Michigan - Iowa Availability Report

Sprague and Berry Questionable is interesting.  Dom being on the list is not great. 

Micah Ka'apana has been injured his entire Michigan career it seems

Big Ten Week 4 Preview

We finally made it through the non-conference matchups and it's time to play Big Ten Football! Only 2 non-conference games this week. 

Friday Night:

Howard @ Rutgers (-41.5):  Rutgers loves them some Friday night football!  There are already rumors about Brian Kelly being the next head coach as the Scarlet Knights are looking for their 1st win of the year.  Rutgers 31 Howard 10 

Northwestern @ IU (-21):  Ok, on paper this looks like a blowout.  Don't sleep on the Wildcats who just blew out Coach Prime's Colorado team.  IU 28 NW 14 

Saturday:

Illinois @ OSU (-26.5):  What has happened to Illinois?  I expected them to be solid this year and they lost to Duke at home.  To be fair, Duke was the ACC Champs last season.  OSU 40 Illinois 20

UCLA (1.5) @ Maryland: I'm not sure of either team.  I thought Maryland would beat VT last week and they didn't. UCLA has a new coach and seems to be playing better football this season.  I still don't like how the California teams travel East,  Maryland 24 UCLA 21. 

ND (-27.5) @ Purdue:  This should be a walk over for ND as long as they show up.  ND 38 Purdue 10 

Wisconsin @ Penn State (-10):  This should be a huge Big Ten matchup but the game ends up at 5:00 on Peacock.  Penn State 21 Wisconsin 10 

Nebraska (-5.5) @ MSU:  Sparty is not getting any respect after playing ND tough last week.  Nebraska could be fools gold right now.  I like MSU in this one.  MSU 17 Nebraska 14

Oregon (-3) @ USC:  So let me understand this, USC is ranked #12 and Oregon is #20.  USC is playing at home but still a home dog?  It's because USC defense is questionable at best.  Lots of points here.  Oregon 40 USC 38 

Minnesota @ Washington (-10):  These 11:00 EST kick off times are a killer for teams traveling West.  I like Washington here.  Washington 34 Minn 17

Wolverine Wednesday: Points at a Premium

The over/under for Iowa at Michigan at 38.5 continues to remain low and I joked on Monday, the first one to 10 wins! Leading the Hawkeyes now is QB Mark Gronowski from Naperville who was a transfer from South Dakota State, Hank Brown, transfer from Auburn.  We all know too well about Michigan's struggles on that side of the ball.   Michigan has faced a very difficult 4th ranked Oklahoma defense and Iowa has faced Iowa State's who has the 13th ranked defense (points against for both stats). 

When defense is king points become a premium and that means field goals will play a huge role in Saturday's game, which will probably take 2.5 hours to play.  Which means we will be commericaled to death by CBS as they try to pay for the Romo contract buyout.  

• The Harbaugh brothers are a combined 1-3 in the NFL right now.  

• Tony Diaz Iowa's best WR #14, loves man to man coverage and calls it "shopping at a candy store"

• Tony again on Michigan's man to man:  "We've just got to make plays. We're going to get what we want — we're going to get man on man. It's just, who's better at the end of the day?"

Michigan Tuesday: The Andrew Sprague Mystery

Andrew Sprague name sound like a NYC Detective that fumbles through his cases but always arrests the killer and has a 100% close rate on all his cases.  

In actuality, Andrew is an NFL Offensive Tackle prospect on Michigan's O-Line.  He was a late scratch on Saturday morning for the UTEP game after practicing all week and going through walk throughs on Friday. 

Coach Whitt did not seem pleased after receiving the news for Jim Harding the offensive line coach.  I had assumed he was just out sick, but it now seems more serious then that. 

Coach Whitt on his radio show: 

“What happened between half hour ago and now," Whittingham said his response to Harding was. "It was just a weird thing, but hopefully we get Andrew back. That's the major concern right now. The primary concern is his health and making sure we can get him back to where he needs to be.”

Then at Monday's presser:

“Andrew Sprague, gosh, that's a tough question. I think it could be anywhere from this week to several weeks," Whittingham said. "And so we just don't know and we're trying to sort through that, not we but the medical staff and making sure that we get the exact diagnosis and treat this thing the right way.

So for right now, it looks like Andrew is out against Iowa and there isn't a good timeline for his return to the lineup.