funchess struggled to
make those -catches, failing
to come away with relatively
easy targets at times Saturday.
Though his efforts wouldn't
be a cause for concern in most
offenses, the Wolverines need

WE DON'T NEED A JOURNALISM .
SCHOOL TO BEAT THE STATE
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