The Wolverine Now

ing against the middle of the defense." The scholarship reductions that PSU has had to deal with demolished depth across the board, but no position was depleted more than the offensive front. Redshirt junior left tackle Donovan Smith was the only big man with any career starts com- ing into the year, and two of the five are playing offense in college for the first time. That has resulted in little or no time for star sophomore quarterback Christian Hackenberg to operate and a stalled run- ning game. The Nittany Lions brought back their top three rushers from a year ago, but are averaging just 101.0 yards per game on the ground, a mark that ranks 113th out of 125 FBS teams. "The offensive line is just really strug- gling this year," Owen explained. "The first couple of games they were able to get by, but they haven't been able to run the ball at all in the first half of any game. "The first four games, Hackenberg was able to make some really nice passes and What: Penn State at Michigan When: Oct. 11 • 7 p.m. ET Radio-TV: ESPN2 will televise the game nationally. The game can be heard on the Michigan Sports Network (950 AM in the Detroit area, as well as the Armed Services Radio, Sirius channel 84 and XM channel 84) with former U-M teammates Dan Dierdorf and Jim Brandstatter, and sideline reporter Doug Karsch. Coaches: Michigan: Brady Hoke (28- 17, fourth season). Penn State: James Franklin (4-1, first season). History: Michigan leads series 10-7 after last year's four-overtime, 43-40 loss in Happy Valley. Rutgers notes: Franklin has a career record of 28-16 as a head football coach, including his three years at Vanderbilt, which he led to consecutive 9-4 cam- paigns after a 6-7 debut … Penn State's ground attack, which averaged 4.2 yards per carry and 174 rushing yards per game in 2013, returned its top three rushers from a year ago, but the pro- duction has dipped to just 3.1 yards per carry and 101.0 rushing yards per game … Redshirt freshman wideout DaeSean Hamilton is one of only two rookies in the country to average 100-plus receiv- ing yards per game … Hamilton and red- shirt sophomore Geno Lewis are the only teammates in the land to rank among the top 25 in the NCAA in receiving yards per game … PSU has received votes in six of the seven Associated Press polls this year … The Nittany Lions are the sec- ond-youngest team in the Football Bowl Subdivision with 72.4 percent of their total roster being freshmen or sopho- mores. GAME FACTS

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