Brian, it is easy to be a homer. Picking a team from your home state is the simple way out. Why don’t you try making an original move? And besides that, how can you compete with a team whose mascott is a nut? Thats right. A buckeye is nut. November 18th should be a day forever remembered in the annals of college football. This will be the day, if everything goes as it should, an undefeated No. 2 Michigan will take on an undefeated No. 1 Ohio State. The winner of this upcoming game pretty much gets a guaranteed ticket to the National Championship.
Michigan is a very good football team. They defeated No. 11 Notre Dame at Notre Dame’s South Bend, in front of Touchdown Jesus. Their defense makes the opposite team’s offense look silly. But Ohio State is a great team and not one of the other teams has come close to beating them.
Ohio State is lead by Heisman candidate Troy Smith. As a quarterback, Smith is a dual threat. He can run as well as pass. He has a quarterback rating of 166, he has completed 158 passes for 2006 yards and thrown 22 touchdowns to only 3 interceptions. He also has 206 yards on the ground. Then again, you would not have much trouble passing when you have Teddy Ginn Jr., a candidate for the Fred Biletnikoff award given to the nation’s top wide receiver who runs a 4.35 40-yard dash against the wind, and has 44 receptions for 611 yards for an average of 13.9 yards per catch as well as seven touchdowns on the year, and Tony Gonzalez (not of the Kansas City Chiefs) as your main two targets.
Michigan has the No. 4 ranked defense in the nation, but they have a struggling offense. Michigan’s offense has not been the same since they lost their top wide out, Mario Manningham. Although he is slated to return by this game, he will most likely not be at 100 percent since he is coming off knee surgery. His return will help a struggling offense, but Michigan is still going against the No. 1 scoring defense in the NCAA, which allows only 7.3 points a game (the OSU offense is averaging 36.1 points a game). If Manningham is going to be used at all, it will most likely be a decoy, and he won’t get that many looks or passes thrown in his general direction.
This game has the potential to be one of the greatest games in Big Ten or possibly NCAA history. Although this should be a closely contested game, Ohio State has no reason to lose. But that’s why football games are played. As NFL coach Dennis Green said, you don’t want to “crown them” too early.
Sources:
Sports Illustrated
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