Around the Big Ten

[hack]

Knives will be out and sharp if it's not a win, or a very close loss in which no obvious coaching errors were committed.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Maybe ..... I think the masses of posters with the usual, off the wall post game hot takes may have prepared themselves for an inevitable ass-kicking and might be muted in their posts with something like ..... told you so or words to that effect.

If the game gets dissected at all by Brian at mgo - and he may very well check out if it's a brutal loss and justifiably so - that's when the knives will come out. Truth be told, seems to me like rationale critics of the state of M football have become somewhat resigned to 9-3 or worse and, while they may not be happy with that, won't commit Hara-Kiri with a loss @ Wisconsin.

[hack]

I think a 2-loss season is likely. I still think that maybe even a 1-loss season is in play. This ship can be righted. This is just the sort of game to do it, and to shoe up buy-in amongst players.

I sure do want to know if DPJ's going to be back in, especially returning punts.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Sam Webb of WTKA said yesterday that DPJ and Dwumfor won't play. We'll know for sure when the travel roster is released on Friday.

Today, Webb confirmed Runyan is going to play in place of Hayes. Unreported but there is no clear cut starter at RT. Should be Mayfield but could be Hayes.

Aside from the false Yoder rumors that were circulated on Monday about Mayfield being injured in practice on Thursday last week, There's been no more reports/rumor mongering; it looks like everyone on the team is good to go. Current season starters (#1s) will start. Today will be the last padded practice so, hopefully no more injury talk. Thursday they'll meet, do some walk-throughs but not much else. Friday they travel.

[hack]

Dammit. Really would like DPJ back there on punts. Ronnie Bell isn't ready.

[lineygoblue]

If DPJ really has that fricking 'high ankle sprain" he may miss even more games. That doesn't heal quickly.

[iam416]

Sounds like Charbonnet is out, too.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Maybe ..... here's the sense I get after wading though all the shit-posts at mgoboard:

There is no official confirmation (would not expect that) and only vague suggestions from Sam Webb that ZC may have some kind of injury. Will it keep him from playing v. Wisconsin? We don't know.

The original tweet alleging an injury to ZC came from an osu source. Of course, the poster has been attacked by mgoboard posters. He may or may not be legit; his tweet may or may not be legit.

There are plenty of sightings of ZC looking fine walking around campus the last two days including an observation by John Jansen who works for M that he saw him and he did not appear to be injured.

There is one very good post with a caveat from the poster saying he has no inside information only some personal experience with knee injuries explaining that Charbonett sat out a portion of his senior season due to a meniscus injury to his knee, it was scoped but did not have surgery to repair it. Once he got to campus in August, 2018, he was seen by UM Ortho and a decision was made at that time to keep him out of spring practice. Was he scoped? We don't know nor do we what interventions if any were taken by team docs. It's possible that he re-injured the knee or is having similar problems with the other knee - a compensatory injury. A meniscus injury is such that you can walk on it without pain but cutting movements can be problematic making apprehension to do those kind of movements the biggest problem for a RB like ZC. So is the possibility of worsening the stability of the knee by damaging any of these structures: ACL, PCL LCL and MCL.

The most sensible view to take on this is that ZC is injured and is questionable for Saturday's game v. Wisconsin.

C. Turner is on a concussion protocol and is also questionable but he can probably play if he's cleared by the medical staff.

Tru Wilson has been out with an undisclosed injury. There is nothing solid saying he is out or in.

[iam416]

[iam416]

Connecticut (+28) at IndianaMiami, Ohio (+39) at Ohio StateNebraska (-13) at Illinois I gotta say, UCLA showed a little bit of life last week and Wazzu was lucky to escape Houston. This one actually makes me a little nervous, but a man has to have a code.

Louisiana State (-23) at Vanderbilt

[iam416]

Sweet christ, that's one of the chalkiest slates I've ever picked. I'm sure that will end well.

[Cody_Russell]

[crashcourse]

Michigan is a three point favorite you say they cover by 19-17

[iam416]

They're a dog.

[WM Wolverine]

That's a lot of points for Sparty's offense, still NW has looked awful so far.