Michigan State Preview

Well, it's a meeting of Big Ten cellar-dwellers this Saturday. Northwestern (0-3, 2-5) will try to get a homecoming win for the third time in four years. Michigan State (0-3, 3-4) is also looking for its first conference win after losses to current #1 (Ohio State) and #2 (Michigan) as well as Illinois.

The key for NU, I think, is to keep Drew Stanton from killing us. We need to step our coverage and tackling so that he doesn't have easy middle-yardage thows all game. And we he pulls down the ball and runs, we have to meet him with teeth-rattling tackles. Make him think things through a little more each play.

Also, I'm hoping that C.J. Bacher gets the start under center for the Cats. Bacher, more than any of our current QBs has the potential to run a diverse spread offense, and we'll need that for the forseeable future.

More after the jump.

So, who the hell do we care about on Michigan State?

• Drew Stanton (#5) - The senior QB is one of the most experienced Big Ten passers around. And he's a good runner when he gets out of the pocket.
• Javon Ringer (#23) and Jehuu Caulcrick (#30) - These two running backs share the load, and are pretty solid backs. Also, Jehuu is a pretty funny name, but I can't think of a joke for it. Little help?
• Stanton throws to a lot of receivers, and the leader is Kerry "Girl's Name" Reed (#15).
• On defense, look at David Herron Jr. (#41) to be in on a lot of tackles.

Now for the good stuff:

• Sir Darean Adams (DB, #27) - Every year, it makes me want to cry that some mother named her kid Sir Darean.
• Ooh! Girls' names! Ryan Allison, Ashley Beaudouin, Kerry Reed.
• Kyle Sackrider (TE, #87) & Jonai Saint-Dic (DE, #94) - As if their names weren't unfortunate enough, they are alphabetically adjacent on the roster.
• Connor, Cooper, Decker (ouch), Fortener, Hoyer, Mayer, Miller, Pointer, Ringer, Sackrider (um), Wagner, Weaver.
  

Let's go Cats!