Real Kato Blog: College Football 2012: Week 9 Preview

Michigan plays a key divisional game at Nebraska; N.C. State takes on its biggest rival, UNC.

Michigan at Nebraska
Last year this was supposed to be a big game, and Michigan won in a blowout. This year Nebraska's offense should be much improved, but I have doubts about the defense. Ohio State put up 63 points on them, the most OSU has scored all year. Granted, that was partly due to Taylor Martinez throwing three interceptions, but still... OSU ran for 371 yards on them. Yikes. Of course, if they decide to stack against the run and Al Borges insists on just pounding running plays into a stacked front, we're in for a long day.

On the other side, I have some concerns as well. Though the Michigan defense is playing well, Martinez has improved from last season and the option attack has caused Michigan some trouble (see: Air Force). So I think Nebraska will move the ball and score, though it will take them a lot of plays to do it.

Conventional wisdom says Nebraska, playing at home, should have the slight edge. But I'm holding out hope that Al Borges will pull out a new wrinkle and Denard Robinson will end up gashing Nebraska for more than a couple of big plays. So my prediction is Michigan 31, Nebraska 24.

N.C. State at UNC
Who can really figure either of these teams out? N.C. State has looked terrible against mediocre competition but then managed to beat one of the top teams in the country in Florida State. Meanwhile UNC came off a quality win to Miami FL only to turn around and lose to Duke. UNC also has a bad loss to Wake Forest on its record.

Still... I can't help but think that UNC is improving, and that N.C. State is plagued with inconsistency. So this game worries me. UNC will likely dominate time of possession with its superior ground game, so it'll be up to Glennon to hit some big plays through the air. In a hostile environment with blustery weather, I'm just not sure that's gonna happen. I'm hoping I'm wrong, but I'm predicting UNC 27, N.C. State 19.

Games to Watch on TV
I'll be traveling so I'll miss a lot of these games myself, but for you guys:

At noon, there’s an interesting game on ESPN2 with Iowa playing at Northwestern. Tennessee plays #13 South Carolina on ESPN. But really, wait until 12:30 to catch the N.C. State vs. UNC game. It’s only on ESPN3 (online) nationally, but locally it’ll be on WRAL (Channel 5).

At 3:30, you can see #2 Florida stomp #10 Georgia (I’m pretty confident in that prediction) on CBS, or watch #14 Texas Tech at #3 Kansas State on Fox (might be a better game). Rich Rodriguez and Arizona take on #9 USC on ABC; boy, that’d be a statement win for RichRod if he can pull that out. Surprising ACC Coastal division leader Duke plays #12 Florida State on ESPNU. Michigan State plays at #25 Wisconsin in a key Big Ten game; that’s on ABC.

At 5:30, you can see the Battle of the Ineligibles when Ohio State plays at Penn State on ESPN.

At 8:00, the Michigan-Nebraska game is on ESPN2. #5 Notre Dame plays at #8 Oklahoma on ABC as well, and at 8:30 #11 Mississippi State plays at #1 Alabama. Any of those games will be worth watching, but I’ll go with the Notre Dame-Oklahoma game as my Game of the Week.

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