http://www.timesleader.com/sports/Wolverine__bares_claws__for_Lions_10-21-2009.html

 

 

PSU FOOTBALL

October 21

Wolverine bares claws for Lions

Evan Royster’s comment draws ire of defensive end Brandon Graham.

By Derek Levarse dlevarse@timesleader.com
Sports Reporter

One seemingly harmless postgame comment could be what ends up bringing a spark back to the Penn State-Michigan series.

 

 Nine consecutive wins by the Wolverines had drained much of the life out of a potentially intriguing rivalry between the two programs. Penn State finally snapped the streak last season with a 46-17 win, but it took Michigan fielding its worst team in nearly 50 years for it to happen.

Then this Saturday following the Nittany Lions’ 20-0 win over Minnesota, tailback Evan Royster expressed confidence about this week’s trip to Ann Arbor.

“I think we feel we’re the better team, and we can go out there and still beat (Michigan),” Royster told reporters.

By all accounts, Royster – mild-mannered in interviews in even his worst of moods – said it without a hint of derision.

Not that it much mattered to Michigan’s Brandon Graham.

In a teleconference on Tuesday, the future NFL defensive end became agitated when told of Royster’s simple statement. Though his voice never rose, Graham was clearly bothered.

“They’re just gonna have to show it,” Graham said. “We’re gonna come. Gonna come hard. I just don’t think they really know. Don’t know how much preparation and how much we’ve been waiting for this game since last year. If he feels pretty confident, they better prepare. Because we had ’em last year and we just didn’t finish the game.”

Last year a 3-9 Michigan squad outplayed Penn State at Beaver Stadium for much of the first half, leading by two scores until the Lions made some adjustments on the defensive line to shut down the Wolverines’ ground game. Michigan fell apart in the second half as former quarterback Steven Threet was injured, forcing overmatched walk-on Nick Sheridan into the game.

For his part, Royster didn’t seem fazed that the Wolverines might use his comment as bulletin board material.

“We have to go in there with a confident attitude,” he said Tuesday. “It’s not to make anybody mad or anything like that. We feel we’re the better team and we want to show we’re one of the better teams in the country. We have to beat Michigan to do that.”

Even so, Penn State’s Joe Paterno said he doesn’t like to bring up the Lions’ lousy record against the Wolverines (4-10 all-time) to try and inspire his player.

“I think you’ve got to be awfully careful when you start with ‘extra motivation,’ ” Paterno said Tuesday at his weekly press conference. “(We don’t) need extra motivation to go out and play a game as important as this one is against a team with the tradition and the character and the coaching (of Michigan).

“I don’t think this takes any extra motivation, nor do we think about what’s happened there before. That’s happened there before – we can’t do anything about that.”

Poti in line to start

Fifth-year senior Ako Poti will likely get his third straight start at right tackle on Saturday as Nerraw McCormack continues to recover from an ankle injury.

DeOn’tae Pannell, who started the first four games of the season at that spot, was not listed on Penn State’s injury report, but appears to be set firmly with the second team for now.

Meanwhile, tailback Stephfon Green is questionable after injuring his right ankle against Minnesota. It’s the same ankle he had surgery on back in January after dislocating it during the Rose Bowl.

“We’ll go with Poti this week,” Paterno said. “McCormack is not 100 percent; we’ll see how that goes this week. Green has a chronic ankle that gets loose on him once in a while. We’re going to see if he can do something, but he would be a ‘maybe’ situation. And obviously that would be a big loss for us if he can’t go next Saturday.”

Paterno said he’s hopeful to get tailback Brent Carter back after he missed the last two games with a knee injury.

If Carter can’t play, Brandon Beachum and Joe Suhey would be next in line to spell Royster.