Thomas: College Football Round Up (I Think Michigan Will Beat Michigan State This Year)
By: Eric Thomas
If you are here because of the title, I will get this out of the way fast. Yes, I think Michigan will beat MSU head to head this year. That is the last bit of good news that you are going to get in this blog, Michigan fans. In a rivalry as hot as UM / MSU, you can't have one team win five times. It just doesn't work that way. If MSU wins for a fifth straight time, it isn't a rivalry anymore. It's an annual mugging. You might as well be the EMU Eagles.
Football season is here and I am so excited. College Football season kicks off just under a week from now and I am freaking out. I am so sick of staring at baseball. For some reason the phrase "the 1-1 pitch" just puts me to sleep at this time of year. I will get more excited when we get close to the playoffs, but give me football. It's been too long.
Michigan is going to have a rough year. Brady Hoke's sophomore season won't be nearly the triumph his freshman year was. He was big man (literally) on campus, and his team had an easy schedule with games against rivals at home.
This year, the Wolverines enter the season with expectations. They start off ranked at #8 (?!) and open the season with the defending national champions. There are some delusional fans of Big Blue that are giving them a chance to win the game. You gotta be realistic here. I keep hearing that "Bama lost 8 starters to the NFL Draft this year." That logic is so twisted you might throw your back out. Yes, Dre Kirkpatrick is gone, but they replaced him with JuCo transfer Deion Blue. Dee Milliner, who some people think is the best CB in the country, played in all 12 games for the Tide as a sophomore, started in 6. Milliner is a no doubt future first round draft pick, so if you think they are decimated at CB, please. Adrian Hubbard might be better than Courtney Upshaw. The Tide loses guys but there is always a receptacle in the back filled with All Americans. They aren't just the best in the SEC; they are the best of everybody else's best with the dozens of JuCo transfers.
UM gets crushed the first week, and I am also picking them to lose to Notre Dame. Michigan will be reeling with two losses early in the schedule. It will be up to them to recover. Denard Robinson's senior season will be a catastrophic failure in the eyes of many Michigan fans. They have a shot at redemption, though.
I will pick the Spartans against Smurf Turf but I don't have a ton of confidence. Dantonio teams seem to have trouble getting started (they don't lose but they look sloppy at first) but I think that the turnover for Boise is too great. I like MSU to be undefeated going into the game against Michigan.
I think Le'Veon Bell is a legitimate Heisman candidate. If he played for USC, he would win the thing. The guy has speed and he gets faster after the first hit. Dude's got skill, and he is running behind an experienced line that was hurt last year. He will get a lot of carries, because Maxwell is inexperienced, and he has the skill to have a monster season. He blasts through holes. He reminds me of Adrian Peterson (and he has similar size).
MSU is the better team than Michigan, in every single measureable way. MSU boasts a better defense, running game and passing. In spite of this, I am still gonna take the Wolverines to beat MSU this year. Mostly because it's at the Big House, and I just can't see one team mashing the other five in a row. I also like the role reversal. I can't even remember how many times Lloyd Carr marched an undefeated and ranked Michigan team into East Lansing, only to leave with their first loss and National Championship hopes ruined. I love the idea of the role reversal for once. If they head into the game with scenario I painted, Wolverine fans will have no other choice (with two losses on their record, and MSU undefeated) but to admit their underdog role and embrace it. For me, a person who has watched this rivalry his entire life but went to neither school, that is the dream scenario.
I still predict that the Big Ten Championship game will be a re-match, but I think that the Wolverine fans will have a big day on October 20. Oh, and if Denard Robinson finishes his career without a win against the Spartans, his career at Michigan will be written off and filled with the same ignominy as Rich Rodriguez.
