Michigan Football will host Michigan State on Saturday afternoon at the Big House. Kick off is scheduled for 3:30 and the game will be televised on the Big Ten Network. For a complete game preview click here: Michigan at Michigan State. For the Extra Points read on.
A win would give Michigan their 900th career victory.
Jordan Kovacs needs 1 tackle to become the 15th player and first defensive back in school history to join the 300 tackle club.
“They played last year like we want to play,” Kovacs said Monday. “We want to run the ball downhill. We want to control the game with our offense and keep the defense off the field. We want to eat up clock and control the tempo with our running game. They did a nice job of that last year, and we look to improve on that.”
Taylor Lewan was named to Sport’s Illustrated’s First-Team Midseason All-American squad.
Denard Robinson is the eighth player in NCAA history to rush for 40 touchdowns and pass for 40 touchdowns in his career.
ESPNs accuscore projects Michigan to win 27-21. Teamrankings.com has Michigan winning 26-16. numberFire has Michigan pulling out a 27-19 victory.
Michigan enters the game ranked 23rd in the AP Poll and 25th in the Coaches Poll.
Michigan ranks 10th nationally in total defense and 3rd in passing defense.
The Wolverines have notched five interceptions over the last three games, with two apiece coming from Thomas Gordon and Raymon Taylor. Taylor returned one of his interceptions 63 yards for a touchdown against Purdue.
Sophomore linebacker Jake Ryan is the reigning Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week. He earned the award with a career-high 11 tackles, 3.5 TFLs and 1.5 sacks last week.
Ryan leads Michigan in total tackles (42), solo tackless (26), TFLs (7.5), sacks (2.5) and pass breakups (3).
Denard Robinson on Jake Ryan: ”He’s a freak athlete. Watching him run around [in practice] and try to chase me is crazy, but on Saturdays I enjoy it because he’s not chasing me anymore.”
The Wolverines rank 17th nationally and 3rd in the Big Ten in rushing offense.
20 point threshold: In the Brady Hoke era, Michigan is 15-0 when they score 20 points and 0-4 when they don’t.
Michigan has won 11 straight home games.
Brady Hoke during Tuesday’s Big Ten conference call: ”We, obviously, have not done our part in the rivalry as far as from the Michigan standpoint. We’ve got to play better. We’ve got to coach better.”
Denard Robinson ranks first in the Big Ten and fourth in the nation in rushing, averaging 134.0 yards per game.
Robinson leads the Big Ten in total offense, averaging 317.5 yards per game in 2012. He is also averaging 15.96 yards per completion, which ranks second in the FBS.
Over the last four games, Michigan is allowing 9.8 points per contest, while allowing only two touchdowns during that span.
Will Hagerup leads the nation in average yards per punt (49.2).
Dennis Norfleet has 473 yards on kick returns this season. That is the 11th best single season total in school history.
Michigan leads the all-time series against the Spartans with a 67-32-5 record.
Like Brady Hoke, Bo Schembechler lost his first game to the Spartans. Bo’s teams then reeled off 8 straight victories against MSU.
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About Rob White
I didn’t realize the all-time series was that one sided. Let’s start that 8 game win streak tomorrow and set things right in the world.
I know a lot of MSU fans are taking comfort in the Spartans past success against Robinson. They have been the most effective team at shutting him down the last two years (people seem to forget it was Tate Forcier who played QB for U-M against MSU in Denard’s freshman season).
I do think he is a man on a mission and that he will play well this week.
I like how you threw that last little nugget in there at the end. Should be a good game, really hoping Denard can leave town with one win over MSU.
Denard certainly bleeds maize and blue and for that I hope he gets the W tomorrow. Not to take anything away from his accomplishments, but I am looking forward to a seeing a different QB behind center next year.