Let's wrap up the position preview with wide receivers and the overall offense.
Wide Receivers
With the passing reluctance (Ohio State) and inefficiency (Michigan), who really think a WR is going to make a difference?
Michigan
Michigan isn’t proficient at the forward pass quite yet. Martavious Odoms, a freshman, provides Michigan’s only spark but hates holding onto footballs, especially in the cold. One positive is that Mario Manningham declared for the draft, so they won’t have him to drop eight passes.
Ohio State
Brian Robiskie probably wished he declared last year. Brian Hartline is busy complaining about...something, I’m sure. Ray Small might be back from suspension. Dane Sanzenbacher is small, white, and slow, but he does have good hands and loves getting trucked like a demolition derby.
Don’t forget about Devier Posey, the five-star recruit, who, uh, had that one touchdown against Youngstown State. Or Lamaar Thomas, who, uh, caught a screen pass.
Offense: Overall
Even diehard Wolverine fans would have had trouble envisioning Michigan being this year’s Notre Dame. Repulsive on offense and not much better on defense, Michigan might someday look back at this season and laugh (hell, everyone else is right now).
- B/R Ticket Guide
Ohio State may have troubles scoring touchdowns in the red zone, Michigan is happy to get into the red zone. OSU has looked confused and lackluster offensively while Michigan’s offense should be fined by the FCC for indecency violations.
Michigan, remember, jumped out to a 17-0 lead on Penn State before crashing back into reality.
Michigan
I’ve heard plenty of Michigan fans ask why the offense keep moving side to side. It’s because it’s Rich Rodriguez. That’s what he does.
Obviously no one in Ann Arbor ever watched a West Virginia game. Michigan fans like to hold their hat on the fact that Rodriguez’s first team in West Virginia was equally as awful, but neglected to mention that it was, in fact, West Virginia and that team managed to put 80 (yes, 80 points) on Rutgers.
Like we’ve heard before, that DickRod is a class act. Veteran Michigan players have struggled to execute the new spread system, which might have been expected, but the freshman who played in the spread in high school look confused. That’s all I can say. All year, they’ve been a comedy of errors. Then again, it seems like every team plays its best against Ohio State (except Michigan State).
Ohio State
Michigan may be the one running the spread that’s based off of running the football, but Ohio State is actually less proficient throwing the ball. Proficient as in numbers, not effectiveness. Pryor has proven he can throw the ball, for the most part, but Jim Tressel has basically been running replays of the Woody Hayes days.
Pryor has proven he can throw the ball well, that he’s accurate, and that he’s still a freshman. Michigan has proven they can’t throw the ball. But who needs to throw when you get a quick score or two. Ohio State has routinely goes up a couple touchdowns and run the clock out, even if it’s the second quarter.
Pryor is big and fast, but the ball carrier is Beanie Wells. Beanie Wells and Malcolm Jenkins are a toss up for the “Who’s most NFL ready” award. Unfortunately, Ohio State is not Oklahoma and has trouble getting in the end zone and generally scoring points due to poor offensive line play, drops from receivers, and all around “wake me up when it’s over” play calling.
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