The Penn State Football Show

I have already voiced a lot of my feelings on this game in my Wisconsin recap post. No matter how crazy it sounds, I will state with honsety that I fear Michigan at home more than Ohio State on the road next weekend. Can you blame me? The last time Penn State beat Michigan I was eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that my mom made me for lunch, which came right after recess.

Yes, I have seen Michigan play this year. And there is no denying that they are bad. In fact, they have been really bad; especially on offense. But they are still Michigan, so you know they have talent. You've heard a lot of people say that they can turn it around any one of these weeks. I'm hoping it's not this week.

For Michigan to win this game, they would have to make drastic improvements over their pathetic performance last week against Akron. They would have to play by far their best game of the season, and Penn State would have to play by far its worst game of the season. But, this is definitely possible.

The fact that Penn State has lost nine straight to the Wolverines has been well documented and publicized. This can work in Penn State's favor, or it can hurt them. The benefit to Penn State is that there is certainly no chance that the players will be looking past this game. You can be sure that the players are focused 100% on Michigan and are not looking ahead to Ohio State just because they are facing a 2-4 team.

The way in which the losing streak can hurt Penn State is if Michigan manages to keep this game close into the fourth quarter. While Coach Paterno year in and year out denies that the losing streak to Michigan has a mental effect on Penn State players, I have a hard time buying that. I have seen seasons where Penn State had a strong squad while Michigan was having a down year, and the Nittany Lions still managed to find a way to lose to the Wolverines. You can bet that if the fourth quarter rolls around, and Michigan is still in the game, there will be players on Penn State that are thinking to themselves "Oh my God it's happening again!" Likewise, Michigan players will gain more and more confidence the longer they can hang with the number three team in the country.

I've said it before, I have a lot of confidence in the leadership of this team. So I don't think Penn State will dissapoint on Saturday. As long as they go out and perform like they are capable of, they should have no problem defeating an over-matched Michigan team. PSU's defense has been playing great, and they don't even need to play that great to stop an atrocious Wolverine offense. In a rare turn of events, Michigan is actually struggling at the quarterback position, as neither Stephen Threet nor Nick Sheridan has had much success. Threet is a better runner, but may not even be healthy enoough to play on Saturday. Sam McGuffie, the true freshman running back has been their lone bright spot on offense this year. Look for Michigan's passing game to struggle, and expect Penn State to disrupt the quarterback with pressure, which may lead to a few turnovers.

Anthony Scirotto tends to turn in one monster game each season, and I'm predicting this will be the game. I think he will have at least one interception, and is my pick for impact player of the game.

It's tough when you enter a game where anything but a lopsided victory is considered a dissapointment, but, personally, I will be out at the bars on College Avenue celebrating even a narrow one-point win. I will gladly take any win against this team, no matter how ugly it is, as long as this awful streak does not reach double digits. However, it would certainly be nice to take out all those years of frustration on this team by opening a giant can of whoopin on them, especially in an upset fashion as I predict. PENN STATE 34, MEEEEEECHAGIN 0.