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Michchamp
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Saturday, October 15, 2022 @ NOON Eastern, Penn State plays Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI, the place every decent person agrees is the best place to see a college football game anywhere in the world.
The game will be on Fox, as usual.
The line has solidified at UM -7, w/a o/u of 51.5.
Sagarin's predictor nearly aligns with that, predicting a ~6 pt Michigan win.
This is probably the first game we could lose. And despite being halfway through the season, we really haven't been tested against an opponent with comparable talent. Penn State has, I suppose, though their strength of schedule as measured by Sagarin (70th) is not that much different than ours (111th).
Penn State did win @ Purdue, but it was the 1st game of the season, and Purdue has been inconsistent. They won big @ Auburn, but Auburn is a mess, although presumably has comparable, if not better talent than Penn St. Trying not to read too much into their relatively close games against Northwestern and Central Michigan, although both of those teams are much worse than Maryland, our close-ish game.
Series History
We are 15-10, all-time, against Penn St. Harbaugh is 4-3 against them.
The last time both teams met and were undefeated was 1997, a game I remember well, and I assume everyone else here does too.
Some Penn State fans are comparing this one to 1994, because THEY won that one, and it was also in Ann Arbor. But that Michigan team had already lost once to Colorado (in the "Miracle at Michigan"), and that Penn State team went on to finish 12-0, absolutely destroying most of their opponents along the way (they beat Ohio State 63-14), before being cheated out of at least a share of the national title, which went unanimously to Nebraska.
So... yeah, this game is not like 1994.
When it comes down to luck, we seem to get the breaks against Penn State, unlike we do against Michigan State or Ohio State, so... there's that. Not counting Ronnie Bell's drop in the end zone a couple seasons ago, of course.
About Penn State
EDIT: metaphors that include "showers" here are not okay. I need another one that means "I already got clean once today and am not going to get dirty now."
But I don't know if anyone else saw THIS horrific long-form article from ESPN, published last off-season, reporting on Todd Hodne, a serial rapist and eventual murderer who played about 2 seasons for the Nittany Lions in the late 70's. They seem to have had way more than their share of bad apples, for some reason *cough* JOE PA *cough* *cough*
Let's try to leave this on a more positive note... here are highlights from 2005:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pU604xk4Eo
Henne-to-Manningham was just so good... even in an otherwise lousy season like 2005. And note: Penn State was undefeated coming into that one.
Lloyd was 9-2 vs. Penn State, after starting 0-2. NINE straight wins. (Edit: I shortchanged him one win; and we didn't play Penn St in '03 or '04 when they were terrible. He could have been 11-2)
So make your predictions and post some analysis if you so choose, but leave the woofing and the barking for the other threads.
The game will be on Fox, as usual.
The line has solidified at UM -7, w/a o/u of 51.5.
Sagarin's predictor nearly aligns with that, predicting a ~6 pt Michigan win.
This is probably the first game we could lose. And despite being halfway through the season, we really haven't been tested against an opponent with comparable talent. Penn State has, I suppose, though their strength of schedule as measured by Sagarin (70th) is not that much different than ours (111th).
Penn State did win @ Purdue, but it was the 1st game of the season, and Purdue has been inconsistent. They won big @ Auburn, but Auburn is a mess, although presumably has comparable, if not better talent than Penn St. Trying not to read too much into their relatively close games against Northwestern and Central Michigan, although both of those teams are much worse than Maryland, our close-ish game.
Series History
We are 15-10, all-time, against Penn St. Harbaugh is 4-3 against them.
The last time both teams met and were undefeated was 1997, a game I remember well, and I assume everyone else here does too.
Some Penn State fans are comparing this one to 1994, because THEY won that one, and it was also in Ann Arbor. But that Michigan team had already lost once to Colorado (in the "Miracle at Michigan"), and that Penn State team went on to finish 12-0, absolutely destroying most of their opponents along the way (they beat Ohio State 63-14), before being cheated out of at least a share of the national title, which went unanimously to Nebraska.
So... yeah, this game is not like 1994.
When it comes down to luck, we seem to get the breaks against Penn State, unlike we do against Michigan State or Ohio State, so... there's that. Not counting Ronnie Bell's drop in the end zone a couple seasons ago, of course.
About Penn State
EDIT: metaphors that include "showers" here are not okay. I need another one that means "I already got clean once today and am not going to get dirty now."
But I don't know if anyone else saw THIS horrific long-form article from ESPN, published last off-season, reporting on Todd Hodne, a serial rapist and eventual murderer who played about 2 seasons for the Nittany Lions in the late 70's. They seem to have had way more than their share of bad apples, for some reason *cough* JOE PA *cough* *cough*
Let's try to leave this on a more positive note... here are highlights from 2005:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pU604xk4Eo
Henne-to-Manningham was just so good... even in an otherwise lousy season like 2005. And note: Penn State was undefeated coming into that one.
Lloyd was 9-2 vs. Penn State, after starting 0-2. NINE straight wins. (Edit: I shortchanged him one win; and we didn't play Penn St in '03 or '04 when they were terrible. He could have been 11-2)
So make your predictions and post some analysis if you so choose, but leave the woofing and the barking for the other threads.
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