Michigan is coming off a regular season loss for the first time since 2021.

The team looked lost in its blowout loss to Texas last weekend. The offense was unable to establish a run game or find explosive plays. Michigan's 17 plays of 10 yards or longer this season rank as the second-fewest in the Power 4.

The defense gave up uncharacteristic third downs, seemed confused in coverage for most of the game, and forced zero turnovers against the Longhorns.

Michigan has a "get right" game this week against Arkansas State. But the Wolverines have a lot of problems to solve and not a lot of time to solve them with USC coming to Ann Arbor next week.

With how Michigan has played to start the season, can they win this game comfortably enough to feel good about their team heading to Big Ten play?

These are the three players to watch in Arkansas State vs Michigan.

To put it simply: Sophomore quarterback Jaylen Raynor is the engine of the Arkansas State offense.

In his second year as starter, there's an opportunity for the Michigan defense to slow Raynor down as he is not the most accurate quarterback the defense will face all season, competing 58% and 57% of his passes in 2023 and two games in 2024 respectively.

Raynor is also open to mistakes, throwing 7 interceptions last year and currently has 2 picks this year.

The touchdown to INT ratio isn't stellar, throwing 17 touchdowns last year. He has thrown three TD passes this year.

As for his ability to be mobile in the pocket, it must be accounted for but won't be a major part of the Red Wolves offense. He added 373 yards on the ground and 5 touchdowns last season. He's added 122 yards and 2 touchdowns this year.

Raynor is the Red Wolves' leading rusher this year.

With a run game that doesn't appear to be effective through two games, there's one clear guy for the Wolverines to shut down to really make it a challenging day on offense for the Wolverines.

That's senior wide receiver Corey Rucker.

Currently leading the team with 239 yards receiving, he's added a team-high two receiving touchdowns this season.

He has flirted with 1000-yard seasons, finishing with 816 yards in 2021 and 705 yards in 2023.

The Michigan native linebacker is a four-year starter for the Red Wolves program and is a tackling machine.

Clearly the highest-producing defender on the team, he's not going to give much in terms of quarterback pressures or even being a threat to sack the quarterback, as he only has two sacks in his career and both were recorded during the 2023 season.

This season, Willekes leads the team with 17 tackles and will be around the ball once it gets to the second level.

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