Guest Panel-Week 14 Games and Standings

Here are the games for the Guest Panel to consider this week. Below are the standings as well. Batman has first place all to himself as we enter the final week of the competition. Mel Kiper is at second with Big Dog and Old Bag who both picked seven games correctly last week. Paul the Octopus and Pryor's Ego moved up one spot after going 6-2. Philly Cheese and Buckeye Cock also moved up a spot after going 6-2.

TIEBREAKER-Please list the total number of points scored for the Big Ten Championship Game (Wisconsin vs. MSU). In the event of a tie for first place, I will look to the tiebreaker and the panelist closest to the total number of points, above or below, will break the tie and win. I will only use the tiebreaker for first place.

This is the last week for the regular season competition. The Guest Panel will return with a clean slate for the bowl games.

Standings:

1. Batman (52-28) (6-2 last week)
2. Mel Kiper's Hair (51-29) (5-3 last week)
2. Big Dog (51-29) (7-1 last week)
2. Old Bag of Man (51-29) (7-1 last week)
5. Dr. Funkenstein (49-31) (5-3 last week)
6. Pat Head (48-32) (3-5 last week)
6. Paul the Octopus (48-32) (6-2 last week)  

6. Pryor's Ego (48-32) (6-2 last week)

9. Corso (46-34) (5-3 last week)
9. Philly Cheese (46-34) (6-2 last week)

11. Buckeye Cock (44-36) (6-2 last week)
12. Spam Sandwichsan (43-37) (4-4 last week)
13. Hudy Delights (40-40) (3-5 last week) 
   

Games for this week:
1. Wisconsin vs. Michigan St. (LIST TOTAL COMBINED SCORE)
2. Georgia vs. LSU
3. Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma St.
4. Virginia Tech vs. Clemson
5. USM vs. Houston
And the oddball game this week is:
6. Middle Tennessee vs. N. Texas

What to Expect

Tables Have Turned
The tables have turned in the Michigan and Ohio State rivalry. Last year Rich Rodriguez had a Wolverine team on life support as it blew through the non-conference schedule and collapsed in conference action, mostly due to its poor defense. Last year Ohio State was on its way to another BCS game and a Big Ten title, with reasonable National Championship ambitions for 2011. Rich Rod is gone after three seasons and Tressel is gone after ten season. The new Michigan hire, Brady Hoke has brought back a pro style offense and a 4-3 defense that is much closer to the dominating Michigan defenses of the past decades. Robinson is still putting up impressive running stats under the new offense, but his passing has suffered, especially the long pass.

Different Bowl Destinations
Ohio State is still looking for a passing game, and the return of Posey doesn't appear to be the solution, although it is a help. The Buckeyes must come out strong and not allow Michigan to score the first ten points. Neither Michigan nor Ohio State has a shot at the Big Ten Championship game, but Michigan has a chance at a decent bowl game. Ohio State must play the role Michigan did so well in the Cooper era, and be the spoiler. Ohio State is not playing in a bowl game anywhere near January 2, so a win or loss won't have much of an effect on the bowl destination.

What to Expect
I expect Ohio State to get 200 rushing yards and 130 passing yards. Michigan will have more yards with 225 rushing yards and 175 passing yards. Michigan will move the ball, but struggle to punch it in for a touchdown. I expect Ohio State to win 23-21.

Things to Watch

Roster Update
LB Andrew Sweat is still questionable, after missing the Penn St. game due to the concussion in the Purdue game. Safety Christian Bryant and receiver Philly Brown had apparent shoulder injuries in the Penn St. game. Both are expected to play.

Future Schedule
Although this isn't really something to watch this week, it is worth noting that the nine conference game schedule has resulted in a change in the non-conference matchups. The casualty from the schedule change is the 2018 and 2019 games versus Tennessee, which is something that didn't go over well in my household as we planned to attend both the game at my alma mater and the game at my wife's alma mater.

Urban Meyer
The newsletter went out last week before the Urban Meyer articles hit the blogs and eventually ESPN. I have stayed away from Urban Meyer speculation as I thought it was a bit premature. I understood that Gene Smith told Luke Fickell that the process would start at the end of the season, but I am starting to wonder if it is worth taking Gene Smith for his word. The entire tattoo/Tressel matter and the subsequent problems involving the charity and the overpaid employment was not handled well by Gene Smith. If Gene Smith went back on his word and lined everything up to hire Urban Meyer next week, then I won't have much faith left in Gene Smith making promises. Oh, and don't forget Gene Smith said that he understood the NCAA process, but it hasn't gone well and Ohio State continues to add to its punishment. At first we were told Tressel would miss two games, then he was going to miss five games, then he had to fire Tressel, then the entire season was vacated, then Ohio State had to give back the Sugar Bowl money, and then Ohio State lost scholarships. All that is left is a possible a bowl game ban, and there were hints this week that it may happen. It is amazing how impressive Gene Smith looked before this mess, but when the crap hit the fan he has not been the steady hand to lead the program out of the dark tunnel. Perhaps Gene Smith sees an Urban Meyer hiring as big moment to fix all the wrongs and take pressure off him, and perhaps Urban Meyer will be hired and have a lot of success. The Dispatch reported on Wednesday that sources indicate Meyer will be introduced as a head coach next week. I hope I am wrong, but I am not excited at the possibility of seeing a gimmicky offense at Ohio State. Folks may have selective memory and only remember this year's offensive struggles, and Tressel's pro offense wasn't always sexy but it won a ton of games, resulted in Big Ten Championships, beat Michigan on a regular basis, and provided trips to great bowls.

Scouting the Wolverines

This Season
Michigan is 9-2 overall and 5-2 in conference play. Michigan has wins over Western Michigan (34-10), Notre Dame (35-31), Eastern Michigan (31-3), San Diego St. (28-7), Minnesota (58-0), Northwestern (42-24), Purdue (36-14), Illinois (31-14), and Nebraska (45-17). The loses were to Michigan State (14-28) and Iowa (16-24). The team averages 33 points/game while limiting teams to 16 points/game. The offense averages 236 rushing yards and 198 passing yards.

Offense
At QB is Denard Robinson and Devin Gardner. Robinson is a  great runner who can pass, but under the new pro offense he has already thrown more interceptions than last season. He has 14 rushing touchdowns and 993 rushing yards. He has completed 54% for 1889 yards, 15 touchdowns, and 14 interceptions. Robinson apparently injured his wrist earlier this month against Illinois, and Gardner has seen more playing time, but Robinson hasn't missed a start and is still expected to run the ball well. At running back is Fitgerald Toussaint, who has lead Michigan in rushing in six games, including the last four games. He had 170 rushing yards against Purdue, 192 against Illinois and 138 against Nebraska. The main receivers are Roy Roundtree (1706 career reception yards), Junior Hemingway (averages 19.7 yards/reception), and Kevin Koger (three touchdown receptions leads the team).

Defense
Michigan is playing much better on defense after bringing in a former NFL defensive coordinator, Greg Mattison. The defense gave up 450 yards/game last season, but this year it is 14th in the country and only allows 312 yards/game. The leader on the revitalized defensive line is Mike Martin who had seven tackles including two sacks against Purdue, and nine tackles against Illinois. Safety Jordan Kovacs had 17 tackles against OSU last year and this year he has 116 tackles for the season.

OSU Last Week

On senior day in Ohio Stadium, the Buckeyes were not able to come away with a victory over Penn State, despite the return of Devier Posey at receiver. Penn State won with a score of 20-14. Both teams were limited to scoring in the first half, with Penn State scoring ten points in the first quarter on a 39 yard touchdown run and a 43 yard FG. Ohio State only scored in the second quarter, with one touchdown run by Braxton Miller and a touchdown pass to Jake Stonebrunner. Both defenses made adjustments and shut down the opposing offense in the second half. For the third straight week Ohio State fell behind 10-0 early in the game, as the defense struggled with the PSU wildcat formation. Miller had 105 rushing yards and was 7 of 17 passing for 83 yards. Boom Herron didn't eclipse the 100 yard mark, he gained 76 yards for the day. It wasn't hard to see the impact of the first start for freshman linebacker Ryan Shazier, who had 15 tackles. He was in for the injured Andrew Sweat, who apparently had a concussion in practice before Purdue and was removed from the Purdue game. Two fumbles by Ohio State in the second half proved fatal, and the offense couldn't match the intensity shown by the OSU defense as it stopped PSU on a 4th and 1 goal line stand in the third quarter. The final OSU drive was not pretty as Miller had three incompletions and was penalized for intentional grounding.

The Coaches

Luke Fickell
Luke Fickell is 6-5 in his first year as a head coach. Luke Fickell has been an assistant coach for 13 years. He was a graduate assistant at OSU under John Cooper in 1999. He was a defensive line coach at Akron from 2000-2001. Early in Jim Tressel's tenure at OSU, he hired Fickell as the special teams coordinator. He eventually coached the linebackers and was a co-defensive coordinator. Going into this season he was the assistant head coach, and was promoted in May to head coach, after Jim Tressel retired. Prior to coaching, Fickell was a four year starter for OSU, from 1992-1996. During his career, OSU was 41-8-1, won two Big Ten Championships and won the 1997 Rose Bowl. He started a school record 50 consecutive games. After graduation he spent one year on the injured reserve team for the New Orleans Saints.



Brady Hoke
In his first year at Michigan he is 9-2 and has a career record of 56-52 in nine years as a head coach. Hoke grew up in Kettering, Ohio and played at Ball State. He was an assistant at Grand Valley State, Western Michigan, Toledo, Oregon St., and Michigan (1995-2002). He took his first head coaching position at his alma mater Ball State and was there from 2003 until 2008. He then coached at San Diego State for two seasons, leading the Aztecs to a bowl game in 2010.