3B
TheMichiganDaily, www.michigandaily.com
after the Michigan State game,
you could kind of feel the vibe with
the players, especially with a guy
like Trace McSorley, who didn’t play
his best game that day. The offense
as a whole struggled, only scoring
17 points. He seemed kind of — he
seemed very defeated after that
game. But now I think they’ve kind
of rebounded and yeah, this game
right here is going to decide their
season — whether or not they have a
chance at a New Year’s Six bowl or
whether they’re looking at, maybe
like, a Holiday Bowl or an Outback
Bowl or Citrus Bowl appearance or
something like that.
I think of this as the toughest
game on their whole schedule.
This is tougher than the Ohio State
game, because that’s a whiteout
game at home. This is a road game
in a stadium that the Penn State
program has not had a lot of success
at this century. So they seem ready
for this game, but like I said, they
treat every game the same — at least
they put on that mirage that they do.
TMD: From a national perspective
going into the year, the narrative
around Penn State was, how are they
gonna replace Saquon Barkley. How
do you think they’ve replaced Saquon
Barkley both on the field and from a
leadership standpoint?
TK: Yeah, from a leadership
standpoint, I don’t think there’s
been any — they have plenty of
good veterans on this team and
quality leaders. Obviously with
Trace McSorley they have that.
And replacing (Barkley) from a
production standpoint, I mean,
James Franklin said before the year,
you can’t replace Saquon Barkley
because he’s a once-in-a — the
program’s never gonna have a player
like Saquon Barkley again, because
just his innate talent and his work
ethic and things like that, it’s just
never gonna happen.
But in my opinion, and I’ve said
this all year long, I think Miles
Sanders is a better fit for this Penn
State offense than Saquon was.
Watching Saquon for three years
and being a huge NFL fan like I am,
I think Saquon is better fit for a pro-
style offense where the quarterback
is under center, and Penn State never
goes under center. So I think Miles
Sanders is just more fit for this type
of system. And, obviously, he doesn’t
have the same numbers that Saquon
did last year, but I still think he’s been
incredibly productive. I mean, he
had a game against Illinois in which
he ran all over them. He had exactly
200 yards and three touchdowns.
He’s put up big numbers in just about
every game except I think two:
against Ohio State and then this past
week against Iowa he didn’t really
do much. But he didn’t have a lot of
touches in either of those games for
whatever reason.
Yeah, I think Miles Sanders is up
there. When I mention (Michigan
running back) Karan Higdon in
the top three (running backs in the
Big Ten), I think Miles Sanders is
in the top three as well. I think he,
(Wisconsin’s) Jonathan Taylor and
Karan Higdon are the three best
running backs in this conference. I
think Sanders has done a very good
job this season.
TMD: McSorley has taken a slight
tick down, I would say, statistically
this year. Have you seen any sort of
drop-off, or is that not necessarily
representative of how he’s been
playing?
TK: Definitely passing, his stats
are down (from what) they were
the past two seasons. I think, just,
with the way this offense has had to
adjust and had to work this season, I
wrote a story last week about Trace
McSorley and his ability as a runner
this season, because he’s become
that. He’s no longer this player that
is chucking it deep to his talented
wide receivers and letting them go
get it as a product of Joe Moorhead’s
offense.
… But yeah, Trace McSorley the
last two seasons had 10 total 300-
yard passing games — five in each
season. This season, through eight
games now, he doesn’t have any.
I think he’s only thrown for over
230 yards once. So, I mean, as a
passer, yeah. The stats show that
he’s taken a step back, and there
have been some games where he
hasn’t looked as accurate, but he’s
really just getting no help from
his wide receivers. I mean, one of
the big talking points this entire
season has been the inexperience
of this wide receiver group and the
drops that have plagued them. Even
the veterans that they have like
DeAndre Thompkins and Juwan
Johnson haven’t been nearly as
productive as many people thought
they would coming into the year.
The only two, receiving — reliable,
consistent, receiving targets that
McSorley has is redshirt freshman
KJ Hamler … and then another
freshman, true freshman tight end
Pat Freiermuth who has been really
impressive.
… (McSorley) has been whatever
Penn State needs him to be, and I
think that is the biggest thing this
season for him. He’s still playing
at a Heisman-caliber level in my
opinion, and even though that’s not
as a passer, it’s more as a runner, he’s
still been incredibly impressive.
TMD: If Penn State’s gonna win
this game, they need to do…?
TK: It’s gonna come down to, can
they play well enough on offense to
get the job done against this really
talented Michigan defense.
TMD: Do you have a prediction?
TK: Like I said, I don’t really
think it’s gonna be all that close. I
think this Michigan team is really
dominant, and like I said, Penn State
in the past has not really had a lot
of success at The Big House. And
the offense, right now, is just not at
the level where I can fathom them
scoring more than, like, 20 points
against a defense like this on the
road. I mean, they struggled to move
the ball against an Iowa team that
really wasn’t that impressive to me
on tape.
So, yeah, I think I’m gonna go
somewhere around Michigan 31,
Penn State 17.
BEHIND ENEMY LINES
From Page 2B
AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily
The Michigan and Penn State football teams will face off on Saturday for the first time since the Nittany Lions dominated the Wolverines, 42-13, in front of a whiteout crowd in State College last season.