NCAA Football Betting - The Michigan Wolverines have a big in-conference game against Penn State this Saturday. They will have to adapt their offense to life without WR Mario Manningham - at least for this game. The Michigan wide receiver will miss Saturday’s game due to undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery this week.

Michigan coach Lloyd Carr appears to be upbeat about the prognosis. It looks like Manningham won’t miss the rest of the season. That’s big news, because he’s a key element to the offense. This season Manningham has 527 yards receiving with 9 TDs.

Michigan is trying to play down the situation somewhat. Greg Mathews, a freshman, will be called upon to step up in the absence of Manningham. Carr said, “I don’t think it’s going to change what we do, because we do have a number of receivers who are very capable.” While that’s all nice and swell, Manningham isn’t just a receiver. He’s leading the conference and defenses will be free to key elsewhere with him gone.

Penn State might not be the biggest game so far for Michigan, but it could be a little more of challenge this week with Manningham out. Also there’s a growing possibility that Michigan will start looking past lower tier opponents while looking forward to their colossal upcoming game against the Ohio State Buckeyes. That game could feature two unbeaten teams and could decide who ends up with a national championship.

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