Blue White Illustrated

On his overall impressions of the Lions: "Penn State is an excellent football team. They are once again this year, in all phases, a very good team." On Penn State's quarterback, Trace Mc- Sorley: "Terrific player, consistently plays really well. Poses a threat in the passing game. And he's running the ball a lot more this year, very effectively. He's quite a quarterback. He's got that win-it factor that shows up over and over. Big challenge for our team this week." Coaches always choose their words care- fully when discussing an upcoming oppo- nent. It would be foolish to do otherwise. You don't want to inadvertently give away any game-planning secrets or provide a rival coach with the sort of bulletin board fodder that would make it easier to fire up his own team. But even by the standards of the profession, Harbaugh's approach is next-level. It certainly doesn't compare to James Franklin's approach. At his Tuesday presser, Franklin devoted several hundred words to the Wolverines. He talked about their offensive, defensive and special teams coordinators, their quarterback, their tail- back, their schemes. He cited Shea Patter- son's completion percentage (67), Karan Higdon's total rushing yardage on the sea- son (831), Zach Gentry's height and weight (6-foot-8, 262 pounds). He talked about how frequently Michigan runs the ball (72 percent of the time on normal downs). He mulled their penchant for relying on "what we call the truck play, or pin and pull. Split flow zone, inside zone, and then the kick play." He talked about their punter. And that was just his opening statement. Like all coaches, Franklin has a few se- crets that he won't be sharing with anyone outside of his own program prior to kickoff. But when it comes to describing what the Wolverines have done well this season, there's no need for evasion. It's right there for all to see. "I think obviously their personnel is ex- tremely good," Franklin said. "They've been recruiting well for a long time, even before this staff arrived. Personnel has al- ways been strong at Michigan. But I think obviously their scheme combined with personnel is very challenging." The Wolverines are ranked fifth in this week's polls and are looking more and more like the Big Ten's best hope to return to the College Football Playoff after the conference was passed over a year ago. The quarterback problems that plagued their offense last season and contributed to that lopsided loss at Beaver Stadium have been rectified with the arrival of Patterson, a graduate transfer from Mississippi. The rushing attack, which struggled in big games a year ago, boasts the conference's second-leading ball carrier in Higdon and has helped the Wolverines lead the Big Ten in time of possession at 34 min- utes, 18 seconds per game. But Michigan's biggest asset, as expected, has been its de- fense. It's been fantastic. Through eight games, the Wolverines are surrendering only 220 yards per game to lead the Football Bowl Subdivision. Oppo- nents have averaged only 14.4 points per game, which is sixth-lowest in the country, and seven of Michigan's eight opponents have been held to season-low yardage to- tals. Harbaugh's team has done all of that even with one of its best players sidelined for much of the year. Junior defensive lineman Rashan Gary has missed Michigan's past three games with a right shoulder injury, 2 Harbaugh is the only coach to have ever won Associ- ated Press NFL Coach of the Year honors (San Fran- cisco, 2011) and the Woody Hayes Coach of the Year Award (Stanford, 2010). Photo by Bryan Fuller/ MGoBlog O C T O B E R   3 1 ,   2 0 1 8 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M

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