Michigan And Penn State Both Look To Use The Other To Recover

A pair of teams with major issues are each looking to make a statement today, as Penn State takes on the Michigan Wolverines.

Michigan are in an unfamiliar spot in the Big 10 standings, at the bottom of the standings in their division. The Wolverines are not used to losing and therefore head coach Brady Hoke’s job is on the line. It also did not help his rehiring arguemtn when he controversial sent Shane Morris back onto the field a couple weeks ago after he had clearly suffered a head injury. Morris was later diagnosed with a concussion.

Michigan’s passing ranks 107th in the country and are 55th in rushing. Derrick Green, their go to running back, is out for the year with a broken collarbone, an injury he suffered last week, so even that ranking may begin to slip.

The only positive Michigan has going for it is that it finally covered the spread for a game this season. They were -3 point underdogs against Rutgers last week and lost 26-24.s

Penn State has been fairing a bit better. They are 3-2 against the spread and 4-1 overall. They got a bit of a reality check last week after winning four in a row and then running into a brick wall name Northwestern. Northwestern blew out Penn State 29-6 as 10 point favorites. It wasn’t just that Northwestern was so good, but Penn State played bad football.

Quarterback Christian Hackenberg is doing a lot on his own without much help from his offensive line or the run game.

Penn State has played well away from home thus far in the season. They are 1-1 against the spread and have won both of their away games, one against Central Florida as underdogs and covered the spread and a win against Rutgers, 13-10 as 3.5 point favorites.

The odds are close on this one with Michigan the slight favorites with a -1.5 point spread. Michigan is 1-4 against the spread in its last five games. Penn State is 8-1 against the spread in its last nine games. Another important trend is that Penn State has covered the spread and won in their last four meetings with Michigan. The total is set at 42. The game starts at 7 p.m. ET. Watch it on ESPN2.