In Michigan's 28-21 win over Rutgers on Saturday, the Wolverines were down three of their starters on the defensive side of the ball. Both starting edge rushers John Henry Daley and Dom Nichols, along with Rod Moore, didn't play. Both Nichols and Daley were listed on the Wolverines' availability report, but Moore wasn't on there ahead of the game.

Still, Moore didn't play and Mason Curtis stepped up in his spot. At edge, both Tariq Boney and Benny Patterson started and saw the lion's share of the workload. Nate Marshall played sparingly, but with Patterson and Boney playing well, Michigan didn't rotate as often.

However, Michigan has good news heading into its rivalry game against Michigan State. Appearing on 'Inside Michigan Football', Kyle Whittingham said all three defenders will be back against the Spartans.

“Benny has gotten better and better as the year has gone on,” Whittingham said. “He’s a second-year player, so he’s still very young in the program, and him and Tariq Boney — a first-year player — took the lion’s share of the reps at the Edge position, and they really held down the fort. They weren’t perfect, but did really good things. And in Dom’s and John Henry’s absences, they really showed up like we needed them to.

“We didn’t have Rod, as well. Rod was unable to play in this game, so missing some of the stalwarts, but who isn’t in college football at this stage of the season? You’re two thirds of the way through, and you’re going to be down some of your top guys.

“But good news is they played well in the absence of those guys, and those guys should be back this week, John Henry, Dom and Rod.”

Down another lineman?

While the defense has good news, it appears the offensive line has bad news. The Wolverines' line has played musical chairs this season with all the injuries suffered. Starting right tackle Andrew Sprague hasn't played since Week 2 with an unknown injury.

On Saturday, against Rutgers, Brady Norton suffered an injury and Avery Gach replaced him at right guard. Assuming Norton is the player Whittingham is talking about, it sounds like he won't play against Michigan State, which we would assume Gach would draw the start.

“We might have another injury this week with the offensive line, so another configuration,” Whittingham said. “That has made it a little bit more challenging, is not having the same five guys week in and week out, and that’s something that we’ve dealt with. But we just hope to not take a step backward — keep taking steps forward these last four weeks.”

Guarnera is tough as nails

One offensive lineman Michigan can't afford to lose is center Jake Guarnera, who has been dealing with a nagging injury for a few weeks. However, it doesn't sound like Whittingham was talking about the Wolverines' star center.

Whittingham said he is as tough as nails and spoke about the difference of being hurt to being injured. As for Guarnera, he is hurt and playing through it.

“Yeah, he's tough as nails, I can tell you that," said Whittingham. "And there's a lot of players that would not have been out there these last couple of weeks. But Jake is truly a throwback and a guy that can play when he's hurt.

"And there's a difference, we always talk about the difference between hurt and being injured. And if you're a guy that's injured, you're gonna make things worse and do more damage and create long-term problems. We do not put, our medical staff won't put a guy in that situation, but if it's just a pain tolerance thing, then which is what Jake's dealing with right now, they say, you can go as long as you can tolerate it.

"And he apparently has a very high threshold of pain because he's out there and battling from start to finish every week.”

Michigan's initial availability report will come out on Wednesday night..