No. 15 Penn State at No. 13 Michigan

What’s better preparation, a relaxing bye week or a hard-fought victory on the road?

That’s the question as Michigan and Penn State collide Saturday in Ann Arbor.

The Wolverines spent last week resting, recuperating and studying up on how to bring down Joe Paterno’s surging Nittany Lions.

Penn State is second in the Big Ten in scoring offense with an average of 37 points per game and third in total offense with an average of 435.8 yards per game.

U-M head coach Lloyd Carr said he’s impressed with Penn State’s offensive variety and admitted that the game would be rough on the Wolverine secondary - despite the week of rest.

“I think it’s an outstanding offensive football team, because they can hurt you in a lot of ways,” Carr said. “They have very, very good receivers. The way they’ve utilized particularly (tailback) Larry Johnson out of the backfield with screens and passes and with the ability to run the football, I think that has really set up their play action passing game.”

And it’s hard to ignore Zack Mills, who leads the Big Ten with 260.4 passing yards per game and seven touchdowns.

“Mills is a wonderful athlete, a very, very tough competitor,” Carr said. “He’s a guy that has a lot of confidence, a guy that possesses the kind of ability to make plays when something breaks down.”

The Wolverines will counter with quarterback John Navarre, who is sixth in the conference in passing yards and ninth in passing efficiency. But Paterno said from what he has seen, Navarre has many more highlights than struggles.

“I don’t know about the struggle, to be honest with you,” he said. “We played against him last year, and he played a heck of a game. I’ve looked at Illinois, and I’ve looked at Notre Dame, have to look at a couple of others today. I think he’s doing really well. He’s got poise, he’s tough, god, he’s got the big-time arm