• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Michigan hosts reeling but dangerous Michigan State

Oct 3, 2006 - 7:47 PM Michigan St (3-2) at No. 6 Michigan (5-0), 4:30 pm EDT

ANN ARBOR, Michigan (Ticker) - Michigan State may have lost back-to-back games and have some injury concerns, but Michigan is not taking its rival lightly.

The sixth-ranked Wolverines host the reeling Spartans on Saturday in a Big Ten Conference matchup for the Paul Bunyan Trophy.

Michigan State (3-2, 0-1 Big Ten) appeared on the verge of a 4-0 start before surrendering 19 unanswered points in the fourth quarter of a 40-37 loss to Notre Dame two weeks ago. Still suffering from the defeat, the Spartans fell to lowly Illinois, 23-20, on a 39-yard field goal by Jason Reda with six seconds left last Saturday.

Already on the heat seat, Spartans coach John L. Smith did himself no favors when he said he and his staff did not prepare the team for the game against the Fighting Illini, who had lost 10 straight Big Ten games, then slapped himself in the face at the end of his post-game press conference.

Adding to their woes, the Spartans lost quarterback Drew Stanton to bruised ribs late in the contest and running back Javon Ringer to a sprained right knee. While Stanton is likely to play, Ringer is out for the year.

"All I know is that they are an extremely explosive football team," Michigan coach Lloyd Carr said. "They have a sound kicking game. They have a defensive football team. You want to look at the Illinois film, they did a lot of good things there. They had the patience to use the quarterback and run the football out of the spread offense, which is a great challenge. I know what team will show up here."

Michigan (5-0, 2-0), meanwhile, avenged its third straight 2005 defeat with a 28-14 triumph at Minnesota, reclaiming the Little Brown Jug in the process.

Chad Henne threw for 284 yards and three touchdowns, Mario Manningham had a TD catch and his third straight 100-yard receiving game and Mike Hart ran 31 times for 195 yards for the Wolverines, who produced a season-high 518 yards of offense.

The Wolverines have won four straight games over the Spartans, but the last two have been especially tense affairs, with Michigan rallying for a triple-overtime triumph here in 2004 and winning in overtime in East Lansing last year.