Michigan breezed by an over matched and poorly coached Penn State team 49-10 on Saturday in the Big House. Nothing, other than Joey Julius’ huge and hilarious hit on Jourdan Lewis in the 4th quarter, went well for Penn State. On the other end, everything went well for Michigan. Both sides of the ball were great, and the Wolverines kicked off their conference slate in dominating fashion.
Here’s what I think was good and bad from today’s ballgame:
MVP: The Stable
Not sure if this was Michigan showing off their stable of backs to a team that has Barkley and Sanders, but the Wolverines flashed some serious depth at the running back position against a team that had some real issues at linebacker.
There are two things I love about that. The first is, obviously, that Michigan has at least 4 backs that are pretty good on their own. The second thing, Michigan’s committee of backs complete each other very nicely.
De’Veon Smith is a fantastic power back who showed some impressive speed today, along with being an excellent blocker. Ty Isaac has similar power, good speed and is a good receiving back. Higdon and Evans give you great speed to round out a formidable stable of backs. If they can all keep what they did today going, Michigan’s running game appears to be in good shape.
Not-MVP: Special Teams Injuries
There was just one injury on a special teams play, but it could potentially be a really big one.
Jeremy Clark’s late injury on special teams is, perhaps, the one really bad thing to come from this game.
Now, I get Harbaugh’s insane competitiveness, but this could have been avoided. Younger backups easily could have been inserted in a 4th quarter blowout situation like that one.
Michigan will now have to hold its breath and wait for the results of Clark’s tests, which most are expecting the worst. If the worst is confirmed, David Long or LaVert Hill will likely be called on to fill in. While they may be very talented replacements, true freshman starters will always have issues.
I fully expect Harbaugh to change how he deals with this sort of situation in the future.
What were your MVP and Not-MVP moments of Michigan’s win over Penn State? Let us know in the comment section below!
Photo Credit: Bryan Fuller/MGoBlog
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