This week The State News talked to The Michigan Daily's football reporter Max Marcovitch to dive into the  Wolverines' season.

Q: U-M is currently ranked No. 1 in pass defense this season, how will this play out against Brian Lewerke and this Spartan offense? 

A: Michigan has always had a strong defense every year. Coming in with returning head rushers, with one of them being Rashan Gary, and both corners Lavert Hill and David Long. It's been a pillar of the team basically since the first quarter of the Notre Dame game when Notre Dame scored the first 14 points of that game, and was up 21-3 in the second quarter. 

From what I've seen with Lewerke is that he has struggled this year, but he also plays well against Michigan. It might only take 24 points or so to win this game, but I think with Michigan State the key will probably be running the ball, running the ball, running the ball and trying to see if they can run play action. Michigan's pass defense is definitely a strength, but I think Michigan State and Lewerke will be ready possibly with some trick plays and stuff like that, which is what Dantonio is known for. 

Q: Michigan has lost only one game this season, what improvements have you've seen since the 24-17 loss to Notre Dame?

A: It's been sort of a slow climb since then. That performance against Notre Dame was only a seven point loss, but it was a pretty sound defeat. Michigan scored two touchdowns to make it a little closer than it really was. 

I think the first place you start with improvement is along the offensive line. Against Notre Dame, they looked relatively inept in giving Shea Patterson time to pass, they didn't really get much going on the ground in that game earlier. It was an offensive line that was sort of pieced together. A lot of guys who were late in their careers and were trying to play. Juwann Bushell-Beatty and Jon Runyan, both tackles, are not super high upside guys. I think since then, Michigan's new offensive line coach Ed  Warinner, who's helped guided them along. Sort of week by week they have looked better and better and last week was sort of the big test to see how far they've come since the Notre Dame game. By all accounts they have passed that test. Shea Patterson is having a lot more time to throw and they [the offense] rushed for 320 yards against Wisconsin which is somewhat unheard of. 

Q: This season Shea Patterson has reached career highs, what did the team expect out of him before the season and how can he exploit the Spartan's defense?

A: I think that there was a lot of talk, more from national people, about Shea Patterson being the savior of Michigan football. I think that was overblown. This team is always going to have a lot of talent and he was sort of coming in as a worshipped, talented guy who could help guide things along. He comes from a spread offense at Ole Miss and a lot of the stuff they ran at Ole Miss was not very complicated. It was a lot of spread concepts, and he comes to Michigan under Harbaugh who has a closed style offense. I think there was skepticism about how that would translate. He's not like a traditional pocket passer, he wants to get out and extend the play and make plays with his legs … those two things, they sort of had to merge where Harbaugh had to change a little bit. Shea Patterson had to evolve. I think he has really grown comfortable since the Notre Dame game. He didn't play poorly in that game necessarily, but it didn't look like they were sort of simplifying things, and they made a comment a few weeks ago about how 50 percent of the playbook has been opened up and I think you are starting to see him be able to play the way he wants to comfortably. He's emerging as the best Michigan quarterback probably since at least Jake Rudock, maybe Denard Robinson, and we'll see where it goes from there. 

Q: Who have been some surprise players for the Wolverines this season that Spartan fans should look out for?

A: The biggest surprise for me has been the way tackles Runyan and Bushell-Beatty have been able to step up. I think another surprise along the defensive line would be Gary, who has been battling injuries all year. It's given three guys a bigger chance to step up and fill in well: Josh Uche, Kwity Paye and Aidan Hutchinson. They have been able to fill in for Gary … I think they have sort of emerged as the next wave of Michigan defenders. One other guy I would single out is Zach Gentry. He came to Michigan as a quarterback recruit and he moved to tight end after his freshman year and has sort of become the go to guy on the offense as a tight end. He is a big athletic tight end and is sort of having a break out year. He didn't have a great game last week, but he's still a leading receiver on the team. 

Q: What is your score prediction and why?  

A: It seems like Michigan probably has more talent, but Michigan State always plays the game tough and especially in East Lansing. This would probably be the biggest road win of the Harbaugh era, and it's not even all that close. I definitely could see it going either way. 

Michigan 21-17