Mississippi State fans will have to make a quick recovery from New Year's Eve to be in game day form for the 2011 Gator Bowl. The 21st ranked Bulldogs will face Michigan, in the first ever meeting of these two teams.
The Bulldogs have the hottest coaching commodity in college football in Dan Mullen. Nearly every high-profile coaching opening has Mullen's name attached, most notably at Florida where he was offensive coordinator under Urban Meyer and the Miami Hurricane job.
Rich Rodriguez on the other hand is not feeling the same type of love from Wolverine fans that Mullen is getting from the MSU faithful. Rich Rod was never a popular choice to take over the winningest program in college football.
After the regular season at the Michigan football banquet talk was all about how it ranged the emotional gambit from inspiring, awkward, to almost embarrassing. Rodriguez was moved to tears by Josh Groban's song, "You raise me up" while pleading his case to be the Michigan coach.
(Side note: I am not sure what it says about your coach when he listens to sappy music. I have never even heard of Josh Groban until this story broke. Maybe the sappy music and tears should be a fireable offense.)
Those who do not follow college football close might not see this Gator Bowl playing out like the 2008 Capital One Bowl. In that game, Michigan coach Lloyd Carr was on his way out the door.
The Wolverines played inspired football and beat Tim Tebow who had just become the first sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy. If this Gator Bowl is indeed Rich Rod's swan song -- and it looks like it might be -- Michigan players could be playing for their coach's job.
The players have voiced their confidence in Rodriguez, with junior defensive end Ryan Van Bergen saying it may be in some of their minds that they might be playing for their coach's job in the Gator Bowl.
"Personally, I'm all in for coach Rodriguez and everything he does," Van Bergen said. "All people see is the stuff that goes on camera. You can't understand what happens at Schembechler Hall. He cares about his players as much as any other coach in college football. That's what we like about him and why we embrace him."
If Michigan can get Stanford's Jim Harbaugh, a former Michigan player, then it matters little what the Wolverine players want. Michigan Athletic Director Dave Brandon will decide after the bowl game if he is letting Rodriguez get a fourth year.
All of this speculation has made it harder for Michigan to get ready for this bowl game. The best thing Rich Rod has on his side is quarterback Denard Robinson.
MSU fans might disagree, but Robinson will be the best player on the field in this game. While I personally do not think he will be a great pro quarterback, Robinson is an absolute beast as a college quarterback.
The Wolverines quarterback is a threat to score every time he touches the ball. He set the NCAA record for most rushing yards by a quarterback with 1,643.
Mississippi State has not faced a player with the speed Robinson has. Robinson finished with three times as many yards as the second place Michigan rusher Vincent Smith, who had 588 yards. Cam Newton is the closest thing to Robinson that the Bulldogs defense has played this season.
Robinson (2,316 passing yards) has passed for more yards by himself than MSU has passed for as a team (2,143 passing yards).
As good as Robinson has been, he has been injury prone. Another injury would leave the quarterback job to "little man" Tate Forcier.
On the plus side Michigan plays the same spread offense that MSU plays. The read-option play will be the toughest test for Bulldog defenders.
For those who do not know, the read-option is where the quarterback places the ball in the belly of the running back and the quarterback reads a key (a defensive player) and decides to let the running back carry the ball or pull the ball out and run it for himself.
This play is a staple of the spread offense and MSU runs it as well.
To keep Robinson in check the Bulldogs defense will have to play sound fundamentals. Robinson is at his best when the defense over-pursues and leaves him a gap to run through.
MSU will need Conerly Trophy winner Chris White, K.J. White and company harassing Robinson all day long forcing him in mistakes and turnovers. The Bulldogs only allow 20.3 points per game and face a Michigan team that scores 34.3 points per game.
The Wolverines have the 11th best rushing offense and face the 19th best rushing defense. Michigan also has a couple of good receivers as well.
The most explosive receiver Michigan has is Roy Roundtree who had 882 receiving yards with six touchdowns. Other Wolverine receivers to watch are Darryl Stonum and Junior Hemingway, who both finished with more than 500 yards receiving and four touchdown catches apiece.
As good as the Wolverines are on offense (ranked 6th in FBS) they have been just as bad on defense.
Football has been said to be the closest thing to war without actually going to a real war. If that is true, than the Michigan defense must be France. This unit, ranked 108th, has surrendered 448 yards per game of total offense and gives up an average of 33.8 points per game.
Mississippi State has the 16th best rushing offense, gaining, on average, 215.8 yards a game. This unit better be licking their chops to get after a team that allows 187 yards on the ground per game.
The Bulldogs should give the Wolverines a steady dose of Chris Relf, Vick Ballard, and LaDarius Perkins running the football. Establishing the running game will allow Relf to take advantage of Michigan in the play-action passing game.
If the game comes down to special teams, field goals kicking especially, MSU has a decisive edge. Anyone who has watch Michigan try to kick a field goal this year knows what I am talking about.
This is the first Gator Bowl appearance for Mississippi State and the first time since 1980 the Bulldogs have faced a Big Ten team. The last meeting was a 28-21 victory over Illinois (I love the Internet for allowing me to find useless scores from 30 years ago) in Champaign, IL.
MSU is making their first New Year's Day bowl appearance since a 1999 Cotton Bowl loss to Texas. The Wolverines on the other hand are making a bowl appearance after a two year absence.
Michigan is making its third Gator Bowl appearance and is 1-1 in the bowl all time. The last time the Wolverines were in this bowl game they defeated Ole Miss 35-3. Interesting fact, Michigan is 8-1 in bowl games in the state of Florida against SEC teams.
This MSU team if they play sound defense can reverse that trend. When in doubt about any game, I always give the nod to the team who plays better defense.
Prediction: MSU 31 UM 17
Watch the Gator Bowl on ESPN2 at 12:30pm CST and feel free to use the comment section below to make your own predictions.
Previous Commentsshow
What's this?More like this story
More stories by this author
Support our reporting -- Follow the MFP.
Comments
Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.